Word
Ela tem medo do gato.
Meaning
She is afraid of the cat.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ela tem medo do gato.
ela
she
o gato
the cat
do
of the / from the (do, da, dos, das)
ter medo de
to be afraid of
Questions & Answers about Ela tem medo do gato.
Why does the sentence use tem (has) instead of a word for 'is'?
In Portuguese, you do not say that you are afraid. Instead, you say that you have fear. The phrase is ter medo (literally 'to have fear'). Portuguese uses the verb ter (to have) for many physical or emotional states where English uses 'to be', such as being hungry (ter fome) or being cold (ter frio).
Where does the word do come from?
Do is a contraction. The base phrase for 'to be afraid of' is ter medo de. Because she is afraid of the cat, we need the word for 'the', which is o (since gato is a masculine noun). In Portuguese, the preposition de (of) and the article o (the) always combine to make do.
How would this sentence change if she were afraid of cats in general?
If she were afraid of cats as a general rule, you would usually drop the 'the' and just use the preposition de followed by the plural noun: Ela tem medo de gatos. Because our sentence uses the contraction do, we know she is afraid of one specific cat.
Which verb is tem from?