Breakdown of Não ponho o vaso na sombra.
não
not / no
em
in / on / at
pôr
to put
o vaso
the pot (for plants)
a sombra
the shade
Questions & Answers about Não ponho o vaso na sombra.
Why is the word for "I put" ponho? What verb is this from?
Ponho is the "eu" (I) form of the verb pôr (to put). Pôr is a highly irregular verb, meaning it doesn't follow the normal conjugation patterns. In the present tense, its first-person singular form changes the stem entirely to ponh-.
Can I use colocar instead of pôr in this sentence?
Why does the sentence use na instead of just em for "in"?
In Portuguese, you generally use definite articles (the words for "the") before specific nouns much more often than in English. Here, you aren't just saying "in shade" (em sombra), but rather "in the shade." The preposition em (in) merges with the feminine article a (the) to form the mandatory contraction na.
The dictionary form of the verb is pôr with a circumflex accent. Why doesn't ponho have an accent?
The infinitive verb pôr only has that accent mark to distinguish it visually from the preposition por (by/through/for). When it is conjugated as ponho, there is no other identical word to confuse it with, so the accent mark isn't needed.
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