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O bailarino dançou suavemente no palco.

O bailarino dançou suavemente no palco.
The dancer danced smoothly on the stage.
From Lesson 134:Adverbs of manner (-mente)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Breakdown of O bailarino dançou suavemente no palco.

em
in / on / at
dançar
to dance
o bailarino
the dancer
suave
smooth
o palco
the stage

Questions & Answers about O bailarino dançou suavemente no palco.

How is the adverb suavemente formed from the adjective?
To form an adverb with -mente, we usually add it to the feminine singular form of an adjective. However, the adjective suave (meaning smooth or soft) ends in an -e, which means it has the same form for both masculine and feminine nouns. Because of this, we just add -mente directly to suave to get suavemente.
Does suavemente always mean smoothly?
Not always! It can also mean gently or softly. The root adjective suave translates to smooth, soft, gentle, or mild. Depending on the context, moving suavemente can describe a smooth, graceful, or delicate motion.
Why is the verb dançou in this specific past tense?
The verb dançou is in the Pretérito Perfeito (simple past tense) because the sentence describes a specific, completed event that happened in the past. If you wanted to say he used to dance smoothly on the stage, or you were describing him dancing smoothly as background scenery for another event, you would use the imperfect past tense dançava.
Why do we use no palco instead of em palco for on the stage?
In Portuguese, to say on the stage, we must combine the preposition em (in, on, or at) with the masculine article o (the), because palco is a masculine noun. When em and o merge, they contract into the word no.

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