Breakdown of Sê corajoso quando tens medo do cão.
ser
to be
o cão
the dog
quando
when
ter medo de
to be afraid of
Questions & Answers about Sê corajoso quando tens medo do cão.
Is sê from the verb ser? How does the command form work here?
Yes! Sê is the informal command form of ser (to be) used when talking to someone as tu. Ser is highly irregular in the imperative. If you were giving this advice to someone using the formal você, you would use seja.
Why does the sentence use tens (you have) instead of a form of estar (to be) for "you are afraid"?
In Portuguese, you "have fear" rather than "are afraid". The phrase is ter medo, so tens medo literally translates to "you have fear". You will see this same pattern with other physical and emotional states, like ter fome (to be hungry) and ter sede (to be thirsty).
If I am talking to a woman, does the word corajoso change?
Why is it do cão instead of just de cão?
Do is the contraction of the preposition de (of) and the definite article o (the). We say do cão because we are talking about a specific dog ("of the dog"). If you were talking about being afraid of dogs in general, you would use the plural contraction: dos cães.