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Onde fica a porta? O capitão quer que o avião descole hoje.

Onde fica a porta? O capitão quer que o avião descole hoje.
Where is the door? The captain wants the plane to take off today.
From Lesson 154:Desires and preferences (querer que...)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about Onde fica a porta? O capitão quer que o avião descole hoje.

Why do we say quer que o avião descole instead of using the infinitive like in English?
In Portuguese, when a person wants someone or something else to do an action, you cannot use the infinitive. Instead, you must use quer que (wants that) followed by the Present Subjunctive. Literally, the sentence translates to 'The captain wants that the plane takes off'.
How is the verb descole formed here?
Descole is the Present Subjunctive form of the regular verb descolar (to take off). For regular -ar verbs in the subjunctive, you swap the usual -a vowel for an -e. Since o avião uses the ele/ela conjugation, the normal present tense descola becomes descole.
Why is it Onde fica a porta instead of Onde está a porta?
Both are correct and mean 'Where is the door?'. However, Portuguese often uses the verb ficar (to stay/remain) rather than estar (to be) when talking about the permanent or fixed location of something, like a door, a room, or a city. You can think of it as 'Where is the door located?'.
How would you make the word capitão plural?
Words ending in -ão can be tricky because their plural endings vary. For o capitão, the plural changes to os capitães (the captains). It is a very useful exception to memorize!

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