Breakdown of Onde é que te magoaste na perna?
ser
to be
onde
where
em
in / on / at
que
that (conjunction)
magoar-se
to hurt oneself
a perna
the leg
Questions & Answers about Onde é que te magoaste na perna?
Why is there a te before magoaste?
Magoaste comes from the reflexive verb magoar-se (to hurt oneself). Because the question is about you (the informal tu), we use the reflexive pronoun te. In the simple past tense, the tu form of the verb magoar is magoaste. Together, te magoaste literally means you hurt yourself.
Why does te come before the verb instead of after it?
In Portuguese, question words like Onde (where) act as magnets that pull the pronoun to the front of the verb. Because of this rule, the pronoun te must jump before magoaste instead of attaching to the end of it.
What does é que add to the sentence?
Why does it say na perna instead of using a word for "your" leg?
In English, we say you hurt "your" leg. In Portuguese, when you use a reflexive verb like magoar-se (which already tells us who is affected), you just use the definite article for body parts. Na is the preposition em combined with the feminine article a. You are literally asking: where did you hurt yourself on the leg?
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