Breakdown of O meu avô e a minha avó moravam na aldeia.
e
and
em
in / on / at
morar
to live
meu
my (m/f/pl: meu, minha, meus, minhas)
a
to / at (direction)
o
him/it (m)
a aldeia
the village
o avô
the grandfather
a avó
the grandmother
Questions & Answers about O meu avô e a minha avó moravam na aldeia.
Why is moravam used here instead of the completed past tense moraram?
Moravam is the Pretérito Imperfeito (Imperfect past tense) of the regular verb morar. We use it here because living in the village was a continuous, ongoing state in the past, rather than a single completed event. It translates perfectly to "used to live" or "were living".
Could I just say os meus avós instead of o meu avô e a minha avó?
How do I tell the difference between avô and avó?
The accent mark changes both the gender and the vowel sound. Avô (grandfather) has a circumflex accent, making a closed "oh" sound. Avó (grandmother) has an acute accent, making an open "aw" sound.
Why do we include o and a before meu and minha?
In European Portuguese, we almost always put the definite article (o or a) before a possessive word. So we say o meu avô (literally "the my grandfather") and a minha avó instead of just using the possessive alone.
Why is it na aldeia instead of em a aldeia?
In Portuguese, the preposition em (in/at) must merge with definite articles. Since aldeia (village) is feminine, em combines with the feminine article a to create the mandatory contraction na.
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