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
a
to / at (direction)
poder
can / may (verb)
porque
because
vir
to come
a febre
the fever
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?
That grave accent marks a contraction. The verb vir (to come) uses the preposition a to mean "to". Because the word for school is feminine (a escola), the preposition a (to) and the article a (the) combine into one single word: à (to the).
Why is vir (to come) not conjugated in this sentence?
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