Breakdown of Eu gosto de nadar na praia.
eu
I
na
in the / on the / at the (f.sg)
a praia
the beach
gostar de
to like
Questions & Answers about Eu gosto de nadar na praia.
Why is there a de between gosto and nadar?
In Portuguese, the verb gostar (to like) almost always needs the preposition de right after it. You can think of it as saying 'I am fond of...'. So, gosto de nadar literally translates closer to 'I am fond of to swim'.
The translation says 'swimming', but nadar means 'to swim'. Why don't we use an equivalent to an '-ing' word?
In English, we often use the '-ing' form of a verb after 'like' (I like swimming). In Portuguese, when you like doing an action, you always use the infinitive (the basic dictionary form) for the second verb. That is why we use nadar here.
Where does the word na come from?
The word na is a contraction (a blended word) of the preposition em (in or at) and the feminine word for 'the', which is a. Because praia (beach) is feminine, we combine em + a to make na.
Is it possible to drop the Eu and just say Gosto de nadar na praia?
Yes, absolutely! In Portuguese, the verb ending tells you who is doing the action. Since gosto only matches with Eu (I) in the present tense, the Eu is optional and very often left out in everyday conversation.