Breakdown of O cobertor de lã é quente.
ser
to be
de
of / from / by (means of transport) / wearing (attire)
a lã
the wool
quente
warm
o cobertor
the blanket
Questions & Answers about O cobertor de lã é quente.
Why is it de lã instead of just saying lã cobertor?
In Portuguese, you cannot put a noun directly in front of another noun to describe it like we do in English (wool blanket). Instead, you use the preposition de (of) followed by the material. So, "wool blanket" becomes cobertor de lã (literally, blanket of wool).
Why use é (from the verb ser) instead of está (from estar)? Isn't temperature temporary?
We use é here because being warm is an inherent, permanent characteristic of a wool blanket—it is designed to keep you warm. If you used está, it would mean the blanket is temporarily hot right now, perhaps because it just came out of the dryer or was sitting in the sun.
Does quente mean "warm" or "hot"?
It can mean both! Portuguese doesn't usually distinguish between "warm" and "hot" like English does. Quente covers that whole range of temperature. Here, "warm" is the most natural translation for a cozy blanket.
Would quente change if the noun was feminine?
No. Adjectives that end in -e in their singular form (like quente, grande, verde) are gender-neutral. They have the exact same form for both masculine nouns (like o cobertor) and feminine nouns.
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