My Daily Routine (A1)

Rita works at a school in Aveiro and describes a typical weekday. The passage is packed with the kind of vocabulary and grammar you meet in the first weeks of Portuguese: regular -ar, -er, -ir verbs in the present; reflexive verbs for self-care routines (acordar, levantar-se, lavar-se, vestir-se, deitar-se); sequencing adverbs (primeiro, depois, sempre, às vezes, nunca); time-of-day expressions (de manhã, à tarde, à noite); and PT-PT meal vocabulary (pequeno-almoço, almoço, lanche, jantar). More than anything, it's a chance to watch clitic placement flip back and forth between enclisis and proclisis depending on what comes before the verb.

The text

Durante a semana, acordo sempre às sete da manhã. Levanto-me logo e vou à casa de banho lavar-me e vestir-me. Primeiro tomo o pequeno-almoço — uma torrada, um galão e um sumo de laranja. Depois apanho o autocarro para o trabalho. De manhã dou aulas e ao meio-dia almoço com os colegas num café perto da escola. À tarde tenho reuniões e corrijo testes. Às seis saio do trabalho e volto para casa. Às vezes paro numa pastelaria para comprar um pastel de nata. À noite janto com o meu marido, vemos um bocado de televisão e deito-me cedo. Nunca me deito depois das onze — de manhã não consigo acordar!

Line-by-line annotations

Sentence 1: Durante a semana, acordo sempre às sete da manhã.

• Durante a semana — "during the week." Durante is a preposition introducing a span of time, and it's followed directly by a noun with its article.
• Acordo is the first-person singular of acordar ("to wake up"). In Portuguese, acordar in this sense is not reflexive — you say acordo (I wake up), not acordo-me. This is different from Spanish (me despierto) and is a common stumble. See Acordar vs. Despertar-se.
• Sempre ("always") typically goes before the verb or after it — not in a fixed position. Here, placed after the verb, it reads naturally.
• Às sete da manhã — a + as = às, the contraction of the preposition a ("at") with the feminine plural article as (agreeing with the implicit horas, "hours"). Portuguese always uses a + article with clock times: às sete, às oito, ao meio-dia. See Telling the Time.

Sentence 2: Levanto-me logo e vou à casa de banho lavar-me e vestir-me.

• Levanto-me is the first-person singular of the reflexive levantar-se ("to get up / to get out of bed"). Unlike acordar, which is not reflexive in EP, levantar-se requires the reflexive pronoun: the action is done to oneself. Enclisis is the default: levanto-me, not me levanto.
• Vou à casa de banho — ir a expresses movement toward a place, and à is the contraction a + a. Casa de banho is the European Portuguese word for "bathroom" (BR uses banheiro). PT-PT also has WC (pronounced vê-cê) in signs and menus.
• Lavar-me e vestir-me — two reflexive infinitives. When the reflexive pronoun attaches to an infinitive, it still uses a hyphen: lavar-me, vestir-me. The default position is after the verb.

Sentence 3: Primeiro tomo o pequeno-almoço — uma torrada, um galão e um sumo de laranja.

• Primeiro is the sequencing adverb meaning "first." Sequencing adverbs (primeiro, depois, a seguir, por fim) typically come at the front of the sentence.
• Tomo o pequeno-almoço — the verb for "to have breakfast / to eat breakfast" is tomar o pequeno-almoço. Portuguese uses tomar (literally "to take") with meals and drinks far more broadly than English uses "have": tomar um café, tomar um sumo, tomar o pequeno-almoço. You can also say comer o pequeno-almoço, but tomar is the idiomatic verb.
• Pequeno-almoço is the PT-PT word for "breakfast." BR uses café da manhã. The hyphen is part of the spelling.
• Um galão is a PT-PT café order: a tall glass of coffee with hot milk, roughly the Portuguese equivalent of a latte. Other PT-PT coffee words to know: bica or café (espresso), meia de leite (coffee with milk in a cup, stronger than a galão), cimbalino (espresso, in the north).
• Sumo de laranja is PT-PT for "orange juice." BR uses suco de laranja.

Sentence 4: Depois apanho o autocarro para o trabalho.

• Depois — "then, after that," another sequencing adverb.
• Apanho o autocarro — the PT-PT verb for "to catch a bus / train" is apanhar. BR uses pegar. Autocarro is the PT-PT word for "bus"; BR uses ônibus. Keep these two pairings straight — they're among the first PT-PT vs. BR differences learners meet.
• Para o trabalho — para for destination/purpose. Ir para casa, ir para o trabalho, ir para a escola. Para here marks the endpoint of the trip.

Sentence 5: De manhã dou aulas e ao meio-dia almoço com os colegas num café perto da escola.

• De manhã — "in the morning," a fixed time-of-day expression. Note it's de manhã (with de), not na manhã. The parallel expressions are à tarde ("in the afternoon"), à noite ("at night"), and de madrugada ("in the early hours"). See Time Expressions.
• Dou aulas — dar aulas is the standard phrase for "to teach / to give lessons." Dou is the first-person singular of the irregular dar ("to give").
• Ao meio-dia — "at midday / at noon." Meio-dia ("midday") is masculine, hence ao (a + o). The opposite is à meia-noite ("at midnight"), feminine, hence à.
• Almoço is both a noun ("lunch") and the first-person singular of the verb almoçar ("to have lunch"). Context distinguishes them — here the verb.
• Num café — em + um = num ("in / at a café").
• Perto da escola — perto de ("near"), with da as the contraction de + a.

