Qual é o horário do voo?

to be

Breakdown of Qual é o horário do voo?

• do: of the
• o horário: the scheduled time
• qual: what

Questions & Answers about Qual é o horário do voo?

Why does the sentence start with qual? Does it mean what or which?

In this sentence, qual means what in the sense of which one / what is.

Portuguese often uses qual when asking for a specific piece of identifying information:

• Qual é o seu nome? = What is your name?
• Qual é o horário do voo? = What is the flight time / What time is the flight?

So even though English uses what, Portuguese often uses qual é in this kind of question.

Why is é included? Is it the verb to be?

Yes. É is the he/she/it form of ser (to be) in the present tense.

So the structure is literally:

• Qual = what / which
• é = is
• o horário do voo = the flight’s time / the time of the flight

A very literal translation would be:

• What is the time of the flight?

What does horário mean exactly? Is it the same as hora?