Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): À noite, fecho as cortinas e ligo a ventoinha, mesmo que esteja frio, caso o vizinho faça barulho. - At night I close the curtains and turn on the fan, even if it is cold, in case the neighbour makes noise.

À = a + a (preposition a “to/at” + feminine article a) → written with a grave accent.
À noite = literally “at the night”, but idiomatically just “at night / in the evening (generally)”.

Other options:

A noite (no accent) usually means “the night” as a subject or object:
- A noite está fria. – The night is cold.
De noite is also possible and common, and is very close in meaning to à noite (“by night / at night”). In many contexts they’re interchangeable.
Às noites = “at the nights” (plural) and would sound odd here unless you really want to stress repeated, specific nights (and even then people normally still say à noite).

So À noite here simply expresses a habitual action that happens at night (in general).

Why do we say fecho as cortinas with as, instead of just fecho cortinas?

In European Portuguese, you normally use the definite article (o, a, os, as) with specific things, even when English doesn’t.

Fecho as cortinas. – “I close the curtains.” (the curtains in my room / in the house)
Saying fecho cortinas would sound incomplete or odd in this everyday context, as if “cortinas” were some generic category or a headline.

So you say:

Fecho a porta. – I close the door.
Apago as luzes. – I turn off the lights.

The article is the normal choice when you’re talking about known, concrete objects like the curtains in your house.

What tense is fecho, and why is it used here?

Fecho is present indicative, 1st person singular of fechar (“to close”):

eu fecho

Here it expresses a habitual action: something you usually do at night.

Portuguese uses the simple present a lot for:

habits: Todos os dias, fecho as cortinas.
general truths: A água ferve a 100 graus.

So À noite, fecho as cortinas… = “At night, I (usually) close the curtains…”, which parallels English “I close” (habit).

What exactly does ligo mean in ligo a ventoinha? Is it “connect”, “turn on”, or something else?

Ligar literally means “to connect”, but in everyday Portuguese it very often means “to turn on (a device)”.

Ligo a ventoinha. – I turn on the fan.
Ligar a televisão / o rádio / o computador. – turn on the TV / radio / computer.

Other verbs:

acender – to light / to turn on (lights, fire, sometimes devices):
- Acende a luz. – Turn on the light.
desligar – to turn off (devices):
- Desliga a ventoinha. – Turn off the fan.

So here ligo a ventoinha is best understood as “I turn on the fan”.

What is ventoinha, and how is it different from ventilador?

Both words relate to fans, but usage differs:

In Portugal, a ventoinha is the usual word for a fan (the appliance that blows air).
Ventilador also exists, but it’s more technical or specific (e.g. industrial ventilators, ventilation systems, a hospital ventilator).

In Brazil, the common everyday word is ventilador for a fan, while ventoinha is often used more for the blade/propeller part or for small internal fans (e.g. in a computer).

So, for European Portuguese learners: ventoinha = fan (in your room).

In mesmo que esteja frio, why is it esteja and not está?

Esteja is the present subjunctive of estar.
The expression mesmo que (“even if / even though”) normally triggers the subjunctive, because it introduces something uncertain, hypothetical, or not presented as a simple fact.

Mesmo que esteja frio:
- Literally: “even if it may be cold”
- Implies: Whether it’s cold or not, I still do this.

If you said mesmo que está frio, it would sound ungrammatical to native speakers in this structure. With mesmo que, the subjunctive (esteja) is the correct and natural form.

Also note: Portuguese doesn’t use a dummy “it” for weather:

Está frio. – It’s cold.
Esteja frio. – (that) it be cold (subjunctive).

Does mesmo que mean “even if” or “even though”? Are both correct here?

Mesmo que can correspond to both “even if” and “even though”, depending on context and emphasis:

Even if: hypothetical / not sure it will happen.
Even though: acknowledging it does happen, but contrasting it with your action.

Here:

…ligo a ventoinha, mesmo que esteja frio…

You could interpret it as:

“I turn on the fan, even if it’s cold” (maybe it’s cold, maybe not)
or
“I turn on the fan, even though it’s cold” (we know it’s cold, but I do it anyway).

Portuguese leaves that slightly open; the subjunctive + mesmo que comfortably covers both shades.

In caso o vizinho faça barulho, what does caso mean, and why is faça in the subjunctive?

Here caso is a conjunction meaning “in case / if (it happens that)”, not the noun “case”.

caso o vizinho faça barulho ≈ “in case the neighbor makes noise / if the neighbor makes noise”.

Caso introduces a possible or hypothetical situation, so it normally takes the present subjunctive:

faça = present subjunctive of fazer.

Compare:

Se o vizinho faz barulho, fecho a janela. – If the neighbor makes noise (whenever he does), I close the window. (more general/factual)
Caso o vizinho faça barulho, fecho a janela. – In case the neighbor makes noise, I close the window. (possible future situation, more hypothetical/formal)

So caso + subjunctive signals a potential situation rather than a regular fact.

Why is it faça (present subjunctive) and not fizer (future subjunctive) after caso?

In Portuguese, the future subjunctive (e.g. fizer) is common after conjunctions like se, quando, enquanto, logo que when referring to future conditions:

Se o vizinho fizer barulho, fecho a janela. – If the neighbor makes noise (in the future), I close the window.

However, with caso (in the sense of “in case”), the standard, natural choice is the present subjunctive:

Caso o vizinho faça barulho… – In case the neighbor makes noise…

Using caso + future subjunctive (e.g. caso o vizinho fizer barulho) sounds odd or incorrect to most native speakers. The pattern is:

caso + present subjunctive for a possible condition.

Why is there a comma before mesmo que and another before caso? Could we leave them out?

The commas mark separate clauses and make the sentence clearer:

À noite, fecho as cortinas e ligo a ventoinha,
– main clause (what I usually do at night)
mesmo que esteja frio,
– subordinate concessive clause (“even if / even though it’s cold”)
caso o vizinho faça barulho.
– subordinate conditional clause (“in case the neighbor makes noise”)

The commas:

Separate the main action from the concessive clause (mesmo que esteja frio)
Then separate that from the conditional clause (caso o vizinho faça barulho)

You might occasionally see slightly different comma choices in informal writing, but here both commas are fully standard and recommended. Leaving them out would make the sentence harder to parse.

Why do we say o vizinho with the article? Can we just say vizinho?

In Portuguese, you almost always need an article with a singular countable noun when you’re talking about a specific person or thing.

o vizinho – “the neighbor” (a specific one, known from context).
Saying just vizinho by itself would sound incomplete, like saying “neighbor” with no article in English in a full sentence.

Compare:

O vizinho faz barulho. – The neighbor makes noise.
Um vizinho faz barulho. – A (some) neighbor makes noise.
Vizinho alone is OK only in certain special uses (e.g. as a form of address: Ó vizinho!, like “Hey, neighbor!”).

So caso o vizinho faça barulho naturally means “in case the neighbor makes noise” (the neighbor we are talking about, e.g. the one next door).

Why is barulho singular and without an article? Could we say um barulho or barulhos?

Barulho here is used like a mass noun, referring to “noise” in general:

…caso o vizinho faça barulho. – in case the neighbor makes (any) noise.

Other options:

faça um barulho – “make a (specific) noise” (one instance, a noise)
faça barulhos – “make (several) noises”

But in everyday speech, when you mean “be noisy / make noise in general”, the usual expression is:

fazer barulho – to make noise, be noisy.

That’s why barulho appears in the singular with no article in this sentence.