Definite Articles, Verb Conjugations, Omitting Pronouns in Portuguese

DEFINITE ARTICLES - "O" AND "A"

Just like the indefinite articles, definite ones also follow the gender of the nouns:
O livro = The book (masculine)

A chave = The key (feminine)


Be careful not to confuse the English "a" for the Portuguese "a":
A bola = The ball

Uma bola = A ball

VERB CONJUGATIONS

Verbs in Portuguese change depending on who is doing the action. This happens in English when, for instance, "to write" gets conjugated as "he writes."

In Portuguese, however, verbs have a different conjugation for each grammatical person.

Here we will focus on the first and third person singular conjugations: "eu" and "ele/ela".

(1) - "Você" is the singular "you". This pronoun, although referring to the second person, follows third person conjugations. Later we will see the pronoun "tu", which actually follows second person conjugations.


(2) - Don't confuse "é" for "e". The accend makes a difference here - "É" is a verb, "e" means "and".


(3) - In this table, "comer" (to eat) is a regular verb. All regular verbs ending in "er" follow the same pattern for their endings. "Ler" is an example of an irregular verb. It tries to follow the same endings, but with some changes.

WHERE IS "IT"?"

Sometimes, the word "it" is just not translated, depending on how concrete it is. In sentences like "it is ...", the best translations usually have nothing translating "it":
He is a boy = Ele é um menino

It is a boy = _ É um menino


But when "it" is an animal or something relevant, something that actually exists, we still use "ele" or "ela" depending on the noun's gender:
I have a car, it is red = Eu tenho um carro, ele é vermelho ("carro" is masculine)

He has a house, it is big = Ele tem uma casa, ela é grande ("casa" is feminine)

Can we omit other pronouns?

Yes, we can omit any pronoun in Portuguese. But keep in mind that if the conjugation is not clear, it's better not to omit anything.

For instance, "come" can refer to "ele", "ela", "você" or even be an imperative verb. For that reason, we avoid omitting the pronoun in these cases.