Breakdown of Perdi os meus porta-moedas e os meus porta-chaves ontem.
e
and
meu
my (m/f/pl: meu, minha, meus, minhas)
perder
to lose
ontem
yesterday
o
him/it (m)
o porta-moedas
the coin purse
o porta-chaves
the keychain
Questions & Answers about Perdi os meus porta-moedas e os meus porta-chaves ontem.
Why don't porta-moedas and porta-chaves change their spelling to become plural here?
Since moedas and chaves are feminine words, why do we use the masculine os meus?
Even though the nouns inside them are feminine, the compound nouns themselves are masculine. Compound nouns made by combining a verb and a noun are almost always masculine in Portuguese, which is why we use the masculine plural os meus.
Does porta in these words mean 'door'?
No, in these compound nouns, porta comes from the verb portar, which means 'to carry' or 'to hold'. It has nothing to do with the noun porta (door). So a porta-moedas is literally a 'coin-carrier' and a porta-chaves is a 'key-carrier'.
Could I leave out os and just say Perdi meus porta-moedas...?
In European Portuguese, it is standard to include the definite article (os) before a possessive pronoun (meus). While you might hear it dropped in Brazilian Portuguese, leaving it out sounds unnatural in Portugal.
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