Eu preciso trabalhar no sábado.

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Breakdown of Eu preciso trabalhar no sábado.

• precisar de: to need
• trabalhar: to work
• o sábado: the Saturday

Questions & Answers about Eu preciso trabalhar no sábado.

Why is it no sábado and not something like em sábado or aos sábados?

In Portuguese, no sábado specifically refers to "on Saturday" (a particular Saturday). If you say aos sábados, it indicates a recurring action every Saturday. Meanwhile, using em sábado alone is not standard. No is a contraction of em + o, so no sábado literally means "in the Saturday," but idiomatically, it translates to "on Saturday" when referring to a single, specific Saturday.

Why do we say preciso trabalhar and not preciso de trabalhar?

In Portuguese from Portugal, you might hear people say preciso de trabalhar, but in Brazilian Portuguese it's most common to say preciso trabalhar. Both forms are technically correct, though the Brazilian Portuguese variant typically drops the de.

Is Eu preciso trabalhar used often in everyday speech, or is there a more common way to say it?

Eu preciso trabalhar is perfectly normal in everyday Brazilian Portuguese. Another common equivalent would be Eu tenho que trabalhar ("I have to work"). Both convey the same meaning.

How do you pronounce the -r in trabalhar and the r in preciso in Brazilian Portuguese?

In most parts of Brazil, the final -r in trabalhar is typically pronounced as an [h] sound (a throaty sound), so it might sound like "trabalhá." The r in preciso has the same soft r sound as in English words like "three" or "frustrate," though the exact pronunciation can vary regionally.

Why is the stress on sá in sábado?

In Portuguese, sábado has the stress on the second syllable sá, so it’s pronounced "SAH-bah-do." The accent mark (á) tells you where to put the stress. This is just the standard accent rule in Portuguese to specify emphasis on that particular syllable.