Word
O aluno não pôde vir à escola porque teve febre.
Meaning
The student couldn't come to school because he had a fever.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of O aluno não pôde vir à escola porque teve febre.
não
not / no
o aluno
the student (m)
ter
to have
a escola
the school
Questions & Answers about O aluno não pôde vir à escola porque teve febre.
Why does pôde have a circumflex accent mark?
That accent tells us the verb is in the past tense (Pretérito Perfeito). The present tense is pode (he can). The accent in pôde (he could / was able to) changes the pronunciation to a closed vowel sound, which helps you tell the two tenses apart in both writing and speaking.
Is teve the regular past tense of ter?
Why doesn't the sentence say teve uma febre for "had a fever"?
In Portuguese, you usually drop the word for "a" (um or uma) when talking about common illnesses or symptoms. You just say someone had fever (teve febre), had pain (teve dor), or had a cold (teve gripe).
Why is it à escola with a backwards accent?