"The wines are good."

[charliebennett]

I still haven't been able to grasp the difference between using "boa" and "bon" (and "boas" and "bons"). I may have missed an earlier discussion of this. It would be great if someone could put a reminder here :)

[Davu]

It's simply a case of gender and number agreement. If the noun is masculine-singular, feminine-singular, masculine-plural or feminine-plural use "bom", "boa", "bons" or "boas" respectively. So here "os vinhos" is masculine-plural and the appropriate adjective is "bons". (There is no such word as "bon".)

[tanisemello]

Ele é bom - masculine singular

Ela é boa - feminine singular

Eles são bons - masculine plural

Elas são boas - feminine plural

[Alfabladet]

Diff of Sao and sou??

[Areop-Enap]

Sao is in third person. "Os abacaxis são bons "
Sou is in first person, for yourself. "Eu não sou bom"

[Lalalarz]

Aren't you supposed to use the masculine sou, not são?

[Davu]

Both "sou" and "são" are present tense conjugations of the verb "ser" (to be) and have nothing to do with gender.

You say "Eu sou bom" (I am good), "Ele é bom" (he is good), "Nós somos bons" (we are good) and "Eles são bons" (they are good). The thing that changes with gender is the adjective and for females the same sentences become "Eu sou boa", "Ela é boa", "Nós somos boas" and "Elas são boas". In this case "Os vinhos" is, grammatically speaking, masculine-plural so the correct form is "Os vinhos são bons" (the wines are good).

[Alejandro.NG]

I dont understand why not- estão and são? I selected both? What is the translate of -are- ---> são, ou estão?

[Davu]

Portuguese has two "to be" verbs, "ser" and "estar" and two versions of "are", "são" and "estão" respectively. When you say "The boys are good", for example, you can translate that as "Os meninos são bons" or "Os meninos estão bons". In the first version you mean the boys are inherently good and in the second that they are good right now, today or over a similarly short time scale. Although you could argue the case for "estão" in this sentence, "são" makes the most sense I believe.

[Laneswaw]

Well done! Only a observation: may be that the phrase "Os meninos estão bons" makes more sense if we use a period here where we are speaking about people "Os meninos estão bons hoje" / "Os meninos estão bons este ano", etc. Congrats for your Portuguese.

Portuguese: Dominate verbs and pronouns and everything will be fine... hehehe :)

[Davu]

Thanks for the suggestion, it makes perfect sense. I'm afraid I'm a long way from dominating the verbs (particularly in the subjunctive) and pronouns, but I keep plodding away. :-)

[ChristianP934447]

when would you use bons in Portuguese

[Paulenrique]

Plural of "bom".

[taylajaylee]

When do you use "Bem" ?

[Paulenrique]

Bem = well