Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Brazil): Nós temos ido ao cinema e ao museu quase todo mês; temos assistido a muitos filmes. - We have been going to the movie theater and to the museum almost every month; we have watched many movies.

So nós temos ido literally is “we have gone,” but in Brazilian Portuguese this tense normally expresses an action that has repeatedly happened or been happening over a period up to now.

In practice, nós temos ido ao cinema e ao museu quase todo mês is best understood as:
“We have been going to the movies and the museum almost every month.”

Why use temos ido instead of just vamos?

Vamos ao cinema e ao museu quase todo mês would mean “We go to the movies and the museum almost every month.”

Vamos = a regular or habitual action, a general routine
Temos ido = emphasizes that in this recent period (lately, in the last months) that habit has been in effect / has been happening repeatedly

Subtle difference:

Vamos ao cinema quase todo mês.
→ General habit: that’s just how our life is.
Temos ido ao cinema quase todo mês.
→ Focus on the recent past up to now, like English “we’ve been going…”, often implying this is something you started or noticed in a more limited time frame.

How is the Portuguese present perfect (temos ido) different from the English “have gone / have been going”?

In Brazilian Portuguese, the present perfect (ter + past participle) is usually used for repeated or ongoing actions up to now, often with words like sempre, ultimamente, todos os dias, todo mês.

Temos ido ao cinema quase todo mês.
≈ “We have been going to the cinema almost every month.”

But in English, “have gone” can easily refer to a single completed action in an unspecified time:

English: “I’ve gone to Paris (once in my life).”
Portuguese normally wouldn’t use the present perfect for that; it would use the simple past:
- Eu já fui a Paris.

So:

English present perfect = very flexible (single past action, life experience, or repeated/ongoing).
Brazilian Portuguese present perfect = mainly repeated/ongoing actions up to now, not a single event.

Why not use estamos indo instead of temos ido?

Estamos indo is the present progressive: “we are going (right now / around now).”

Estamos indo ao cinema.
→ “We are on our way to the cinema” or “We’re in the process of going.”

It focuses on the current moment or very near future.

Temos ido, on the other hand, talks about a pattern over time, not what is happening this exact moment:

Temos ido ao cinema quase todo mês.
→ Our behavior in the recent past up to now has been: we go almost every month.

So:

Estamos indo = ongoing action now.
Temos ido = action repeated over a span of time until now.

Why is it ao cinema and ao museu, and not no cinema or para o cinema?

Ao is the contraction of a + o (“to + the” / “at + the”):

a (preposition “to / at”) + o (masculine singular “the”) → ao

In this sentence, ao marks movement/direction:

ir ao cinema = to go to the cinema
ir ao museu = to go to the museum

Other options:

no cinema / no museu = em + o (“in/at the cinema/museum”)
- Emphasizes location, not movement.
- Estamos no cinema. = “We are at the cinema.”
para o cinema / para o museu = also “to the cinema/museum”
- More generally directional; very common in speech.
- Vamos para o cinema. is also fine and natural.

In set phrases about going to certain places (cinema, theater, doctor, etc.), ir ao is very idiomatic:

ir ao cinema, ao teatro, ao médico, ao supermercado, etc.

Why is it temos assistido a muitos filmes and not temos assistido muitos filmes?

When assistir means “to watch” (a film, a show, a game), in careful/standard Brazilian Portuguese it is normally followed by the preposition a:

assistir a um filme = to watch a movie
assistir à peça = to watch the play
assistir a muitos filmes = to watch many movies

So in the sentence:

temos assistido a muitos filmes
→ “we have been watching many films”

Grammar pattern:

assistir (a) + thing watched

Leaving out a (assistir muitos filmes) is very common in speech, but many grammar books and teachers still mark assistir a as the “correct” form in this meaning.

But I’ve heard Brazilians say assistir filme without a. Is assistir a really necessary?

