Question 1

Why do we use onde here, and what exactly does it refer to?

Accepted Answer

The word onde is a relative pronoun meaning "where" or "in which". It is used to refer back to a physical place that was just mentioned—in this case, a praça (the square). It neatly connects the two halves of the sentence: the location of the church, and the fact that you ate there.

Question 2

Why does the sentence use fica for "is located" instead of a form of estar?

Accepted Answer

The verb ficar is the standard way to talk about the permanent location of buildings, cities, and landmarks in Portuguese. While you use estar to say where a person or a movable object is right now, ficar is the most natural choice for something permanently rooted like a igreja histórica.

Question 3

comemos is the present tense for "we eat", so how do we know it means "we ate" here?

Accepted Answer

For regular verbs ending in -er (like comer) and -ir, the nós (we) form is exactly the same in the simple past tense as it is in the present tense. We only know it means "we ate" instead of "we eat" because of the context word ontem (yesterday).

Question 4

Could I use em que instead of onde in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you could say a praça em que comemos ontem (the square in which we ate yesterday). However, when referring to a physical location, onde is much more common and sounds more natural in everyday Portuguese.

A igreja histórica fica na praça onde comemos ontem.

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