Question 1

Why does the verb comprar change to comprou here?

Accepted Answer

Comprou is the past tense form for ela (she), ele (he), and você (you). For regular verbs ending in -ar, you drop the -ar and add -ou to talk about a completed action in the past.

Question 2

Why is the word order biquíni barato instead of barato biquíni?

Accepted Answer

In Portuguese, adjectives (words that describe things, like barato) usually come after the noun they describe (biquíni). So instead of the English order, you put the noun first.

Question 3

Biquíni sounds like the English word bikini. Why is it spelled with a qu and an accent mark?

Accepted Answer

When Portuguese adopts foreign words, it often changes the spelling to match its own pronunciation rules. The letter k is not traditionally used in native Portuguese words, so the k sound before an i is written as qu. The accent on the í tells you to stress that middle syllable!

Question 4

Since biquíni ends in an i, how do we know to use the masculine adjective barato?

Accepted Answer

Nouns ending in i can be tricky because the ending does not clearly show if they are masculine or feminine. You just have to memorize that biquíni is masculine, which is why it uses the masculine article um and the adjective ends in o for barato.

Ela comprou um biquíni barato.

Breakdown of Ela comprou um biquíni barato.

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