Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Ele está doente. Não o escoves hoje.

Ele está doente. Não o escoves hoje.

He is sick. Don't brush him today.

Breakdown of Ele está doente. Não o escoves hoje.

to be (temporary / location)

hoje

today

Questions & Answers about Ele está doente. Não o escoves hoje.

Why is the pronoun before the verb in Não o escoves instead of attached to the end?

Because of the negative word não. Negative words act like magnets that pull the object pronoun (o) to the front of the verb. If this were an affirmative command like 'Brush him', the pronoun would attach to the end with a hyphen: Escova-o.

Why does the verb escovar end in -es here?

When giving a negative command (telling someone not to do something), Portuguese uses the present subjunctive form of the verb. For regular -ar verbs like escovar, the informal tu (you) ending changes to -es, which gives us não escoves.

Since o means 'him', does this mean someone is brushing a person?

It is most likely about a pet, such as a dog or a horse! In Portuguese, nouns for animals have grammatical gender. If you are talking about o cão (the dog), you replace it with the masculine pronoun o, which translates to 'him' or 'it' in English.

Just as a quick refresher, why is it está doente and not é doente?

We use the verb estar for temporary states and conditions. Because being sick is usually a temporary condition, we say ele está doente. If you used the verb ser (ele é doente), it would imply that he is a chronically ill person.