Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Ela estava a juntar o dobro do sal.

Ela estava a juntar o dobro do sal.

She was adding double the salt.

Breakdown of Ela estava a juntar o dobro do sal.

ela

she

of the / from the (contracted)

estar

to be (temporary / location)

to / at (direction)

Questions & Answers about Ela estava a juntar o dobro do sal.

Why does it say o dobro do sal instead of just dobro o sal like 'double the salt' in English?

In Portuguese, multipliers like dobro act as nouns. You literally have to say 'the double of the salt' (o dobro de + o sal). That is why you need the article o before dobro, and why you must use do before sal.

Does the word dobro change if the noun after it is feminine, like 'double the water'?

No, o dobro is a masculine noun itself, so it stays the same regardless of what is being doubled. To say 'double the water', you would just change the second article: o dobro da água.

I usually use adicionar for 'to add'. Is juntar normal here?

Yes, while adicionar is perfectly correct, juntar (which literally means 'to join' or 'to bring together') is extremely common in everyday Portuguese, especially when talking about cooking, recipes, or mixing ingredients.

Why use estava a juntar instead of just juntou?

Estava a juntar is the past continuous, meaning 'was adding', which describes an ongoing, unfinished action in the past. If you used the simple past juntou, it would mean the action was a completed event, as in 'she added double the salt'.