Breakdown of No cruzamento perto de casa, há sempre muito trânsito ao fim da tarde.
Questions & Answers about No cruzamento perto de casa, há sempre muito trânsito ao fim da tarde.
Yes. No is the contraction of the preposition em (in, at, on) + the masculine singular definite article o (the):
- em + o = no
- em + a = na
- em + os = nos
- em + as = nas
So No cruzamento literally means “in/at the junction”.
In normal speech and writing, European Portuguese almost always uses these contractions; saying em o cruzamento would sound wrong.
Yes, you can say:
- No cruzamento perto de casa, há sempre muito trânsito.
- Há sempre muito trânsito no cruzamento perto de casa.
Both are correct and mean the same thing.
The difference is just emphasis:
- Starting with No cruzamento perto de casa puts the place in focus: “At the junction near home, (there) is always a lot of traffic.”
- Starting with Há sempre muito trânsito puts the traffic situation in focus: “There’s always a lot of traffic at the junction near home.”
In European Portuguese, it’s very common to move a place or time expression to the beginning of the sentence for emphasis or style.
In Portuguese, casa behaves a bit specially when it means “home” in a general sense.
- perto de casa = near (my/our/your/etc.) home, home in general
→ neutral, what is usually said - perto da casa = near the house (a specific physical building) → sounds like you’re talking about a particular building as an object, not just “home”
So in everyday speech about where you live, people say:
- perto de casa
- ao pé de casa (very common in Portugal, literally “by the foot of home”)
Perto da casa is grammatically correct, but would normally be used if you’re clearly treating the house as a specific building (e.g. on a map or in a story about different houses).
Yes, you can say both:
- perto de casa
- perto da minha casa
Both mean “near my house / near my home.”
Differences in feel:
- perto de casa
- Shorter, more natural in conversation.
- The possessor (my/our/etc.) is understood from context.
- perto da minha casa
- A bit more explicit and heavier.
- Used when you really want to specify my house, for example if you’re contrasting with someone else’s:
- Perto da tua casa não há nada, mas perto da minha casa há imensos cafés.
In European Portuguese, da minha casa (with the article a) is the normal pattern.
de minha casa (without the article) is much more typical of Brazilian Portuguese or more formal/written style.
Há is the 3rd person singular present form of the verb haver, used impersonally to mean “there is / there are”.
- Há sempre muito trânsito = “There is always a lot of traffic.”
Important points:
- Haver in this “there is/are” sense is always singular in modern usage:
- Há um carro. – There is one car.
- Há muitos carros. – There are many cars.
(not Hão muitos carros – that’s wrong)
- It doesn’t take a normal subject; the thing that “exists” comes after it.
So even if there is a plural (e.g. muitos carros), the verb stays in the há form.
In Portugal:
- há is the standard, neutral way to say “there is / there are”
- Há sempre muito trânsito.
- tem used as “there is/there are” is:
- Very common in Brazil.
- In Portugal, it sounds informal and more regional/colloquial:
- Tem muita gente aqui hoje. – people will understand, but it’s not the most neutral Lisbon standard.
- existe / existem is more formal or emphatic:
- Existe muito trânsito. – Correct, but sounds formal / bookish in this context.
- More natural with abstract or specific things:
- Existem várias soluções possíveis.
So for everyday speech in Portugal about traffic, há is the best choice: Há sempre muito trânsito.
Because trânsito (traffic) is treated as a mass noun here: it refers to traffic in general, not to individual “units” of traffic.
- muito trânsito = a lot of traffic (high volume, heavy traffic)
- muitos trânsitos would sound wrong in this sense.
You could make trânsito plural in very specific, technical contexts (different kinds of traffic, different traffic flows), but in day‑to‑day language about cars on the road, it’s singular and you quantify it with:
- muito trânsito – a lot of traffic
- pouco trânsito – little traffic
- imenso trânsito – loads of traffic
- trânsito intenso / denso – heavy/dense traffic (more formal/descriptive)
In European Portuguese:
- trânsito is the normal everyday word for traffic on the roads:
- Há muito trânsito na cidade.
- tráfego tends to be:
- More technical or formal (e.g. tráfego rodoviário, tráfego aéreo).
- Used a lot in other contexts: tráfego de droga (drug trafficking), tráfego de dados (data traffic).
So in this sentence about cars near your house, trânsito is exactly the right, natural word.
Literally:
- ao fim da tarde = “at the end of the afternoon”
Here ao is a contraction:
- a + o = ao
You can normally say either:
- ao fim da tarde
- no fim da tarde (em + o = no)
Both are used in European Portuguese and both can mean “towards the end of the afternoon / late afternoon.”
Nuance (very slight):
- ao fim da tarde
- Quite idiomatic; often suggests a period approaching the end of the afternoon.
- no fim da tarde
- Can sound a bit more like the moment or period “at the end of the afternoon.”
In practice, they overlap heavily, and in your sentence either would be acceptable.
Because casa has special behaviour when it means “home,” while tarde doesn’t.
- de casa (no article) → when casa = “home” in a general, familiar way:
- Vou para casa. – I’m going home.
- Perto de casa. – Near home.
- da tarde (de + a) → just the normal rule: tarde is a regular noun; we say a tarde (“the afternoon”), so:
- no fim da tarde
- ao fim da tarde
If you used casa as a normal building, you’d also use an article:
- Perto da casa branca. – Near the white house.
- No fim da tarde, chego à casa nova. – At the end of the afternoon, I arrive at the new house. (here it’s a building, not “home” in the abstract sense)
It’s not strictly mandatory, but it’s recommended and very natural.
No cruzamento perto de casa is a longish adverbial phrase of place placed at the start of the sentence. In both Portuguese and English, we usually separate such fronted phrases with a comma:
- No cruzamento perto de casa, há sempre muito trânsito ao fim da tarde.
You could technically write it without the comma:
- No cruzamento perto de casa há sempre muito trânsito ao fim da tarde.
It wouldn’t be “wrong,” but the version with the comma looks and feels more standard and easier to read.