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Ou a condição é justa, ou é inaceitável.

Ou a condição é justa, ou é inaceitável.
Either the condition is fair, or it is unacceptable.
From Lesson 189:Correlative conjunctions (nem... nem)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Breakdown of Ou a condição é justa, ou é inaceitável.

ser
to be
ou
or
a condição
the condition
justo
fair
inaceitável
unacceptable

Questions & Answers about Ou a condição é justa, ou é inaceitável.

How does ou... ou work in this sentence?
This pair translates to "either... or". By placing ou before both options, it emphasizes that this is a strict, mutually exclusive choice: the condition can only be one or the other.
Why do we use é instead of está for "is" here?
We use é, from the verb ser, because a condition being fair or unacceptable is treated as a core characteristic or defining rule. If we used está (from estar), it would imply a temporary state that might change shortly.
Justa ends in an "a" to match a condição. Why doesn't inaceitável change?
Adjectives ending in -o (like justo) change to -a for feminine nouns. However, adjectives that end in -l, such as inaceitável (unacceptable) or fácil (easy), have only one form and are used for both masculine and feminine nouns.
Why is there no subject like ela (it) before the second é?
Portuguese frequently drops the subject pronoun when it is already obvious from the context. Since the first part of the sentence establishes a condição as the subject, adding ela before the second é is unnecessary and would sound repetitive.

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