Question 1

Why does the sentence use seguinte instead of próximo?

Accepted Answer

Próximo is usually used when talking about the future relative to right now (for example, "next year" counting from today). Seguinte is used when talking about the next thing in a sequence, especially in the past. Because this sentence is telling a story about the past, we use seguinte to mean "the following year".

Question 2

Is foi the past tense of ser (to be) or ir (to go)?

Accepted Answer

Here, it is the past tense of ser (to be). The verbs ser and ir share the exact same forms in this past tense (the Pretérito Perfeito). You have to use the context of the sentence to tell them apart. Since "the year went difficult" doesn't make much sense, we know it means "the year was difficult".

Question 3

Why use foi instead of the other past tense for "was", era?

Accepted Answer

Using foi treats that year as a single, completed block of time that has finished. If the speaker had used era, they would be setting the scene or describing an ongoing background state. Using foi sums up the entire year as one completed, factual event.

Question 4

Why doesn't the adjective seguinte change to end in "o" to match the masculine noun ano?

Accepted Answer

Adjectives that end in -e in Portuguese are gender-neutral. This means they keep the exact same form for both masculine and feminine nouns. For example, it is o ano seguinte (masculine) and a semana seguinte (feminine).

O ano seguinte foi difícil.

Breakdown of O ano seguinte foi difícil.

Questions & Answers about O ano seguinte foi difícil.

Learn O ano seguinte foi difícil and more in Portuguese