"A sua irmã é minha noiva."

Translation: Your sister is my bride.

[Frencesca]

Why can't I use "a" here? a sua irmã é "a" minha noiva

[Paulenrique]

Sure you can

[Frencesca]

Thanks a lot! I keep running into sentences that can only be translated in 2 ways, while more varieties are acceptable. I'm reporting them.

[Paulenrique]

Thats wonderful. This way u help many other learners!!!! Keep it up ;)

[jorfmam1]

And girlfriend? Why not girlfriend? How can you determine that is fiancé?

[Paulenrique]

Girlfriend = namorada.

[barbaratorrance]

a bride is not a fiancée what is the correct word

[vinidcali]

Both are noiva (there's no special distinction in PT) C:

[JustinBlak101743]

It might as well mean bride, you still have time to back out at the altar, so there's not much harm lumping them together.

[barrysilv]

In a later lesson, we're taught, "O pai dele é promotor," where the pronoun follows the noun. Here we're taught, "A sua irmã é minha noiva," where the pronoun precedes the noun. Is dele/dela always after the noun, and is sua/seu,tua, teu always before, please?

[Sarah-Cheung]

You are right.

Sua/seu/tua/teu always come before the noun. They work just like your/his/her/their.

And dele/dela always come after the noun. Because dele(s) = de ele(s); dela(s) = de ela(s). They work like "of his/theirs" or "of hers/theirs".

[fandradech]

Why not Fiance instead of bride?

[y0rkshire]

'His sister' is marked as incorrect. Why is that?

[Paulenrique]

It should be counted as correct.

[kspeters]

Why does the sentence start with "A" instead of just "Sua"?

[Paulenrique]

They both are correct.

[kspeters]

But how do you know when to use "the" in front of a word like that? In English, we would never say "the" before the word "your" so I'm just wondering if you can always say "the" before "Your" in Portuguese if you feel like it or if it depends on the noun that comes after.

[Paulenrique]

If you have "possessive + noun" (possessive adjective), the article is optional, if you have only "possessive", the article is mandatory.

• My house is white, yours is blue. = Minha casa é branca, a sua é azul. = A minha casa é branca, a sua é azul.