Breakdown of O porto fica cheio de barcos de pesca de madrugada.
de
of
ficar
to become
cheio
full
o porto
the harbour
o barco de pesca
the fishing boat
a madrugada
the dawn
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Questions & Answers about O porto fica cheio de barcos de pesca de madrugada.
Why is the verb fica used here instead of é or está?
In Portuguese, ficar often conveys a resulting state or change (to become, to end up).
- O porto fica cheio… suggests “the port ends up / becomes full.”
- O porto é cheio… would sound odd, as ser describes permanent characteristics.
- O porto está cheio… simply states a temporary condition, but without the nuance of “turning into” that ficar provides.
What exactly does de madrugada mean?
De madrugada refers to the very early hours of the day—typically from around midnight until sunrise.
- It is earlier than de manhã (which starts at sunrise and goes until noon).
- You might translate it as “in the pre-dawn hours” or “in the dead of night.”
Why is cheio followed by de and not com, em or da?
After cheio, the standard preposition for expressing “filled with” is de:
- cheio de água, cheio de gente, cheio de barcos.
Using com (“full with”) is possible in colloquial speech but less idiomatic.
You never say cheio da here unless you mean “full of the” specific items: - cheio dos barcos would imply those exact boats you already know about.
Could we use barcos pesqueiros instead of barcos de pesca?
- Barcos de pesca is the most common, literal way to say “fishing boats.”
- Pesqueiro can be an adjective, but in Portugal it often refers to a fishing ground or sector, not the vessel itself.
So if you say barcos pesqueiros, a Portuguese speaker might find it unusual or ambiguous.
Why is there no article before barcos de pesca (“cheio de barcos de pesca”)?
After cheio de we typically omit any article when we mean “lots of X in general”:
- cheio de turistas, not cheio de os turistas.
Adding an article (dos barcos de pesca) would restrict the meaning to “full of those particular fishing boats you and I know about.”
Could I replace de madrugada with ao amanhecer or de manhã?
Yes, but the nuance changes:
- de madrugada = between midnight and sunrise.
- ao amanhecer = around sunrise.
- de manhã = roughly from sunrise until noon.
So choosing another phrase shifts the time window you’re describing.
How do I know o porto (harbor) isn’t referring to the city Porto?
Context and capitalization make the difference:
- Lowercase o porto means “the harbour.”
- Uppercase Porto is Portugal’s city (often preceded by o in speech: “Vou ao Porto”).
Since our sentence starts O porto fica…, the lowercase porto points to the dock/harbour.
Does using fica cheio de imply this is just a temporary situation?
Yes. Ficar with a descriptive adjective usually highlights a state that results from some action or condition and is not permanent.
Here, “the harbour becomes full of fishing boats at dawn,” implying later it might empty again.
Why is cheio masculine and not cheia in this sentence?
Adjectives in Portuguese agree in gender and number with the noun they modify.
- Porto is masculine, so you use cheio.
If you said a doca fica cheia…, the adjective would turn feminine because a doca is feminine.