Breakdown of A nova dieta é muito difícil, mas eu deixo de beber refrigerantes.
eu
I
ser
to be
novo
new / young
muito
much / very
mas
but
beber
to drink
a
to / at (direction)
difícil
difficult
deixar
to leave (behind) / to quit / to let (allow)
a dieta
the diet
o refrigerante
the soda
Questions & Answers about A nova dieta é muito difícil, mas eu deixo de beber refrigerantes.
How does deixo de beber mean 'stop drinking' when deixar normally means 'to leave'?
By itself, deixar means 'to leave' or 'to let'. But when you combine it with the preposition de and an infinitive verb like beber, it forms a specific phrase meaning 'to stop doing' that action. This is why deixo de beber translates to 'I stop drinking'.
Do I always need the preposition de when saying I stop doing an action?
Yes! The verb deixar must be connected to the action verb with the preposition de. If you drop the de and just say deixo beber, it changes the meaning entirely from 'I stop drinking' to 'I allow drinking' or 'I let drink'.
Why does the adjective nova come before the noun dieta here?
While most adjectives in Portuguese come after the noun, a few common ones like novo (new), bom (good), and velho (old) frequently come before it. Putting nova before dieta emphasizes that this is a new diet for the speaker, even if it is not a newly invented concept.
Why do we use é (from ser) instead of está (from estar) to say the diet is difficult?
We use é because the diet is naturally and inherently difficult due to its strict rules; it is a permanent characteristic of the diet itself. If you used está, it would imply that the diet only feels temporarily difficult for you right now.
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