When to use it
Use it to ask whether the teacher has already explained the homework, for example to a classmate or to your child after school.
The sentence in English: “Did the teacher explain the homework?”
"Did the teacher explain the homework?" is a question in the past. "Did", the past of "do", opens the question, and because of it the main verb "explain" stays in its base form. "Homework" is uncountable and has no plural.
- Did
- auxiliary verbdo · tense: past · auxiliary that makes a question in the past
- the
- determinerdefinite article
- teacher
- nounnoun
- explain
- verbexplain · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · after "did" the verb stays in its base form
- the
- determinerdefinite article
- homework
- noununcountable noun; it has no plural
The sentence in Portuguese: “O professor explicou a lição de casa?”
"O professor explicou a lição de casa?" keeps the normal word order of a statement; only the question mark and the tone make it a question. "Explicou" is the simple past of "explicar". "Lição de casa" literally means "lesson of house" and is the usual expression for homework in Brazil.
- O
- determinerdefinite article, masculine singular: "the"
- professor
- nounmasculine noun: "teacher"
- explicou
- verbexplicar · tense: simple past (pretérito perfeito) · person: third · number: singular · "explained"
- a
- determinerdefinite article, feminine singular: "the"
- lição
- nounfeminine noun: "lesson"
- de
- prepositionpreposition: "of"
- casa
- nounfeminine noun: "house"; "lição de casa" means "homework"
What changes from one language to the other: English × Portuguese
English needs "did" to ask in the past, and the past is then carried by "did", not by the main verb. Portuguese puts the past directly in the verb, "explicou", and needs no auxiliary. English says "homework" in one word where Portuguese uses three.
Example conversation
— O professor explicou a lição de casa?
— Did the teacher explain the homework?
— Explicou, é para sexta-feira.
— Yes, it's due on Friday.