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O fim de semana no campo foi péssimo.

O fim de semana no campo foi péssimo.
The weekend in the countryside was awful.
From Lesson 66:Past tense of ser and ir (fui, foi)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about O fim de semana no campo foi péssimo.

Is foi the past tense of ser (to be) or ir (to go)?
It can be both! The verbs ser and ir share the exact same forms in the simple past tense. You have to use the context to tell them apart. Because saying the weekend 'went awful' does not make sense here, we know foi comes from ser and means 'was'.
Why do we use the third-person singular form of the verb for fim de semana?
Even though fim de semana (weekend) is made up of three words, it acts as one single masculine noun. Because it is singular, we treat it like an 'it' and use the same verb form you would use for ele or ela (he or she), which is foi.
Why is it no campo instead of em o campo for 'in the countryside'?
In Portuguese, the preposition em (in, on, or at) must combine with the words for 'the'. Since campo is a masculine word, em merges with the masculine article o to become no.
Does the adjective péssimo (awful) change its ending depending on the noun?
Yes! Like most adjectives in Portuguese, it has to match the gender and number of the noun it describes. Because it describes o fim de semana, it uses the masculine singular ending -o. If you were talking about a feminine word like a comida (the food), you would say it was péssima.

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