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Questions & Answers about O livro é amarelo.
Why do we use é instead of está for "is" in this sentence?
Why does amarelo end in an -o here?
Adjectives (descriptive words) in Portuguese must match the gender of the noun they describe. Since livro is a masculine noun, amarelo takes the masculine ending -o. If you were talking about a feminine noun, like a casa (the house), it would change to amarela.
How would I say "the yellow book" using these same words?
You would say o livro amarelo. In our main sentence ("The book is yellow"), the word order matches English because of the verb é. However, when an adjective attaches directly to a noun ("the yellow book"), Portuguese almost always places the adjective after the noun.
How should I pronounce the word O at the beginning of the sentence?
In European Portuguese, the standalone masculine article O (meaning "the") is pronounced like a short "oo" sound, similar to the vowel in the English word "boot". It is not pronounced like the letter "O" in the English alphabet.