Eu quero escutar música antes de trabalhar.

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Breakdown of Eu quero escutar música antes de trabalhar.

• querer: to want
• trabalhar: to work
• de: of
• escutar: to listen
• a música: the music
• antes: before

Questions & Answers about Eu quero escutar música antes de trabalhar.

Is there a difference between escutar and ouvir in Portuguese?

Both can mean “to listen” or “to hear”. However, escutar often implies giving active attention to what you’re hearing, while ouvir may simply indicate perceiving a sound. In many everyday situations, they can be used interchangeably without a big change in meaning.

Why don’t we say “antes de eu trabalhar” here?

You can say “antes de eu trabalhar”, and it’s grammatically correct. It literally means “before I work.” In everyday speech, though, Portuguese speakers usually just use the infinitive after antes de, e.g., “antes de trabalhar”, which more simply conveys “before working.” The subject (eu) is understood from context.

Why do we have de in “antes de trabalhar”?

In Portuguese, certain expressions like antes de (before), depois de (after), and em vez de (instead of) are followed by the preposition de plus the infinitive of the verb. It’s a fixed construction indicating when something happens relative to that action.

Why do we say “escutar música” instead of “escutar a música”?

In English, “music” often appears with “the” or “some” to specify quantity or particularity (“listen to music” vs. “listen to the music”). In Portuguese, we often omit the article when talking about activities or things in a general sense. Saying “escutar música” is like “to listen to music (in general).”

Why do we use “Eu quero escutar” instead of just “Quero escutar”?

Portuguese allows you to drop the pronoun eu (“I”) because the verb ending already indicates who the subject is. However, adding eu can bring a little emphasis or clarity to the sentence. So “Quero escutar música antes de trabalhar.” is perfectly correct and equally natural. Including eu is more explicit but not mandatory.