Breakdown of Hoje à noite eu vou assistir a um filme curto.
Questions & Answers about Hoje à noite eu vou assistir a um filme curto.
The grave accent (à) in à noite marks a crase, which is the fusion of two a’s:
- preposition a (to / at / on)
- feminine article a (the)
So underlyingly it’s a + a noite → à noite.
In context, hoje à noite literally means “today in the (at the) night” / “tonight”.
You write à (with grave accent) when:
- there is a preposition a, and
- it is immediately followed by a feminine noun that takes the article a.
No crase with masculine words (ao = a + o), plural feminine (às = a + as), etc., but the idea is similar: preposition + article merging.
- Hoje à tarde is correct and very common:
- underlyingly: a + a tarde → à tarde
- Hoje à manhã is not correct in modern Portuguese.
For morning, you usually say:
- hoje de manhã (today in the morning)
- amanhã de manhã (tomorrow morning)
So:
- hoje à tarde / hoje à noite
- hoje de manhã
- hoje à noite = tonight, very clear it’s today’s night (this coming evening/night).
- esta noite also means tonight, but sounds a bit more formal or written, and is less common in everyday Brazilian speech than hoje à noite.
- à noite by itself = at night / in the evening in general, not necessarily today:
- Eu estudo à noite. = I study at night (as a habit).
So for “tonight”, Brazilians most often say hoje à noite.
In traditional / formal grammar, assistir in the sense of “to watch” is indirect transitive and requires the preposition a:
- assistir a algo = to watch something
- assistir a um filme
- assistir à TV
- assistir a um jogo
However, in everyday Brazilian speech, many people omit the preposition and say:
- assistir um filme
- assistir TV
This is very common and widely understood, but some teachers and exams consider it non-standard.
If you want to be grammatically safe, especially in writing or tests, use:
- assistir a + [thing watched] → assistir a um filme
It depends on the article:
o filme = the film (masculine singular definite article)
- a + o → ao → assistir ao filme (= watch the film)
um filme = a film / one film (masculine singular indefinite article)
- a + um does not contract → a um → assistir a um filme (= watch a film)
So:
- ao only appears with o (a + o = ao) and its plurals (a + os = aos).
- With um, you keep it separate: a um.
Yes.
Portuguese is a pro-drop language: the subject pronoun can be omitted when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- Hoje à noite vou assistir a um filme curto.
- Hoje à noite eu vou assistir a um filme curto.
Both are correct. Including eu can:
- add a bit of emphasis on I, or
- make the subject extra clear in longer sentences.
In everyday speech, you’ll hear both versions.
In modern Brazilian Portuguese, the “going to” future (ir + infinitive) is much more common than the simple future tense.
Hoje à noite eu vou assistir a um filme curto.
= natural, everyday way to say I’m going to watch / I will watch.Hoje à noite assistirei a um filme curto.
= correct, but sounds formal, literary, or stiff in Brazil.
So use eu vou assistir (or just vou assistir) in normal conversation.
Yes, in some contexts.
Using the present tense for a near future is possible, mostly when talking about scheduled / planned events:
- Hoje à noite eu assisto a um filme curto.
can mean “Tonight I’m watching a short film”, implying it’s already planned.
However, in Brazilian Portuguese, for this kind of sentence, vou assistir is usually more natural:
- Hoje à noite eu vou assistir a um filme curto.
The present-for-future construction is used more often with:
- fixed plans / timetables:
- Amanhã eu viajo. – I travel tomorrow.
- Daqui a pouco eu saio. – I’m leaving soon.
Yes. All of these are grammatical and natural:
- Hoje à noite eu vou assistir a um filme curto.
- Eu vou assistir a um filme curto hoje à noite.
- Hoje à noite vou assistir a um filme curto.
Moving hoje à noite around usually just changes emphasis or rhythm, not meaning. Putting the time expression at the beginning (Hoje à noite…) is very common and sounds natural.
In Portuguese, adjectives usually come after the noun:
- um filme curto = a short film
- um livro interessante = an interesting book
- uma música triste = a sad song
Putting the adjective before the noun can:
- sound poetic, literary, or
- slightly change the nuance (more subjective, emotional).
Curto filme is not wrong, but it sounds unusual and would usually appear only in poetic or very stylized language. In everyday speech, you say filme curto.
Both can translate as short, but they focus on different ideas:
curto = short in length / duration / extension.
- um filme curto = a short-length film, not many minutes long.
pequeno = small in size / importance / scale / amount.
- um filme pequeno could suggest a small-scale, low-budget, modest film, not necessarily short in minutes.
For “short film” in the sense of short duration, you should use curto:
- um filme curto
- um curta(-metragem) (specific word for “short film”)
Yes:
- um curta-metragem (often shortened to um curta) = a short film (as a category, usually under a certain number of minutes).
Examples:
- Hoje à noite eu vou assistir a um curta-metragem.
- Eu adoro curtas de animação.
Your original sentence with um filme curto is still fine; it just describes any film that happens to be short, without necessarily referring to the formal category “short film”.
Approximate Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation (in IPA, Rio/São Paulo style):
- Hoje → [ˈo.ʒi] (similar to “OH-zhee”)
- à noite → [a ˈnoj.tʃi] (like “ah NOY-chee”)
- eu → [eu̯] (like English “eh-oo” blended)
- vou → [vo̞w] (like “voh” with a short w at the end)
- assistir → [asiˈstiʁ] or [asiˈstʃiʁ] (depending on region; “ah-see-STEE(r)”)
- a um → [a ˈũ] (the um is nasal: like “oon” but through the nose)
- filme → [ˈfiw.mi] (like “FEEW-mee”)
- curto → [ˈkuʁ.tu] (like “KOOR-too”, with a guttural r)
Spoken naturally, many sounds link together:
- Hoje à noite eu vou assistir a um filme curto.
→ [ˈo.ʒa ˈnoj.tʃi eu̯ vo̞w asiˈstiʁ a ˈũ ˈfiw.mi ˈkuʁ.tu]
You don’t need to be perfect with the r and nasal vowels at first; they improve with exposure and practice.