Breakdown of Eu vou visitar minha avó amanhã.
eu
I
minha
my
amanhã
tomorrow
ir
to go
visitar
to visit
a avó
the grandmother
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Questions & Answers about Eu vou visitar minha avó amanhã.
Why use vou visitar instead of visitarei?
Portuguese has two main ways to talk about the future of an action:
- Simple future (futuro do presente): visitarei, visitarás, visitará…
- Periphrastic future (futuro perifrástico): ir (conjugated) + infinitive, e.g. vou visitar, vai visitar, vamos visitar…
The periphrastic future is far more common in everyday spoken Brazilian Portuguese, while the simple future often feels more formal or literary.
Is it necessary to include eu in Eu vou visitar…?
Not strictly. Portuguese is a “pro-drop” language, meaning you can omit subject pronouns because the verb ending shows who’s doing the action.
- With pronoun: Eu vou visitar minha avó amanhã. (adds emphasis or clarity)
- Without pronoun: Vou visitar minha avó amanhã. (perfectly natural in conversation)
Why is it minha avó and not meu avó?
Possessive adjectives must agree in gender (and sometimes number) with the noun they modify:
- avó (grandmother) is feminine → minha avó
- avô (grandfather) is masculine → meu avô
What does the accent on avó signify?
The acute accent (´) on ó in avó marks an open vowel /ɔ/ and distinguishes avó (grandmother) from avô (grandfather), which has a circumflex (^) on the ô to mark a closed vowel /o/.
Why does amanhã have a tilde (~) and what sound does it represent?
The tilde indicates nasalization of the vowel:
- ã is pronounced [ɐ̃] (a nasal “uh”)
Without the tilde, the vowel wouldn’t be nasal, so amanha would be mispronounced.
Can I say Eu vou a visitar minha avó amanhã with a preposition a?
No. When you use ir + verb (meaning “to go do something”), you never insert a. The structure is simply ir (conjugated) + infinitive:
- Correct: vou visitar
- Incorrect: vou a visitar
What’s the difference between vou visitar minha avó and vou à praia?
- Vou visitar minha avó uses ir + infinitive to express “going to do an action” (visit). No preposition is needed.
- Vou à praia uses ir
- a
- definite article a (contraction à) + noun to express “going to a place.” Here praia is a destination, not an action.
- a
Can I say Eu vou visitar a minha avó amanhã with the article a before minha?
Yes. In Brazilian Portuguese, both are acceptable:
- vou visitar minha avó (more common, dropping the article)
- vou visitar a minha avó (also correct, slightly more formal or emphatic)