In short

You now have nouns, articles, pronouns, adjectives and a working present tense - this lesson assembles them into whole sentences and asks questions with them. Three habits carry most of the load, and all three are simpler than English. Portuguese word order is Subject - Verb - Object, just like English, but the subject is usually dropped because the verb ending already names it (Lesson 3). Negation is one word, não, placed right before the verb - there is no “do/does” and nothing to invert. And a question is made by intonation or a question mark alone, with the words in their normal order and, very often, the little frame é que slipped in. Learn these and you can already state, deny, join and ask.

The rule

Default order: Subject - Verb - Object

The neutral order matches English: A Ana bebe café (Ana drinks coffee). Because the verb ending marks the person (Lesson 6), the subject pronoun is normally left out: Bebo café (I drink coffee), not Eu bebo café unless you are contrasting or emphasising. Adjectives follow their noun (Lesson 5: um carro vermelho), and short adverbs and time or place phrases sit at the end or, for emphasis, at the front: Estudo português em casa / Hoje trabalho muito.

Portuguese is more flexible than English about putting the subject after the verb, especially with a handful of common verbs of happening, arriving and existing: Chegou o comboio (The train arrived), Falta uma cadeira (There is a chair missing), Telefonou a tua mãe (Your mother phoned). This is natural, not a question and not an error - but SVO is always safe, so lead with it and simply recognise the inverted version when you meet it.

Negation: não before the verb

Put não directly in front of the conjugated verb, and that is the whole rule:

• Falo inglês. -> Não falo inglês. (I don’t speak English.)
• A Ana come carne. -> A Ana não come carne.

There is no auxiliary “do”, so never build não faço falar or the like - just não + verb. The one thing that may sit between não and the verb is an object pronoun (that is Lesson 29-31); until then, keep não glued to the verb. As a one-word reply, não also means “no”: - Vens? - Não.

Portuguese uses double negation, and it is required, not wrong. When a negative word such as nada (nothing), ninguém (nobody) or nunca (never) comes after the verb, you keep não before the verb; when the negative word comes before the verb, you drop não:

• Não vejo nada. = I see nothing. (both negatives kept)
• Não vem ninguém. / Ninguém vem. (Nobody is coming.)
• Não como nunca fora. / Nunca como fora. (I never eat out.)

Yes/no questions: intonation, never inversion

To turn a statement into a yes/no question, change nothing about the word order - just raise your voice at the end (speech) or add a question mark (writing):

• Falas português. -> Falas português?
• O senhor quer um café?

There is no “do/does” and no swapping of subject and verb the way English does. Answering is where Portuguese surprises English speakers: instead of a bare “yes”, the natural reply echoes the verb:

• - Falas inglês? - Falo. (Yes, I do.)
• - Tens tempo? - Não tenho. (No, I don’t.)

You can add Sim (yes) or Não (no), but the verb-echo is what a native speaker reaches for first.

The é que frame

Portuguese very often reinforces a question with é que placed right after the question word (or a fronted element), with no change of meaning - it simply makes the question run more smoothly and is extremely common in speech:

• Onde moras? = Onde é que moras? (Where do you live?)
• O que fazes? = O que é que fazes?
• Quando é que chega o comboio?

Learn it as one fixed chunk: [question word] + é que + [ordinary sentence]. The rest of the sentence keeps its normal order.

Information questions: the question words

An information question puts the question word at the front; if the subject is named, it usually follows the verb (Onde mora a Ana?).

• quem - who; o que / que - what; onde - where; quando - when
• como - how; quanto/-a/-os/-as - how much / how many (it agrees, Lesson 16); qual / quais - which
• porquê? stands alone or ends the question (Porquê?), while porque introduces the reason - because - and, in European Portuguese, is also written as one word inside a direct question: Porque não vens? / Porque é que não vens? Answer with the same porque: Porque não tenho tempo.

Joining simple clauses

Link two short clauses with a coordinating word: e (and), mas (but), ou (or), porque (because), por isso (so / therefore).

• Quero ir, mas não tenho tempo.
• Estudo português porque gosto da cultura.
• Está a chover, por isso fico em casa.

Forms & patterns

One sentence in its four shapes:

The core question words:

Examples

Common mistakes

• Você faz gostar de café? / Fazes tu falar inglês? -> Gostas de café?, Falas inglês? - Portuguese has no “do/does” auxiliary; make a yes/no question with intonation and a question mark, nothing else.
• Eu não gosto de café, eu bebo chá (every clause with eu) -> Não gosto de café, bebo chá - drop the subject pronoun (Lesson 3); the ending already carries it.
• Não vejo alguma coisa -> Não vejo nada - a negative sentence takes the negative word, and the double negative (não … nada / ninguém / nunca) is correct, not “wrong grammar”.
• Ninguém não vem -> Ninguém vem / Não vem ninguém - use não only when the negative word follows the verb; if it comes first, drop não.
• Onde tu moras? with English rhythm -> Onde é que moras? or Onde moras? - after a question word the natural European Portuguese frame is é que, or the subject simply follows the verb.
• Por que? / Porque? as a standalone “why?” -> Porquê? - the stressed one-word question is porquê; porque (one word, unstressed) introduces the reason.

Tips

• Make SVO with a dropped subject your default sentence, and only add the pronoun for contrast or emphasis (Eu pago, tu escolhes).
• To negate, slide não in front of the verb and stop; there is nothing else to change.
• Build questions with your voice or a ”?” - never with “do”. If it helps, imagine every English “do you / does he” simply vanishing.
• Treat é que as a single ready-made piece that clips onto a question word; it makes you sound immediately more natural and changes no meaning.
• Practise answering yes/no questions by echoing the verb (- Podes? - Posso.); it is the reflex a native speaker expects.
• In Brazil the same order, negation and intonation questions apply; the main everyday difference is that você is the default “you”, so the second-person verb forms above are heard less and the third-person forms carry more of the conversation.