Breakdown of Eu chego à casa do Pedro mais tarde.
Questions & Answers about Eu chego à casa do Pedro mais tarde.
In Portuguese (including European Portuguese), the present tense is often used to talk about the near or planned future, especially when there is a time expression like mais tarde, amanhã, logo, etc.
- Eu chego à casa do Pedro mais tarde.
= I arrive / I’m arriving at Pedro’s house later.
This is similar to English “I’m going to Pedro’s house later” or “I get to Pedro’s house later” in a schedule-like sense.
You can say chegarei (future simple), but in everyday European Portuguese that often sounds more formal, distant, or like a prediction rather than just a plan:
- Chegarei à casa do Pedro mais tarde. – Grammatically correct, but more formal/solemn in most contexts.
You can absolutely drop Eu here, and in fact Chego à casa do Pedro mais tarde is more natural in normal conversation.
Portuguese is a “pro-drop” language: subject pronouns (eu, tu, ele, etc.) are often omitted because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.
- Eu chego – first person singular is clear from -o, so Eu is not necessary.
You usually include Eu only for:
- Emphasis or contrast:
Eu chego à casa do Pedro mais tarde, mas tu chegas cedo. - Clarity, when the context is confusing or there are multiple possible subjects.
À is a contraction of two words:
- a (preposition “to/at”)
- a (definite article “the”, feminine singular)
So:
- a
- a → à
In à casa, it literally means “to the house”.
The accent (grave accent) marks this fusion (in Portuguese grammar it’s called crase). It is not stress-related; it just shows that preposition a and article a have merged.
So:
- chegar a casa = arrive (to) home (no article)
- chegar à casa do Pedro = arrive at the house of Pedro (to the house)
Not if you want to keep the article. Whenever a (preposition) comes before a (definite article, feminine), they must contract to à in standard written Portuguese.
- Preposition only: a casa (“to house/home”, no article) – no contraction.
- Preposition + article: à casa (“to the house”) – contraction is obligatory.
In à casa do Pedro, we clearly have a specific house:
- a (to) + a (the) + casa
- do Pedro
→ must be written as à casa do Pedro.
- do Pedro
Do is another contraction:
- de (of/from) + o (the, masculine singular) → do
In European Portuguese it’s very common to use a definite article with people’s names:
- o Pedro, a Maria, o João, etc.
So:
- de
- o Pedro → do Pedro
Literally: “the house of the Pedro”, even though in English we just say “Pedro’s house”.
De Pedro (without the article) is possible in some more formal or literary styles, or in fixed expressions, but do Pedro is the everyday norm in European Portuguese.
Using the definite article before personal names is very common, especially in European Portuguese:
- O Pedro chega amanhã. – Pedro arrives tomorrow.
- Vou falar com a Ana. – I’m going to speak with Ana.
So when you add the preposition de (“of”) before o Pedro, it contracts to do Pedro:
- a casa do Pedro – the house of (the) Pedro → Pedro’s house.
In English this sounds strange (“the Pedro”), but in Portuguese it’s natural. Some speakers might drop the article with names in more formal registers (e.g. casa de Pedro), but everyday European usage strongly prefers do Pedro here.
In European Portuguese, the standard pattern is:
chegar a
- place – to arrive at/to a place
- Chego à casa do Pedro. – I arrive at Pedro’s house.
- Chegámos a Lisboa às oito. – We arrived in Lisbon at eight.
chegar de
- place – to arrive from a place
- Cheguei de Paris ontem. – I arrived from Paris yesterday.
Chegar em is common and normal in many varieties of Brazilian Portuguese, but in Portugal it normally sounds non-standard or strongly Brazilian. For European Portuguese, learn chegar a (destination) and chegar de (origin).
They express different relationships with the place:
chegar à casa do Pedro – movement / arrival:
- “to arrive at Pedro’s house”
- focus on the act of getting there.
estar na casa do Pedro – location / state:
- em
- a casa → na casa
- “to be at/in Pedro’s house”
- focus on already being there.
- em
So you might say:
- Chego à casa do Pedro mais tarde, mas agora estou em casa.
I’ll arrive at Pedro’s house later, but right now I’m at home.
Yes. Mais tarde is fairly flexible in word order. These are all possible and natural:
- Chego à casa do Pedro mais tarde.
- Mais tarde chego à casa do Pedro. (a bit more emphasis on “later”)
- Chego mais tarde à casa do Pedro. (perfectly fine too)
What you usually don’t do is split mais and tarde, or put mais tarde in a place that makes the sentence hard to process. But the three options above are all normal in European Portuguese.
Chego is the first person singular of the verb chegar in the present simple:
- (eu) chego – I arrive
- (tu) chegas – you arrive (singular, informal)
- (ele / ela / você) chega – he/she/you arrive
- (nós) chegamos – we arrive
- (vocês / eles / elas) chegam – you (pl.) / they arrive
Since the subject is eu (“I”), you must use chego.
Chegar is the infinitive (“to arrive”), used after other verbs or in dictionary form, not as the main conjugated verb in this kind of sentence.
Yes:
chegar a casa (no article) usually means “to arrive home”, in a general sense – your own home, the idea of home:
- Chego a casa às sete. – I get home at seven.
chegar à casa do Pedro is specific: it’s not just “home”, it’s the house of a particular person:
- Chego à casa do Pedro mais tarde. – I’ll arrive at Pedro’s house later.
So a casa (without article) often behaves like “home” in English, while à casa do Pedro clearly points to a specific place: Pedro’s house.