Breakdown of O namorado de quem ela gosta é inteligente.
ser
to be
ela
she
quem
who
gostar de
to like
inteligente
intelligent
o namorado
the boyfriend
Questions & Answers about O namorado de quem ela gosta é inteligente.
Why is there a de before quem?
The verb gostar (to like) always requires the preposition de. In Portuguese, when a relative pronoun is the object of a preposition, the preposition must go right before it. Even though English just says "The boyfriend she likes", Portuguese structures it literally as "The boyfriend of whom she likes".
Could I just say "O namorado quem ela gosta" without the de?
No, you cannot drop the preposition in Portuguese like we sometimes do in English. Because she likes him (gosta de), that de must stay in the sentence and move to the front of the relative pronoun quem.
Can I use que instead of quem here?
If the sentence was about a girlfriend, would the word inteligente change?
No, it would stay exactly the same. Adjectives that end in -e, like inteligente, are gender-neutral in Portuguese. They don't change whether you are talking about a namorado (boyfriend) or a namorada (girlfriend).
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