Breakdown of Estou a despir-me porque as calças estão apertadas.
estar
to be (temporary / location)
a
to / at (direction)
as calças
the pants
porque
because
Questions & Answers about Estou a despir-me porque as calças estão apertadas.
The lesson is about stem-changing verbs, but despir doesn't change here. Why?
In this sentence, despir is in its infinitive (dictionary) form because it follows estar a, which creates the continuous tense for actions happening right now. The stem change only happens when you conjugate the verb in the simple present tense. If you wanted to say 'I get undressed' instead of 'I am getting undressed', you would use the changed stem: eu dispo-me.
Why is the pronoun me attached to the end of despir with a hyphen?
In Portugal, when you use the continuous tense with estar a plus an infinitive verb, the reflexive pronoun attaches to the end of that infinitive with a hyphen. That is why 'getting undressed' becomes a despir-me.
Why do we use estão instead of são for 'the pants are tight'?
Why does the word for tight end in -as (apertadas)?