Question 1

In English, furniture is uncountable. Why is mobília singular feminine here, and can it be plural?

Accepted Answer

In Portuguese, a mobília refers to a complete set of furniture for a room or house. It does have a plural, as mobílias, used when talking about multiple distinct sets. If you want to talk about individual pieces of furniture, you usually use the masculine noun o móvel (plural: os móveis).

Question 2

Why is it da sala instead of just saying the Portuguese words for living-room furniture?

Accepted Answer

English often stacks nouns together, like living-room furniture. Portuguese does not do this. You have to link the nouns using de (of). Here, de merges with a (the) to make da, so the sentence literally translates to the furniture of the living room.

Question 3

Does sala always mean living room? I thought it just meant room.

Accepted Answer

While sala can mean a large room for a specific purpose (like sala de aula for classroom), when talking about a house, it is the standard word for the living room. The full name is a sala de estar, but it is almost always shortened to just a sala. A bedroom is a different word: o quarto.

Question 4

Why do we use é (from the verb ser) instead of está? The furniture will eventually get old, so isn't being new temporary?

Accepted Answer

Portuguese uses ser to describe the essential, defining qualities of a thing, even if that thing will eventually age or break. Because being nova (new) is a core physical trait of the furniture right now, rather than a temporary condition like being dirty, we use ser.

A mobília da sala é nova.

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