Questions & Answers about Eu chego a casa ao meio-dia.
You can drop "Eu".
Portuguese is a “pro‑drop” language: the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.
- Chego a casa ao meio‑dia. – perfectly natural
- Eu chego a casa ao meio‑dia. – also correct, but adds emphasis on I (“I arrive home at noon,” as opposed to someone else)
"Chegar" is the infinitive (“to arrive”).
In a full sentence with a subject, you normally need a conjugated form.
Present tense of chegar (to arrive):
- eu chego – I arrive
- tu chegas – you arrive (informal singular)
- ele/ela chega – he/she arrives
- nós chegamos – we arrive
- vocês/eles/elas chegam – you (pl.) / they arrive
So "Eu chego" = “I arrive.”
Because chegar (to arrive) in European Portuguese normally uses the preposition a to introduce the place you arrive at:
- chegar a casa – to arrive home
- chegar à escola – to arrive at school
- chegar ao trabalho – to arrive at work
By contrast, em casa means “at home” (location, not movement):
- Estou em casa. – I am at home.
- Vou estar em casa ao meio‑dia. – I will be at home at noon.
So:
- chegar a casa – motion towards home / moment of arrival
- estar em casa – being at home
Visually they’re similar, but they’re not the same:
a casa (no accent) = preposition "a" + noun "casa" with no article
- In practice, this usually means “(to) home” in general.
- Chego a casa. – I arrive home.
à casa (with accent grave) = contraction of a + a = à (“to the”)
- à = “to the” (feminine singular).
- Vou à casa do João. – I go to João’s house.
So:
- chego a casa – I arrive home (my home / home in general)
- chego à casa do vizinho – I arrive at the neighbour’s house
Both can occur, but they’re used with different verbs and nuances:
chegar a casa – standard with chegar in European Portuguese
- Focus: the point of arrival.
- Chego a casa ao meio‑dia. – I arrive home at noon.
ir / voltar / vir para casa – often with para to express destination/goal
- Vou para casa. – I’m going home.
- Volto para casa. – I come back home.
With chegar, the natural option in European Portuguese is a casa, not para casa.
In European Portuguese, no – that sounds wrong or foreign.
The standard pattern is:
- chegar a
- place
- chegar a casa
- chegar ao aeroporto
- chegar à universidade
- place
In Brazilian Portuguese, people very often say chegar em casa, but that’s regional/informal and not the European norm. If you’re aiming for Portuguese from Portugal, use chegar a casa.
"Ao" is a contraction:
- a + o → ao
Literally: “at the” / “to the” (masculine singular).
With time expressions, Portuguese normally uses a:
- ao meio‑dia – at noon
- às duas (horas) – at two o’clock (a + as → às)
- à uma (hora) – at one o’clock (a + a → à)
So ao meio‑dia literally: “at the midday.”
For clock time, Portuguese uses a (→ ao / à / às), not em (→ no / na / nos / nas):
- ao meio‑dia – at noon
- às três – at three o’clock
- à uma – at one
No meio‑dia would sound wrong in this sense.
Em is used more for general location/time period, not a precise clock time:
- no verão – in summer
- no domingo – on Sunday (more common in PT: ao domingo for habitual action)
Yes.
Portuguese simple present is flexible:
Habitual / routine
- Eu chego a casa ao meio‑dia.
= I (generally) arrive home at noon (e.g. every day after work).
- Eu chego a casa ao meio‑dia.
Future (scheduled / planned)
- If said in a specific context, it can mean
“I will arrive home at noon (tomorrow/that day).”
- If said in a specific context, it can mean
The exact meaning depends on context and sometimes adverbs:
- Normalmente chego a casa ao meio‑dia. – normally I arrive home at noon.
- Amanhã chego a casa ao meio‑dia. – tomorrow I’ll arrive home at noon.
Approximate pronunciation (Lisbon‑type accent):
- chego – [ʃe‑gu], roughly like “SHEH-goo”
- a – usually very weak, almost attached to the next word
- casa – [KA‑zɐ], like “KAH-zuh” (last vowel very reduced)
- ao – [aw], like English “ow” in cow, but shorter
- meio‑dia – [MAY‑oo DEE‑ə], with meio sounding like “MAY‑oo”
Said together, quite fast and with reductions:
[ˈʃe.ɡu ɐ ˈka.zɐ aw ˌmɐj.u ˈdi.ɐ]
You don’t need to master the IPA; just aim for:
"SHEH-goo a KAH-zuh ow MAY-oo DEE-uh"
Under the current spelling rules:
- meio‑dia (with hyphen) = the noun “midday / noon”
- meio dia (without hyphen) would mean literally “half a day” (quantity), and is rare.
So in "ao meio‑dia", meio‑dia is a fixed noun (“midday / noon”), and it keeps the hyphen.
Normally, yes:
- ao meio‑dia – at 12:00 (midday / noon)
It can also be used a bit more loosely as “around midday” in casual speech, but in time expressions like this, it is usually understood as twelve o’clock sharp.
For comparison:
- meio‑dia – midday / noon (12:00)
- meia‑noite – midnight (00:00)
It’s grammatically possible but not the same:
chegar a casa – emphasizes the moment of arrival
- Chego a casa ao meio‑dia. – I arrive home at noon.
vir para casa / vir a casa – emphasizes coming (towards here/home)
- Venho para casa ao meio‑dia. – I (will) come home at noon.
In practice, to express a routine arrival time, chegar a casa is the most natural in European Portuguese.