Breakdown of O hospital é longe do centro.
ser
to be
do
of the / from the (do, da, dos, das)
o hospital
the hospital
o centro
the center
Questions & Answers about O hospital é longe do centro.
Why do we use é (from the verb ser) for a location, instead of está?
You probably learned early on that estar is used for locations. However, in European Portuguese, we use ser (or the verb ficar) for permanent locations, like a hospital, a building, or a city. We only use estar for temporary locations, like where a person or a movable object happens to be right now.
Why does the sentence say do centro instead of just de centro?
Just like the location phrases in this lesson (like ao lado de), longe is followed by the preposition de (from). Because we want to say "from the centre", we need the word for "the" (o). In Portuguese, de and o always merge into the single word do.
Do we always have to put de (or do/da) after longe?
If we were talking about a feminine place, like a escola (the school), would change to match it?