Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Amanhã vou embarcar no avião às sete. - Tomorrow I will board the plane at seven.

European Portuguese often prefers the periphrastic future with ir + infinitive in spoken and informal contexts. So vou embarcar is more natural than embarcarei, which feels more formal or literary.

Why is the subject pronoun eu omitted?

Portuguese is a “pro-drop” language: verb endings already indicate the person. In vou embarcar, the ending -o tells you it’s first person singular (“I”), so eu is optional and usually left out in everyday speech.

Why do we say embarcar no avião and not just embarcar avião or embarcar ao avião?

The verb embarcar requires the preposition em to mark the vehicle you’re boarding. You then contract em + o (masculine singular) into no. You wouldn’t use a here, so ao avião is incorrect and dropping the preposition (embarcar avião) isn’t possible.

What is amanhã doing at the start of the sentence? Could it go somewhere else?

Amanhã is an adverb of time (“tomorrow”). You can place it at the beginning for emphasis (Amanhã vou…) or after the verb (Vou embarcar amanhã). Both are correct; initial position simply highlights the time.

Why do we say às sete instead of just sete? And what does às stand for?

Time expressions in Portuguese use the preposition a plus the definite article for “hours.” Since horas is feminine plural, a + as contracts to às. So às sete literally means “at the (seven) hours.”

Can we add horas after sete, as in às sete horas?

Yes. Às sete horas is perfectly correct and more explicit. In everyday speech, though, it’s common to drop horas once the article tells you it’s a time.

What other ways are there to write or say “at seven”?

Besides às sete or às sete horas, you’ll see:

Numeric form in writing: às 7h, às 07h00 or às 07:00.
In speech: you might also hear às sete em ponto (“at seven sharp”).