Breakdown of Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para acordar cedo amanhã.
Questions & Answers about Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para acordar cedo amanhã.
In Portuguese, deitar on its own basically means to lay something/someone down:
- deitar o livro na mesa – to lay/put the book on the table
- deitar o bebé na cama – to lay the baby in bed
When you are talking about yourself going to bed or lying down, you normally use the reflexive form deitar-se:
- deitar-se – to go to bed / to lie down
So:
- deitar-me = deitar + me (myself) → to go to bed / to lie down (myself)
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo = Today I want to go to bed early.
Without me, deitar would sound like you’re putting something/someone else to bed, not yourself.
Portuguese has quite strict rules about where unstressed object pronouns (like me, te, se, nos, vos) go.
In European Portuguese, with an infinitive (deitar), the default and most natural position is after the verb, joined by a hyphen:
- quero deitar-me cedo ✅ (natural in Portugal)
- quero-me deitar cedo – possible, but sounds marked / literary in European Portuguese and is more typical of Brazilian Portuguese.
General patterns (European Portuguese):
With a plain infinitive: pronoun normally goes after
- deitar-me, acordar-te, levantar-se
With a conjugated verb in main-clause positive statements (and no special trigger words): pronoun usually goes after the verb as well (enclisis):
- Vou-me deitar. / Vou deitar-me.
- Deito-me cedo.
So in your sentence, deitar-me is exactly the usual pattern: infinitive + pronoun attached.
If you are aiming at European Portuguese (Portugal), you should avoid quero me deitar in ordinary speech and writing.
- In Brazilian Portuguese, quero me deitar cedo is very normal.
- In European Portuguese, the preferred options are:
- quero deitar-me cedo ✅ (most natural)
- quero-me deitar cedo – possible but sounds more formal / literary or influenced by Brazilian usage.
So, for Portugal, stick with quero deitar-me cedo.
Portuguese can use a reflexive form acordar-se, but its everyday use is more limited and can sound a bit odd or marked in this context.
Nuances:
acordar (non‑reflexive) = to wake up / to wake someone up
- Acordei às sete. – I woke up at seven.
- Acordei o meu irmão. – I woke my brother up.
acordar-se (reflexive) exists, but:
- in everyday European Portuguese, Acordo às sete. is more usual than Acordo-me às sete.
- acordar-se can have a nuance of “come to your senses / realize what’s going on”.
In your sentence, the natural way to say it is:
- para acordar cedo amanhã ✅
Para acordar-me cedo amanhã would sound strange to most European speakers in this context.
Portuguese is a “pro-drop” language: you normally omit subject pronouns (eu, tu, ele…) because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- Quero deitar-me cedo. – I want to go to bed early. (the -o in quero already tells you it’s eu)
- Queres deitar-te cedo. – you (tu) want to go to bed early.
- Querem deitar-se cedo. – they want to go to bed early.
So:
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo… – perfectly normal and actually more natural.
- Hoje eu quero deitar-me cedo… – also correct, but eu adds emphasis, like:
- “Today *I want to go to bed early (as opposed to other days / other people).*”
In neutral speech, you’d normally omit eu here.
The verb quero describes your current desire or decision (today), not the future action itself.
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo… – Right now, today, I have the wish/intention to go to bed early.
Portuguese (like English) often uses the present tense to talk about:
- present intentions about the future
- scheduled or planned future actions
You could also talk about the future directly with a future tense, but it would sound different:
- Hoje vou deitar-me cedo… – Today I’m going to go to bed early… (plan)
- Hoje deitar-me-ei cedo… – Very formal/literary; normal speech rarely uses this future.
In your sentence, quero is simply stating a present wish that has consequences for tomorrow.
Here, para introduces a purpose or goal:
- para acordar cedo amanhã = in order to wake up early tomorrow
In this meaning, you almost always use para, not por.
Contrast:
- Estudo muito para passar no exame. – I study a lot in order to pass the exam. ✅
- Estudo muito por passar no exame. – ❌ incorrect in this sense.
So in your sentence, para answers the question “for what purpose?” / “in order to do what?”:
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo (para quê?) → para acordar cedo amanhã.
Yes, that is grammatically correct, but it slightly changes the structure.
para acordar cedo amanhã
- uses a (impersonal) infinitive
- the subject of acordar is understood to be the same as the subject of quero (i.e. eu).
- This is the most natural and economical way here.
para eu acordar cedo amanhã
- here eu is explicitly stated as the subject of acordar.
- This is also correct, and can be used to make the subject really clear, or to contrast with someone else:
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para eu acordar cedo e tu tomares conta das crianças.
In your simple sentence (with only one logical subject), para acordar cedo amanhã is more natural and typical.
Portuguese has a personal infinitive, where the infinitive takes endings that agree with an expressed or understood subject:
- para eu acordar – for me to wake up
- para tu acordares – for you (tu) to wake up
- para ele acordar – for him to wake up
- para nós acordarmos – for us to wake up
- etc.
You use it mainly when:
The subject of the infinitive is different from the subject of the main verb:
- Quero que tu acordes cedo amanhã.
- Quero (que) acordares cedo amanhã. – using personal infinitive instead of que + subjunctive.
You want to make the subject explicit even if it is the same:
- Para nós acordarmos cedo, temos de nos deitar cedo.
In your sentence, the subject of both verbs (quero, acordar) is the same (eu), so the simple infinitive acordar (without ending) is completely natural:
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para acordar cedo amanhã. ✅
You should repeat cedo or put it clearly with amanhã.
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para acordar amanhã.
This only says “to wake up tomorrow”, with no indication of early waking up. It sounds incomplete relative to the intended meaning.
Natural options:
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para acordar cedo amanhã. ✅
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para amanhã acordar cedo. (slightly more formal / literary order)
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para acordar amanhã cedo. ✅
So yes, repeating cedo (or moving it next to amanhã) is necessary to keep the meaning “wake up early”.
Both are understandable, but they don’t sound equally natural.
amanhã cedo is the most natural and common order:
- Quero acordar amanhã cedo. – I want to wake up early tomorrow.
cedo amanhã is possible, but:
- in European Portuguese, it sounds a bit less idiomatic or slightly marked.
- you’re more likely to hear amanhã cedo in everyday speech.
So, many speakers would find these the most natural:
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para acordar amanhã cedo. ✅
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para amanhã acordar cedo. ✅ (more formal / written style)
Your original para acordar cedo amanhã is still correct and acceptable; it’s just that amanhã cedo is a very common fixed collocation.
Yes, word order is somewhat flexible, though some versions sound more natural than others.
All of these are grammatically correct in European Portuguese:
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para acordar cedo amanhã. – very natural.
- Hoje quero-me deitar cedo para acordar cedo amanhã. – correct but less common in speech.
- Quero deitar-me cedo hoje para acordar cedo amanhã. – also natural; putting hoje later is fine.
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para amanhã acordar cedo. – a bit more formal/literary in style.
In neutral, everyday European Portuguese, these two are probably the most typical:
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para acordar cedo amanhã.
- Hoje quero deitar-me cedo para acordar amanhã cedo.