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A cave do prédio é escura.

A cave do prédio é escura.
The building's basement is dark.
From Lesson 121:A casa por fora (o elevador, a cave)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about A cave do prédio é escura.

Why does the word cave mean basement here? Is it a natural cave?
In Portuguese, cave is a false friend. It means a basement or cellar in a house or building, not a natural cave in nature. If you want to talk about a natural cave, you would use words like gruta or caverna.
The English translation says "building's basement". Why does the Portuguese sentence use do prédio?
Portuguese does not use an apostrophe-s to show ownership. Instead, it uses the word de (of). Here, de combines with the masculine word for the (o) to make do. So, a cave do prédio literally means the basement of the building.
Why do we use é instead of está to say the basement is dark?
We use é, which comes from the verb ser, for permanent or typical characteristics. Since a basement usually has no windows and is naturally dark by design, being dark is treated as a permanent feature. If a normal room was only temporarily dark because a light bulb broke, you would use está.
Why does the word for dark end in an a (escura) instead of an o (escuro)?
Adjectives in Portuguese must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because cave is a feminine noun, which you can tell from the feminine word for the (A) at the start of the sentence, the base adjective escuro changes to its feminine form, escura.

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