Sentence 6: À tarde tenho reuniões e corrijo testes.

• À tarde — "in the afternoon."
• Corrijo is the first-person singular of corrigir ("to correct / to mark"). Regular -ir verb, with the spelling change g → j before o to preserve the soft sound.

Sentence 7: Às seis saio do trabalho e volto para casa.

• Saio is the first-person singular of the irregular sair ("to leave, to go out"). The stem change sai- is a regular feature of the -air verbs.
• Do trabalho — de + o = do. Sair de ("to leave from") is the standard construction.
• Volto para casa — voltar ("to return") + para (destination). Note that you say para casa without an article when speaking about your own home. Adding a would specify a particular house.

Sentence 8: Às vezes paro numa pastelaria para comprar um pastel de nata.

• Às vezes — "sometimes," a frequency expression. Other common ones: sempre (always), nunca (never), muitas vezes (often), raramente (rarely).
• Paro is from parar ("to stop").
• Para comprar — para
  • infinitive for purpose: "in order to buy." This is the standard way to express purpose in Portuguese.
• Pastel de nata is the iconic PT-PT custard tart. The classic order is um pastel de nata e uma bica.

Sentence 9: À noite janto com o meu marido, vemos um bocado de televisão e deito-me cedo.

• À noite — "at night, in the evening."
• Janto is from jantar ("to have dinner"), regular -ar. Jantar also serves as the noun for "dinner."
• Com o meu marido — note the definite article o before the possessive meu. This is the classic PT-PT feature: possessives are preceded by the definite article. O meu marido, a minha filha, os meus amigos. Brazilian Portuguese often drops the article (meu marido), but in EP, the article is the norm. See Possessives with Article.
• Um bocado de televisão — "a bit of television." Um bocado is a PT-PT favourite quantifier, slightly more colloquial than um pouco.
• Deito-me cedo — enclisis with the reflexive deitar-se ("to go to bed / to lie down"). The clitic -me follows the verb with a hyphen.

Sentence 10: Nunca me deito depois das onze — de manhã não consigo acordar!

• Nunca me deito — here the clitic me goes before the verb, not after. Why? Because nunca is a negative adverb that triggers proclisis. Compare with the previous sentence: deito-me cedo (enclisis, no trigger) vs. nunca me deito (proclisis, nunca triggers it). This is the single most important clitic pattern to internalise in EP. See Proclisis Triggers.
• Depois das onze — depois de
  • as = depois das ("after eleven"). As agrees with the implicit horas.
• Não consigo acordar — conseguir
  • infinitive means "to manage to / to be able to." Here, não consigo acordar is "I can't wake up." The clitic attachment doesn't apply because there's no clitic pronoun — just a simple negation.

Things to notice

A few patterns from this passage that are worth internalising:

1. Reflexive verbs cluster around self-care routines. Levantar-se, lavar-se, vestir-se, deitar-se — all reflexive because the action is done to oneself. Acordar (to wake up), though, is not reflexive in EP; same with almoçar, jantar. Don't assume Spanish patterns — Portuguese has its own inventory.
2. Enclisis and proclisis alternate based on triggers. The passage shows both: deito-me cedo (enclisis) vs. nunca me deito tarde (proclisis). Memorising the triggers is more efficient than memorising each sentence.
3. PT-PT meal vocabulary: pequeno-almoço (breakfast), almoço (lunch), lanche (afternoon snack), jantar (dinner). All with tomar or their own verb (almoçar, jantar).
4. Time expressions with contractions: às sete, ao meio-dia, à meia-noite, de manhã, à tarde, à noite. Learn the set; the patterns repeat constantly.
5. PT-PT-specific vocabulary: autocarro (bus), galão (latte-like coffee), sumo (juice), casa de banho (bathroom), pastel de nata (custard tart). All words a BR learner would need to relearn.

Common mistakes

Spanish speakers reach for me despierto and reproduce the pattern in Portuguese. In EP, acordar ("to wake up") is intransitive and takes no reflexive pronoun. Levantar-se ("to get up") is reflexive, but acordar is not.

Negative adverbs (nunca, jamais, nem) and the main negation (não) trigger proclisis. Writing the clitic after the verb when one of these triggers is present is the most common EP clitic mistake.

Pegar in EP means "to grab, to hold, to stick." For transport, the verb is apanhar — apanhar o comboio, apanhar o autocarro, apanhar o metro. Learners coming from Spanish or BR often import pegar here.

Café da manhã is BR; EP uses pequeno-almoço. If you're learning EP specifically, pequeno-almoço is the word to use.

EP uses the definite article before possessives by default: o meu marido, a minha mãe, os meus filhos. BR often drops it. In EP, keeping the article is safer — you'll almost never sound wrong, and omitting it signals Brazilian speech.

Key grammar points