Breakdown of Hoje faz sol, mas vou ficar em casa a estudar português.
Questions & Answers about Hoje faz sol, mas vou ficar em casa a estudar português.
In European Portuguese, several verbs can be used in weather expressions, and fazer is one of the most common:
- Faz sol. = It’s sunny. (literally: It makes sun.)
- Faz frio. = It’s cold.
- Faz calor. = It’s hot.
You do not say é sol or tem sol in European Portuguese in this context. More natural alternatives to faz sol are:
- Está sol. = It’s sunny.
- Há sol. = There is sun / It’s sunny.
All of these (especially faz sol and está sol) are idiomatic and very common. You just need to memorize the weather patterns:
- Faz sol / Está sol / Há sol. – It’s sunny.
- Está a chover / Chove. – It’s raining.
- Está vento / Há vento. – It’s windy.
- Faz frio / Está frio. – It’s cold.
So faz sol is simply one standard way to talk about sunny weather; it doesn’t translate word‑for‑word into English.
Portuguese does not use a dummy subject like English “it” in weather sentences.
- English: It is sunny.
- Portuguese: Faz sol. (literally: Makes sun.) – no subject
The verb is in 3rd person singular (faz), but there is no pronoun. You never add ele in this type of sentence. These are called impersonal verbs in Portuguese. Other examples:
- Chove muito. – It rains a lot / It’s raining a lot.
- Está calor. – It’s hot.
- Nevou ontem. – It snowed yesterday.
So Hoje faz sol is complete by itself; adding ele would be wrong here.
Yes, Eu vou ficar em casa a estudar português is grammatically correct, but in Portuguese it’s very common to drop the subject pronoun when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- Vou ficar already clearly means I am going to stay because:
- vou is 1st person singular of ir (eu vou, tu vais, ele vai, …).
So:
- Vou ficar em casa. – natural, everyday Portuguese
- Eu vou ficar em casa. – also correct, but eu is usually only added for:
- contrast or emphasis: Eu vou ficar, tu é que vais sair.
- clarity in ambiguous contexts.
In neutral sentences like this, leaving out eu is more natural.
Vou ficar is ir (present) + infinitive, the normal way to express a future intention or a near future:
- Vou ficar em casa. – I’m going to stay (at) home. / I will stay home.
If you say Fico em casa, that’s simple present and is usually:
- a habitual statement:
- Ao fim de semana, fico em casa. – At the weekend, I stay home.
- or a scheduled/decided plan (but less “immediate” or intentional than vou ficar).
So:
- Hoje vou ficar em casa. – I’ve decided, this is my plan for today.
- Hoje fico em casa. – can also work, but feels more like a simple statement of fact, or something already known / established, without the same “I’m going to” feeling.
In speech, vou + infinitive is by far the most common way to talk about the (especially near) future.
You’re right: ficar is a very versatile verb. In this sentence, it clearly means to stay:
- vou ficar em casa – I’m going to stay at home.
Common meanings of ficar:
to stay / remain
- Vou ficar aqui. – I’m going to stay here.
- Ficámos em casa. – We stayed at home.
to become / get (a new state)
- Fiquei cansado. – I got tired.
- Ela ficou triste. – She became sad.
to be located / end up (somewhere)
- O hotel fica perto da praia. – The hotel is (located) near the beach.
- Ficámos longe do palco. – We ended up far from the stage.
In your sentence, the presence of em casa makes the “stay/remain” meaning the natural one.
Casa behaves a bit specially in Portuguese when it means home (not just “a building/house”).
em casa = at home
- No article: em casa, not em a casa.
- If you say na casa (em + a = na), you’re usually talking about a specific house/building, not “home” in general.
- Estou em casa. – I’m at home (my home).
- Estou na casa do João. – I’m in João’s house.
With movement verbs (go/come), you also normally drop the article when you mean “home”:
- Vou para casa. – I’m going home.
- Cheguei a casa. – I arrived home.
If you said à casa (a + a = à), it would be unusual and would sound more like going to a particular house (e.g. to someone’s house), not the general idea of “home”.
So here ficar em casa = to stay at home, which is exactly what we want.
A estudar is a + infinitive, and in European Portuguese this is a very common way to express an ongoing action, often similar to English “-ing” after verbs like stay, be, go, come.
- ficar a estudar ≈ to stay studying
- estar a estudar ≈ to be studying
- andar a estudar ≈ to go around studying / to be (busy) studying
In your sentence:
- vou ficar em casa a estudar português
≈ I’m going to stay at home studying Portuguese.
Compare:
- Estou a estudar português. – I’m studying Portuguese.
- Ela ficou a trabalhar até tarde. – She stayed working until late.
So the a is not the future “to” of English; it’s part of this special “a + infinitive” structure used especially in European Portuguese to talk about continuous/ongoing actions.
Estudando is the gerúndio (gerund) form, and it’s very common in Brazilian Portuguese. In European Portuguese, for ongoing actions, the preferred form is almost always a + infinitive:
European Portuguese:
- Estou a estudar. – I’m studying.
- Vou ficar em casa a estudar português.
Brazilian Portuguese (more typical):
- Estou estudando.
- Vou ficar em casa estudando português.
In Portugal, estudando is grammatically correct but sounds formal, bookish, or just strange in everyday speech in many contexts. So for European Portuguese, you should actively practice:
- estar a + infinitive
- ficar a + infinitive
- andar a + infinitive
and avoid using estudando in casual conversation.
Both are possible, but the version without the article is very common and perfectly natural here.
With names of languages in Portuguese:
- After verbs like falar, estudar, aprender, saber, the definite article is often dropped:
- Estudo português. – I study Portuguese.
- Falo inglês. – I speak English.
- Quero aprender alemão. – I want to learn German.
Adding the article is also grammatically correct and sometimes used, often with a slightly more specific or “school subject” feel:
- Estudo o português de Portugal. – I study European Portuguese.
- Gosto do português. – I like (the) Portuguese (language).
So in your sentence:
- … a estudar português. – very natural, general “studying Portuguese”.
- … a estudar o português. – also correct, maybe a bit more “the Portuguese language (as a subject)”.
For a simple, everyday sentence, a estudar português without the article is the most typical choice.
In Portuguese, names of languages (and adjectives of nationality) are written with a lowercase initial letter:
- português, inglês, francês, espanhol, alemão
- um aluno português – a Portuguese student
- uma professora inglesa – an English teacher
Proper names of countries, cities, etc. are capitalized:
- Portugal, Brasil, França, Espanha, Alemanha, Lisboa, Porto
So:
- a estudar português – studying Portuguese (language name → lowercase)
- But at the beginning of a sentence you’d write: Português because all sentences start with a capital.
This is different from English, where languages and nationalities are capitalized.
Yes, you should put a comma before mas when it means “but” linking two clauses.
- Hoje faz sol, mas vou ficar em casa.
- Quero sair, mas tenho de trabalhar.
Mas is a coordinating conjunction like English but, and Portuguese punctuation norms call for a comma before it in sentences like this.
You normally don’t put a comma after mas in this simple structure:
- … , mas vou ficar em casa. ✅
- … , mas, vou ficar em casa. ❌ (here the second comma is unnecessary)
So the punctuation in Hoje faz sol, mas vou ficar em casa a estudar português. is exactly what you want.