Breakdown of Não pises a relva do jardim!
não
not / no
de
of / from / by (means of transport) / wearing (attire)
o jardim
the garden
pisar
to step on
a relva
the grass
Questions & Answers about Não pises a relva do jardim!
Why is the verb form pises instead of the regular tu form pisas?
Because this is a negative command. In Portuguese, negative commands don't use the regular present tense or the affirmative command form. Instead, they use a form called the present subjunctive. For regular -ar verbs like pisar (to step), the tu ending changes to -es, giving us não pises.
Who is being told not to step on the grass in this sentence?
English says "step ON the grass", so why is there no Portuguese word for "on" here?
The Portuguese verb pisar connects directly to its object. While English requires the preposition "on" for this action, Portuguese just says "step the grass" (pisar a relva). Adding a preposition here would sound unnatural.
Why do we use do jardim instead of just de jardim?
The word do is a contraction of the preposition de (of) and the masculine definite article o (the). In Portuguese, we must include the "the" here, saying literally "the grass of the garden" (a relva do jardim) rather than just "the grass of garden".
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