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A flor está quase morta.

A flor está quase morta.
The flower is almost dead.
From Lesson 108:A vida e a morte (morrer, vivo)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about A flor está quase morta.

Why do we use está instead of é? Being dead seems like a permanent thing!
It is a common rule of thumb that estar is for temporary states and ser is for permanent ones, but death is a famous exception! In Portuguese, we use estar for conditions that are the result of a change or process. Since dying is a change of state, the flower is currently in the resulting state of being dead, so we use está morta.
Why is the word for dead spelled morta here instead of morto?
The word morta is acting as an adjective describing the flower. Because flor is a feminine noun, the adjective must match its gender. It changes from the default masculine morto to the feminine morta.
How can I tell that flor is feminine when it doesn't end in "-a"?
Nouns ending in a consonant can be tricky. Many nouns ending in "-r" are actually masculine (like o amor or o doutor), making a flor an important exception to memorize. Paying attention to the feminine word for "the" (A) right before it in this sentence is your biggest clue!
If there were multiple flowers, would quase change to a plural form?
No, quase will never change. It is an adverb meaning "almost." Unlike adjectives, adverbs do not have gender or plural forms in Portuguese. If the sentence were plural, it would simply be "As flores estão quase mortas."

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