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Eu quase não durmo à noite.

Eu quase não durmo à noite.
I hardly sleep at night.
FromLesson 26inHardcore Portuguese (Portugal)

Breakdown of Eu quase não durmo à noite.

eu
I
a noite
the night
dormir
to sleep
à
at
quase não
hardly

Questions & Answers about Eu quase não durmo à noite.

Why is não placed after quase? Can I say não quase durmo?
In Portuguese, when you want to express “hardly” or “almost not,” you use the fixed phrase quase não + verb. The negation particle não must follow quase. Saying não quase durmo is ungrammatical. If you want a shorter alternative, you can also say mal durmo, but you cannot invert quase and não.
What exactly does quase não mean? How is it different from durmo pouco?

quase não literally means “almost not” and implies that something happens barely or nearly never. durmo pouco means “I sleep a little,” which is less extreme. So:

  • quase não durmo = I hardly sleep (almost zero sleep)
  • durmo pouco = I sleep a small amount but not necessarily almost zero
What is durmo? Which tense and person is that?
durmo is the first-person singular (eu) present indicative of the verb dormir. It means “I sleep.” In Portuguese you often drop the subject pronoun eu, since the verb ending -o already shows you are talking about yourself.
Why do we write à noite with a grave accent? What does à stand for?
à is the result of contracting the preposition a (“at”) with the feminine singular definite article a (“the”). Because noite is feminine, a + a noite becomes à noite, meaning “at night.” The grave accent (crase) marks that contraction.
Can I use de noite instead of à noite?
Yes. Both à noite and de noite mean “at night.” In European Portuguese à noite is more common in formal speech, while de noite is also perfectly acceptable and is very frequent in Brazilian Portuguese or informal contexts. The difference in meaning is minimal.
Is the pronoun eu necessary here? What if I say Quase não durmo à noite?
The pronoun eu is optional. Portuguese is a pro-drop language, so Quase não durmo à noite sounds perfectly natural and means the same as Eu quase não durmo à noite.
Could I rephrase it as Eu quase durmo à noite? What would that mean?
No. Eu quase durmo à noite means “I almost sleep at night,” i.e. you come close to sleeping but don’t. It’s the opposite idea. To say “I hardly sleep,” you must use quase não durmo, not quase durmo.
Why not say Eu durmo quase nada à noite instead?
Eu durmo quase nada à noite is grammatically correct and would be understood as “I sleep almost nothing at night,” but it’s less idiomatic than Eu quase não durmo à noite. The latter is the most natural way to stress that you barely sleep at all.
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