Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): À noite, eu fico na cama a ler antes de adormecer. - At night, I stay in bed reading before falling asleep.

Without the accent (a noite) would usually mean “the night” as the subject/object, not the time expression, e.g. A noite está fria. – The night is cold.

Could you also say de noite instead of à noite? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say de noite; both are common.

à noite – slightly more formal / neutral, often used in writing and careful speech.
de noite – also means “at night / in the evening”, often a bit more colloquial in feel, depending on context.

In many cases, they’re interchangeable:

À noite, eu fico na cama a ler.
De noite, eu fico na cama a ler.

Both are understood as “At night / In the evenings, I stay in bed reading.”

The difference is subtle; for a learner, you can treat them as practically equivalent in this kind of sentence.

Why is there a comma after À noite?

The comma separates an introductory time phrase from the main clause.

À noite, → adverbial phrase of time
eu fico na cama a ler antes de adormecer. → main clause

Portuguese normally uses a comma when you place an adverbial phrase like À noite, De manhã, No verão, etc. at the beginning of the sentence:

De manhã, bebo café.
No verão, vamos à praia.

You could also say Eu, à noite, fico na cama a ler… (with commas) or Eu fico na cama a ler à noite. (moving the time phrase to the end); in that case, you often don’t use a comma:

Eu fico na cama a ler à noite. ✔ (no comma needed there)

Is the eu necessary, or could I just say À noite, fico na cama a ler antes de adormecer?

You can absolutely drop eu:

À noite, fico na cama a ler antes de adormecer.

Portuguese is a pro‑drop language: the verb ending already shows the person:

fico → 1st person singular (I)

So eu is often omitted unless you want to:

emphasise the subject:
- À noite, eu fico na cama a ler, mas ele vê televisão.
avoid ambiguity (when several possible subjects are around in the context).

In everyday speech, À noite, fico na cama a ler… sounds perfectly natural.

What exactly does fico mean here? Why ficar instead of estar or ser?

The verb ficar has several meanings. In this sentence, it means “to stay / remain”:

ficar na cama → to stay in bed

Main relevant uses of ficar:

Stay / remain in a place or state
- Fico na cama. – I stay in bed.
- Fica em casa. – He/She stays at home.
Become / get (change of state)
- Fico cansado. – I get tired.
- Ela ficou triste. – She became sad.
Be located
- O hotel fica perto do centro. – The hotel is located near the centre.

Here, estar na cama would just state the situation (“I am in bed”), while ficar na cama suggests staying there for a period, which fits “I stay in bed reading before I fall asleep.”

What is na cama made of? Why na and not em a?

na is a contraction:

em (in / on / at)
a (feminine singular the)
= na

So:

na cama = em a cama = in/on the bed

But in normal Portuguese you virtually always use the contracted form:

na cama (in bed)
na escola (at school)
na rua (in the street)

With masculine nouns you get no (em + o):

no carro – in the car
no sofá – on the sofa

Cama (bed) is feminine, so: na cama.

What does a ler mean? Why is there an a before ler?

a ler is preposition + infinitive, and in European Portuguese this often functions like an “-ing”/progressive idea:

a ler ≈ reading
a trabalhar ≈ working
a estudar ≈ studying

In the sentence:

fico na cama a ler → I stay in bed reading / I remain in bed, reading

This construction is very typical of European Portuguese:

Estou a ler. – I am reading.
Ficam a falar durante horas. – They stay talking for hours.

In Brazilian Portuguese, you’d usually see the gerund instead:

Estou lendo.
Ficam falando durante horas.

But in Portugal, the a + infinitive is the normal choice, especially with verbs like estar, ficar, continuar, andar etc.

Here, ficar a ler means “to stay (there) reading / to spend time reading”.

Could I add an object and say fico na cama a ler um livro? Is it different from just a ler?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct:

À noite, eu fico na cama a ler um livro antes de adormecer.

Both forms are fine:

a ler – focuses on the activity (reading in general)
a ler um livro – specifies what you are reading

Often the object is understood from context, so speakers leave it out:

Fico na cama a ler. → maybe a book, maybe articles on a phone, etc.

Adding um livro, mensagens, notícias no telemóvel, etc. just makes the sentence more specific.

Why is it antes de adormecer and not just antes adormecer?

In Portuguese, when you use antes as a preposition meaning “before (doing something)”, it must be followed by de:

antes de + infinitive
- antes de comer – before eating
- antes de dormir – before sleeping
- antes de adormecer – before falling asleep

So the pattern is:

antes de + [verb in infinitive]

Antes adormecer is not grammatical. You always include de in this structure.

Why adormecer and not dormir? What’s the difference?

The difference is important:

adormecer = to fall asleep (the moment of going from awake to asleep)
dormir = to sleep (the state of being asleep)

So:

antes de adormecer = before I fall asleep
antes de dormir = before I sleep

In practice, antes de adormecer emphasises the transition from being awake to sleeping, which matches “I stay in bed reading before I fall asleep.”

You could say antes de dormir as well; it’s also common and close in meaning, but adormecer fits a bit more literally with the idea of nodding off / drifting off.

Why is adormecer in the infinitive? Why not antes de eu adormecer?

After prepositions like de, Portuguese normally uses the infinitive:

antes de adormecer – before falling asleep
depois de comer – after eating
sem dizer nada – without saying anything

The subject of the infinitive is usually understood from context. Here, it naturally refers to eu (the same person as in eu fico).

You could say:

antes de eu adormecer

That’s grammatically correct and emphasises the subject, but in most everyday contexts it sounds more formal or heavy. The simple infinitive antes de adormecer is more natural here.

Why is the tense present (fico, adormecer) if this describes a regular habit?

In Portuguese, the present tense is used both for:

Right now actions
- Agora fico em casa. – I’m staying home now.
Regular / habitual actions
- À noite, eu fico na cama a ler. – At night I (usually) stay in bed reading.

So this sentence describes a habitual routine, and the present indicative is exactly the right tense.

If you wanted to stress that it’s a habit, you could add costumar:

À noite, costumo ficar na cama a ler antes de adormecer.
– At night, I usually stay in bed reading before I fall asleep.

But it’s not necessary; the simple present already conveys a habitual meaning in this context.

Can I change the word order? For example: Eu fico na cama à noite a ler antes de adormecer?

Yes, Portuguese word order is relatively flexible, especially with adverbials like time expressions.

All of these are possible, with slightly different emphasis:

À noite, eu fico na cama a ler antes de adormecer.
→ Neutral, time first.
Eu fico na cama a ler à noite antes de adormecer.
→ Subject first; à noite attached more closely to ficar na cama a ler.
Eu, à noite, fico na cama a ler antes de adormecer.
→ Extra emphasis on eu (contrast with someone else).

The original version with À noite at the beginning is very natural in Portuguese to set the time frame right away.