Breakdown of Ele escrevia a música da banda.
ele
he
de
of / from / by (means of transport) / wearing (attire)
a música
the music
escrever
to write
a banda
the band
Questions & Answers about Ele escrevia a música da banda.
Why is the verb escrevia used here instead of escreveu?
Escrevia is the Pretérito Imperfeito (Past Imperfect) tense. We use it here because it describes a past habit or an ongoing role. It translates well to "used to write" or "was writing". If we used escreveu (Past Perfect), it would mean he wrote the music just once for a specific event.
How do we form this past tense for a verb like escrever?
Can música mean "song" as well as "music"?
Yes! In Portuguese, música means the general concept of music, but it is also the most common word for an individual song. So this sentence could also be translated as "He used to write the band's songs."
Why do we use da instead of just de before banda?
Da is a mandatory contraction of the preposition de (of) and the feminine definite article a (the). Because we are talking about a specific band, we need the word "the", so de and a combine to make da (of the).
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