In everyday spoken Brazilian Portuguese, you will often hear:

assistir filme / assistir TV / assistir jogo

So you’ll hear both:

assistir a um filme (with a) – more formal / “correct”
assistir um filme / assistir filme (without a) – very common in speech

If you’re aiming for standard written Portuguese or exams, it’s safer to use assistir a:

temos assistido a muitos filmes

But to understand real-life speech, you need to recognize and accept both patterns.

Can we omit nós and just say Temos ido ao cinema…?

Yes. Portuguese is a pro‑drop language: the subject pronoun is often omitted because the verb ending already shows the person:

Nós temos ido ao cinema…
Temos ido ao cinema…

Both mean the same thing. The context will usually make it clear that temos = we.

In Brazilian Portuguese, people actually use a gente more often than nós in speech:

A gente tem ido ao cinema e ao museu quase todo mês; tem assistido a muitos filmes.

So you’ll see three options:

Nós temos ido… (more formal/neutral)
Temos ido… (no pronoun, still formal/neutral)
A gente tem ido… (very common, more colloquial)

What’s the difference between quase todo mês and quase todos os meses?

Both can be translated as “almost every month.”

quase todo mês
- Literally “almost the whole month,” but idiomatically “almost every month.”
- Slightly more compact and very common in speech.
- Emphasizes the frequency in a general way.
quase todos os meses
- Literally “almost all (the) months.”
- Sounds a bit more explicit, sometimes slightly more formal.
- Emphasizes each month as a separate item in a series.

Meaning difference is minimal; in many contexts they’re interchangeable. In this sentence, quase todo mês just sounds a bit more natural and flowing.

Why is there a semicolon (;) instead of a comma or a period?

The semicolon in:

…quase todo mês; temos assistido a muitos filmes.

links two closely related clauses:

Nós temos ido ao cinema e ao museu quase todo mês
temos assistido a muitos filmes

They are very connected ideas: because we’ve been going to the cinema and museum a lot, we’ve been watching many films. A semicolon:

Shows a stronger break than a comma,
But a tighter connection than a full stop.

You could also write:

Nós temos ido ao cinema e ao museu quase todo mês. Temos assistido a muitos filmes.

That is also correct. The choice is stylistic, not grammatical.

How would this sentence likely sound in more casual spoken Brazilian Portuguese?

A very natural, spoken version might be:

A gente tem ido no cinema e no museu quase todo mês e tem assistido a muitos filmes.

Changes you see:

A gente instead of nós (more colloquial “we”)
tem ido instead of temos ido (because the verb agrees with a gente → a gente tem)
no cinema / no museu (em + o) instead of ao cinema / ao museu – very common in speech for “go to”
Often the semicolon disappears in speech: just …mês e tem assistido…

You could also hear people avoid the present perfect entirely:

A gente vai no cinema e no museu quase todo mês e assiste a muitos filmes.

Same idea, using the simple present to express a frequent habit.

What are the infinitives and past participles of ir and assistir, and how are they used here?

Ir = “to go”
- Infinitive: ir
- Past participle: ido
- Used here in the present perfect:
  - temos ido = temos (present of ter) + ido (past participle of ir)
Assistir = “to watch” / “to attend”
- Infinitive: assistir
- Regular past participle: assistido
- Used here in the present perfect:
  - temos assistido = temos
    - assistido

Pattern:

ter (present) + past participle → present perfect
- (nós) temos ido…
- (nós) temos assistido…

Are there any pronunciation points I should watch for in this sentence?

A few key ones:

Nós
- Nasal vowel; sounds like “nohss” (with the vowel nasalized), not like English “nose”.
temos
- Stress on the first syllable: TÊ‑mos.
ido
- Sounds like “EE-doo”, both vowels clear.
ao
- Sounds like one syllable, similar to English “ow” in “cow”.
mês
- Stress on mês (only syllable); the ê is a closed e, like the vowel in English “say” but shorter.
assistido
- Stress on ti: a‑sis‑TI‑do.
filmes
- fi like “fee” (short), l clear, mes like “mees”; stress on fil: FEEW‑mees (the l influences the vowel slightly).

Focusing on nasal sounds (nós, the “-m” in cinema, etc.) and word stress will make your pronunciation sound much more natural.