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Questions & Answers about Neve cai devagar à noite.
Why isn’t there an article before neve? In English you’d say “Snow falls…”, but in Portuguese many sentences start with a neve.
Portuguese allows you to omit the definite article before abstract or generic nouns when speaking generally. Saying Neve cai devagar à noite is like the English “Snow falls slowly at night.” If you include the article, A neve cai devagar à noite, it’s also correct—just a slightly different stylistic choice.
Why is the verb cai (falls) used instead of a continuous form like está caindo (is falling)?
In European Portuguese the simple present (cai) covers habitual facts and sometimes ongoing actions. To stress an action in progress you can use estar a + infinitive:
A neve está a cair devagar à noite.
In Brazilian Portuguese speakers more commonly say A neve está caindo devagar à noite. But cai by itself is perfectly natural to describe snow falling generally.
What does devagar mean, and why not devagarmente?
Devagar is an adverb meaning “slowly.” Some Portuguese adverbs use the -mente suffix (e.g. lento → lentamente), but devagar is already a fixed adverb. Devagarmente is archaic and rarely used. You could also say lentamente if you want, but devagar is more colloquial.
Why does à noite have a grave accent on the à?
The grave accent marks the contraction of the preposition a (“at”) with the feminine definite article a (“the”), so a + a = à. À noite literally means “at the night,” i.e. “at night.” Without the accent, a noite would simply be “the night” without any “at.”
Can I say de noite instead of à noite?
Yes. De noite means “by night” or “during the night,” while à noite often pinpoints “at night” as a time frame. In many contexts they are interchangeable, though de noite can sound a bit more like “at night in general,” and à noite more like “tonight/in the nighttime period.”
Why doesn’t the sentence use a subject pronoun like ela for “it”?
Portuguese is a pro-drop language: you normally omit subject pronouns because the verb ending already indicates who or what you’re talking about. Adding ela would be redundant and misleading (it would sound like “She falls slowly at night”). You simply say Neve cai devagar à noite.
Can I invert the word order? For example, À noite, neve cai devagar?
Absolutely. Portuguese word order is fairly flexible. All of these are correct:
• Neve cai devagar à noite. (neutral S-V-adv.)
• À noite, (a) neve cai devagar. (time first)
• Devagar, (a) neve cai à noite. (manner first)
Including the article a neve is optional, as mentioned.
Why is neve feminine?
In Portuguese, many nouns ending in -e can be masculine or feminine; their gender must simply be memorized. Neve is feminine, so its definite article is a (hence the contraction à when paired with a).
Could I use the adjective lento instead of the adverb devagar?
No, you need an adverb to modify a verb. Lento is an adjective and would modify a noun, not the action. You could say lentamente (“slowly”), which is lento + -mente, but you cannot say Neve cai lenta, which would weirdly describe the snow itself as “slow” rather than the manner of falling.