Breakdown of Nós vamos ver a banda ao vivo no festival.
Questions & Answers about Nós vamos ver a banda ao vivo no festival.
Yes. In European Portuguese, the subject pronoun is often dropped when it’s clear from the verb ending.
Nós vamos ver… and Vamos ver… mean the same thing.
Using nós adds a bit of emphasis (we in particular) or makes it extra clear who is going, but it’s not grammatically required here.
Vamos ver is ir + infinitive, used very often for future plans and intentions (like English we’re going to see).
Veremos is the simple future and sounds more formal, written, or sometimes a bit distant or uncertain in modern Portuguese.
In everyday European Portuguese, Nós vamos ver a banda… is much more natural than Nós veremos a banda… in this context.
Ao vivo literally means live, as in a live performance (not recorded).
It tells you that the band will be playing live at the festival, not that you’ll just hear a recording.
You can say Nós vamos ver a banda no festival, but you lose the explicit idea that it’s a live performance; ao vivo makes that clear and is very natural here.
Yes. Ao is normally the contraction of a + o (to the / at the, masculine singular).
Historically ao vivo is like “in the live (state)”, but nowadays it’s a fixed expression meaning live (not recorded).
You don’t change it for gender or number: it stays ao vivo whether the noun is masculine, feminine, singular, or plural (e.g. a banda ao vivo, os cantores ao vivo).
Portuguese uses definite articles more than English.
A banda means the band, suggesting a specific band that both speaker and listener know about (maybe the headliner, or one already mentioned).
If you said uma banda, that would be a band (one of several, not a specific one).
Leaving the article out (ver banda) is not correct here.
No is the contraction of em + o = in/on/at + the (masculine singular).
So no festival literally means at the festival.
Again, the definite article (o) suggests a specific festival you both know about, not just any festival in general.
- No festival = at the festival, a specific, identified festival.
- Num festival (from em + um) = at a festival, some festival, but not a particular one everyone has in mind.
In this sentence, no festival implies you already know which festival is being talked about (e.g. next weekend’s festival).
In European Portuguese, ver is the normal, everyday verb for to see / watch a band, film, show, etc.:
- ver a banda, ver um concerto, ver um filme.
Assistir in the sense of to watch is more formal and must take the preposition a:
- assistir a um concerto, assistir a um espetáculo.
If you use assistir with banda, you’d need assistir à banda ao vivo, but ver a banda ao vivo is more common and neutral.
That word order is grammatically possible but sounds unnatural.
The most natural order is to keep ao vivo close to a banda:
- Nós vamos ver a banda ao vivo no festival.
You can also say:
- Nós vamos ver a banda ao vivo no festival de verão.
But moving ao vivo in front of a banda is unusual in this sentence.
You could, but it changes the meaning.
Nós vemos a banda ao vivo no festival sounds like something that happens regularly / habitually (e.g. every year at that festival).
To talk about a specific future plan (this coming festival), European Portuguese prefers Nós vamos ver a banda ao vivo no festival.
The sentence is fine in both varieties, but usage around it can differ:
- In Brazil, people also often say a gente vai ver a banda ao vivo no festival instead of nós vamos ver….
- With assistir, Brazilians usually say assistir a banda (often without the preposition in speech), while in European Portuguese you need assistir à banda and it still sounds more formal than ver.
The given sentence itself is very natural European Portuguese.
Yes.
Nós vamos ver a banda ao vivo no festival already implies you’ll see them perform.
Adding tocar makes that explicit: We’re going to see the band play live at the festival.
Both versions are correct; the one without tocar is shorter and very common.
Approximate IPA for European Portuguese:
- Nós – /nɔʃ/ (final -s like English sh)
- vamos – /ˈvɐ.muʃ/ (first vowel like reduced uh, final -s like sh)
- ver – /veɾ/ (single tapped r)
- a banda – /a ˈbɐ̃.dɐ/ (nasal ã)
- ao vivo – /aw ˈvi.vu/ (ao like ow in now)
- no festival – /nu fɨʃ.tiˈvaɫ/ (first e reduced and the s in fest like sh)
Spoken quickly, many syllables reduce, and the phrase flows together.