Word
O meu avô era muito tranquilo.
Meaning
My grandfather was very peaceful.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of O meu avô era muito tranquilo.
ser
to be
muito
much / very
meu
my (m/f/pl: meu, minha, meus, minhas)
o avô
the grandfather
Questions & Answers about O meu avô era muito tranquilo.
Why use era instead of foi to say 'was' in this sentence?
The word era is the Pretérito Imperfeito (descriptive past) of the highly irregular verb ser (to be). We use era to describe what people or things were like in the past as an ongoing characteristic. If you used foi, it would sound like he was only peaceful during one specific, completed event.
Why do we need the word O at the very beginning of the sentence?
In European Portuguese, you almost always need to use a definite article (like o or a) before a possessive word (like meu). So, to say 'my grandfather', you literally say 'the my grandfather' (o meu avô).
Does tranquilo change if we talk about a grandmother instead?
Yes! Because adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe, if the sentence were about a grandmother (a minha avó), the adjective would change to its feminine form: tranquila.
How does the accent on avô change the meaning?
The circumflex accent (the little hat) on avô tells us it is the masculine word for grandfather, pronounced with a closed 'o' sound. If it had an acute accent instead (avó), it would mean grandmother and have a more open 'o' sound.