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Foi um momento muito feliz.

Foi um momento muito feliz.
It was a very happy moment.
From Lesson 168:As palavras essenciais (o caso, a maneira)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about Foi um momento muito feliz.

Why is there no word for 'It' at the beginning of the sentence?
In Portuguese, you do not need a subject pronoun like 'it' for sentences like this. The verb Foi already carries the meaning 'It was' (or 'He/She was') all by itself based on the context.
Doesn't foi also mean 'went'? How do I know which one it is here?
Yes! The verbs ser (to be) and ir (to go) share the exact same forms in this past tense (Pretérito Perfeito). You can easily tell them apart by context. 'Went a very happy moment' does not make sense, so here it must mean 'It was'.
Why is Foi used here instead of Esteve?
Foi is the past tense of ser (to be). We use ser to describe events that happened or to define what something was. Even though a moment is temporary, you are classifying the nature of the moment itself, so it needs ser, not estar.
If the noun was feminine, would feliz change?
No, feliz (happy) is an adjective that ends in -z, which means it has the exact same form for both masculine and feminine nouns. It only changes when describing plural words, where you add -es to make felizes.

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