Question 1

Why does the sentence use tomo instead of a word for "drink" or "have"?

Accepted Answer

In English, we say "I have a coffee" or "I drink a coffee". In Portuguese, the verb ter (to have) is only used for possession and cannot be used for eating or drinking. For consuming drinks or meals, it is very common to use tomar (to take). You can also use beber (to drink), so bebo um café is perfectly correct, but tomo is a very natural and standard way to say it.

Question 2

Why is there no word for "I" at the beginning of the sentence?

Accepted Answer

Portuguese often drops subject pronouns like eu (I) because the verb ending already tells you who is doing the action. The -o ending in tomo makes it completely clear that "I" am the one having the coffee. You only need to add eu if you want to emphasize that you are the one having a coffee, perhaps in contrast to someone else.

Question 3

Why is it depois do almoço instead of just depois de almoço?

Accepted Answer

The phrase for "after" is depois de. In English we just say "after lunch", but Portuguese often uses the definite article "the" (o or a) before the names of meals. So, the sentence is literally "after the lunch". The preposition de combines with the masculine article o to form the contraction do.

Question 4

Do I always need to add de after depois?

Accepted Answer

You need de when you are saying "after [something]". For example, depois do almoço (after lunch) or depois do trabalho (after work). If you are just saying "afterwards" or "later" without naming a specific event, you use depois on its own, like in eu bebo um café depois (I will drink a coffee later).

Tomo um café depois do almoço.

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