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Porque é que o museu não abre hoje?

Porque é que o museu não abre hoje?
Why does the museum not open today?
From Lesson 57:Asking why: porquê and porque·Portuguese (Portugal)

Breakdown of Porque é que o museu não abre hoje?

não
not / no
hoje
today
abrir
to open
o museu
the museum
porque
because

Questions & Answers about Porque é que o museu não abre hoje?

Why are there three words (Porque é que) just to say "Why"?
Porque means "Why", and é que literally means "is it that". In European Portuguese, it is very common to add é que after question words to make the sentence flow better. So Porque é que translates as "Why is it that" or simply "Why".
Can I just ask "Porque o museu não abre hoje?" without the é que?
Yes, you can! Leaving out é que is grammatically correct. However, adding é que to questions is extremely typical in everyday spoken Portuguese in Portugal, so you will hear it all the time.
Where is the word for "does" in this sentence?
Portuguese does not use helper verbs like "do" or "does" to form questions or negatives. To say "does not open", you just put não (not) directly before the verb abre (opens).
Why do we use abre here?
Abre is the "he/she/it" form of the verb abrir (to open). Because o museu (the museum) acts as an "it", we use this form. It translates to "open" here because English uses "does not open", but on its own, it means "opens" or "is opening".

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