Learn Portuguese (Portugal): O meu avô e a minha avó moravam na aldeia. - My grandfather and my grandmother lived in the village.

O meu avô e a minha avó moravam na aldeia.

My grandfather and my grandmother lived in the village.

Breakdown of O meu avô e a minha avó moravam na aldeia.

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?

Yes! Os meus avós means "my grandparents". The sentence spells it out as o meu avô e a minha avó (my grandfather and my grandmother) for emphasis, but combining them into the masculine plural is very common and completely correct.

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.