Breakdown of Eles mantêm a amizade apesar da distância.
ele
he
de
of / from / by (means of transport) / wearing (attire)
a amizade
the friendship
apesar de
despite
manter
to keep (maintain)
a distância
the distance
Questions & Answers about Eles mantêm a amizade apesar da distância.
This lesson is about reciprocal pronouns. Could we use one to say this?
Why does mantêm have a circumflex accent (^) instead of an acute accent (´)?
Verbs that end in -ter (like manter, obter, deter) use accents in the present tense to show who is doing the action. The singular 'he/she' form uses an acute accent (ele mantém), while the plural 'they' form uses a circumflex accent (eles mantêm).
Why do we use da before distância instead of just de?
The expression for 'despite' or 'in spite of' is apesar de. Since we are talking about a specific distance ('the' distance), we need the feminine definite article a. When you combine the preposition de with the article a, you get the contraction da.
How do you pronounce the -êm ending in mantêm?
It is pronounced as a nasal diphthong, exactly like the -em in têm (they have). It sounds roughly like 'ay-eng' spoken quickly through the nose. The circumflex accent just tells you that the stress falls on this final syllable.
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