Breakdown of O relógio da sala marca cada minuto, e eu conto os minutos até o almoço.
Questions & Answers about O relógio da sala marca cada minuto, e eu conto os minutos até o almoço.
In Portuguese, the preposition de plus the feminine singular article a contracts to da:
- de + a = da
- relógio da sala = clock of the room / the room’s clock
This is showing possession or association (the clock belonging to or used in the room), not physical location.
So:
- o relógio da sala ≈ the room’s clock
- o relógio de a sala is grammatically wrong; you must use the contraction da.
Both are correct, but they mean different things:
o relógio da sala
- Literally: the clock of the room
- Implies it’s the clock that belongs to / is associated with that room (the living room clock, the classroom clock, etc.).
o relógio na sala
- Literally: the clock in the room
- Focuses on location: there is a clock located in that room (but it might not be “the room’s clock” in the same sense).
In your sentence, o relógio da sala suggests a specific, familiar clock: the one that is “the room’s clock.”
The verb marcar has several meanings, including:
- to mark
- to score (a goal)
- to schedule (a meeting)
- to set (an alarm)
- to show / indicate (time, on a clock/watch)
With clocks and watches, marcar commonly means “to show / to indicate” time:
- O relógio marca duas horas. – The clock shows two o’clock.
- Meu relógio está marcando 3 e meia. – My watch is showing 3:30.
In your sentence, marca cada minuto = indicates every minute / ticks every minute.
The word cada (each / every) in Portuguese is always followed by a singular noun:
- cada minuto – each minute
- cada dia – every day
- cada pessoa – each person
You never pluralize the noun after cada:
- ✅ cada minuto
- ❌ cada minutos
If you want a plural idea similar to “all the minutes,” you would use something like todos os minutos, not cada minutos.
Both are grammatically possible, but there’s a nuance:
eu conto os minutos
- More specific and a bit more idiomatic here.
- Suggests you are counting the specific minutes that pass until lunch; it feels more concrete and intentional.
eu conto minutos
- Grammatically fine, but sounds more generic or incomplete, like “I count minutes” as an activity, not necessarily the minutes until lunch.
In contexts like waiting impatiently for something, Brazilian Portuguese very often uses the article:
- Conto os minutos até as férias. – I count the minutes until vacation.
Contar has two main common meanings:
to count (numbers, minutes, etc.)
- Eu conto os minutos. – I count the minutes.
- Ela contou até cem. – She counted to one hundred.
to tell / narrate (a story, joke, secret)
- Vou contar uma história. – I’m going to tell a story.
- Ele me contou um segredo. – He told me a secret.
In your sentence the meaning is clearly “to count”, because the object is os minutos.
In Brazilian Portuguese, you normally use the definite article with almoço when referring to the meal event:
- o almoço – the lunch (the lunch meal)
So:
- até o almoço = until lunch (time) comes
Saying até almoço (without the article) is not natural in Brazilian Portuguese in this sense.
Compare:
- Vou esperar até o almoço. – I’ll wait until lunch.
- Depois do almoço, eu volto. – After lunch, I’ll come back.
The preposition até + article o does not contract (unlike de + o = do), so you keep até o separate.
Both marca and conto are in the present indicative tense, used here for a general, habitual action.
marcar (to mark, to show)
- stem: marc-
- ele/ela/isso marca – he/she/it marks / shows
- In the sentence: O relógio da sala marca... – The clock shows...
contar (to count / to tell)
- stem: cont-
- eu conto – I count / I tell
- In the sentence: eu conto os minutos – I count the minutes.
This is the normal -ar verb conjugation in the present:
- eu – -o → conto, falo, estudo
- ele/ela – -a → conta, fala, estuda
In Portuguese, nouns have grammatical gender that you mostly just have to memorize:
- o relógio – masculine (the clock)
- a sala – feminine (the room)
The gender affects the articles and contractions:
- o relógio (not a relógio)
- a sala (not o sala)
- de + a sala = da sala
- de + o relógio = do relógio
So in your sentence:
- O relógio da sala
- O matches masculine relógio
- da is de + a (matches feminine sala)
The comma before e is used to separate two clauses that each have their own subject and verb:
- Clause 1: O relógio da sala marca cada minuto
- Clause 2: eu conto os minutos até o almoço
In Brazilian Portuguese, it is very common and considered correct to use a comma here to make the separation clear:
- O relógio da sala marca cada minuto, e eu conto os minutos até o almoço.
You might see it written without the comma in informal writing, but with the comma is stylistically better and fully correct.
Yes, you could say:
- Eu conto cada minuto até o almoço.
Differences in nuance:
eu conto os minutos
- Focuses on all the minutes as a group that pass until lunch.
- Very idiomatic when you’re impatient: I count the minutes until lunch.
eu conto cada minuto
- Emphasizes each individual minute, often suggesting that time is passing very slowly or that you’re very aware of every moment.
- Slightly more expressive or poetic.
Both are correct; the original choice (os minutos) is the more neutral/typical phrasing.
Pronunciation tips (Brazilian Portuguese):
- eu – sounds like “eh-oo,” but often glides to something close to [ew].
- conto – roughly “KON-too” (stressed on CON; the t is a clear [t] in most of Brazil, not “tch”).
- os – often pronounced close to [us] or [us͡] in natural speech.
- minutos – mi-NU-tus, stress on NU.
In fast, natural speech, you may hear some linking:
- conto os minutos → something like “KON-tus mi-NU-tus”
The o in conto and os can blend, making it sound like one syllable: contos (but spelled separately).
So it flows approximately as:
- eu KON-tus mi-NU-tus