Word
Ele deve dormir: está cansado.
Meaning
He should sleep: he is tired.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ele deve dormir: está cansado.
ele
he
estar
to be (temporary / location)
cansado
tired
dormir
to sleep
Questions & Answers about Ele deve dormir: está cansado.
Why does deve translate to "should" here instead of "must"?
Why is the verb dormir in its full dictionary form?
After the verb dever, the second verb always stays in its infinitive (the dictionary form). This is just like English, where we say "should sleep" and not "should sleeps".
Why do we use está instead of é for "is"?
Why isn't there a word for "he" before está?
In Portuguese, you do not always need to repeat the subject pronoun. Since we already established the subject is ele (he) in the first half of the sentence, we can drop it in the second half. The form está makes it clear we are still talking about him.