Breakdown of Nós passamos por essa praça ao voltar para casa.
Questions & Answers about Nós passamos por essa praça ao voltar para casa.
The form passamos can be either:
- present tense: nós passamos = we pass / we go past
- simple past (pretérito perfeito): nós passamos = we passed / we went past
In modern spelling, both tenses look the same in writing, so only context tells you which one it is.
If the context is a habit:
Nós passamos por essa praça ao voltar para casa.
⇒ We pass by that square when we’re returning home. (every time / usually)If the context is a single, completed event:
Ontem, nós passamos por essa praça ao voltar para casa.
⇒ Yesterday, we passed by that square when we were returning home.
Older spelling sometimes used passámos for the past, but in current standard spelling (Portugal and Brazil) you normally just see passamos for both.
The verb passar often combines with por to express the idea of moving through / by / along a place.
- passar por ≈ to pass by / go through / go past
Without por, the meaning is less clear or can change:
- passamos essa praça
– sounds more like we got past that square / we managed to get past it,
– or in some contexts we spent (time) in that square,
– and is less idiomatic in European Portuguese for the simple idea of we pass by that square.
So, for the usual everyday meaning to go past a place on the way somewhere, you normally say:
- passar por um lugar – to pass by / through a place
e.g. Passamos por Lisboa todos os anos. – We pass through Lisbon every year.
All involve movement, but with different nuances:
passar por
- Focus: moving by / through something on your way elsewhere.
- Nós passamos por essa praça ao voltar para casa.
⇒ We pass by that square when we’re going back home.
passar (on its own)
- Very broad verb: to pass, to spend (time), to hand, to happen, to go by, etc.
- You often need a preposition (like por, a, em) or a direct object to make it clear.
- O tempo passa. – Time passes.
- Passa-me o sal. – Pass me the salt.
atravessar
- Focus: crossing from one side to the other.
- Atravessamos a praça. – We cross the square.
- This suggests you actually go across the square, not just near it.
In your sentence, passar por is the natural choice because the idea is we go by that square on the way home.
All three can be translated as that square / the square, but they have different nuances in European Portuguese.
essa praça
- Demonstrative: usually refers to something near the listener or already known in the conversation.
- Example:
- Speaker A is at home, talking to Speaker B, who lives near that square:
Nós passamos por essa praça ao voltar para casa.
⇒ We pass by that square (near you / that you know well) when we go home.
- Speaker A is at home, talking to Speaker B, who lives near that square:
esta praça
- Refers to something near the speaker (physically or mentally).
- Example: you are standing in or next to the square:
Nós passamos por esta praça ao voltar para casa.
⇒ We pass by this square (where I am now) when we go home.
a praça
- Definite article only, like the square, no explicit pointing.
- Used when the square is already known to both speaker and listener (from context).
- Nós passamos pela praça ao voltar para casa.
(Here pela = por + a.)
⇒ We pass by the square when we go home. (the one we both know)
In everyday European Portuguese, essa and esta are sometimes mixed more freely than the textbook rules, but the near-speaker (esta) vs near-listener/known (essa) distinction is a good guideline.
Yes, you absolutely can.
Portuguese is a pro‑drop language, which means subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.
- Nós passamos por essa praça…
- Passamos por essa praça…
Both mean we pass / we passed by that square….
The verb form passamos is only used with nós, so the subject is clear.
Using nós:
- adds a bit of emphasis or clarity,
- is more common in careful or formal speech,
- is optional here from a grammatical point of view.
ao voltar literally comes from:
- a (preposition) + o (article) + voltar (infinitive)
⇒ contracted as ao voltar
Grammatically, a(o) + infinitive often means:
- when doing X,
- as you do X,
- upon doing X.
So:
- ao voltar para casa ≈ when (we) return home / as (we) return home / on the way back home.
Some common equivalent structures:
- Quando voltamos para casa, passamos por essa praça.
- Ao voltar para casa, passamos por essa praça.
Both can mean roughly the same. Ao + infinitive is very common and sounds natural in European Portuguese for time-related clauses like while doing / when doing.
With casa (home), Portuguese has some special patterns.
voltar para casa
- Very common: to go back home.
- para emphasizes the destination / direction.
voltar a casa
- Also correct, especially in European Portuguese.
- Often a bit more formal or literary in feel, but still normal.
- Many speakers use a casa and para casa almost interchangeably here.
voltar em casa
- This is not used to mean to go back home.
- em casa means at home, e.g. Estou em casa. – I’m at home.
Also notice:
- Usually no article: para casa, a casa (not para a casa / à casa) when you mean home in general.
- With an article, a casa tends to mean the house (a specific house), not the idea of “home”.
So in your sentence, voltar para casa is the standard, natural way to say go back home.
Yes, that word order is perfectly natural:
- Ao voltar para casa, nós passamos por essa praça.
Meaning remains essentially the same. The difference is just emphasis and rhythm:
Original:
Nós passamos por essa praça ao voltar para casa.
– Starts by stating what you do (we pass by that square),
– Then adds when: ao voltar para casa.Reordered:
Ao voltar para casa, nós passamos por essa praça.
– Starts with the time/condition (when we’re going home),
– Then tells you what happens in that situation.
Both are common and correct in European Portuguese. The comma is usually written in the second version because the Ao voltar para casa part comes first.
In this sentence, praça does not refer to a geometric shape. It means a town square / city square / plaza – an open public space in a town or city.
praça = square / plaza (urban place)
- a praça principal – the main square
- a Praça do Comércio – a famous square in Lisbon
quadrado = square as a geometric shape (four equal sides).
- um quadrado – a square (shape)
- um papel em forma de quadrado – a square-shaped piece of paper
So essa praça is that town square, not a geometric figure.
In essa praça, the demonstrative essa agrees with praça:
- praça is feminine singular → essa is also feminine singular.
The full set for esse / essa is:
- Masculine singular: esse – esse livro (that book)
- Feminine singular: essa – essa praça (that square)
- Masculine plural: esses – esses livros (those books)
- Feminine plural: essas – essas praças (those squares)
So if you were talking about several squares:
- Nós passamos por essas praças ao voltar para casa.
⇒ We pass by those squares when we return home.
Yes, both are grammatically correct; you just change the deictic distance (how “far” the square is, in your mind):
por esta praça – by this square
- Square is near the speaker (physically or contextually).
- E.g. you’re standing in the square:
Nós passamos por esta praça todos os dias.
por essa praça – by that square
- Square is near the listener or just familiar/previously mentioned.
- E.g. you refer to the square in the listener’s neighborhood.
por aquela praça – by that square over there / that square (far away)
- Square is distant from both speaker and listener, or being talked about more abstractly.
- E.g. a square in another city:
Quando vamos ao Porto, passamos por aquela praça famosa.
In everyday conversation, speakers are sometimes flexible with esta / essa / aquela, but these are the standard distinctions.