To clearly express when events happen and how long they last, Portuguese uses specific time prepositions.
Durante (During)
To say that an action happens over the course of an event, use durante (during). Unlike many other Portuguese prepositions, it never merges with the words that follow it.
| The speaker drinks water during the lecture. | O orador bebe água durante a palestra. |
| We talk during the break. | Nós conversamos durante a pausa. |
Desde and Até (From and Until)
To establish the boundaries of an event, use desde (from/since) for the starting point and até (until/to) for the endpoint.
You can use até by itself to state a deadline or when an event will finish:
| The debate continues until tomorrow. | O debate continua até amanhã. |
When stating a complete schedule or timeline, desde and até are frequently paired together to mean "from [start] until [finish]":
| We work from January until December. | Trabalhamos desde janeiro até dezembro. |
| The schedule of the conference is from Monday to Friday. | O horário da conferência é desde segunda-feira até sexta-feira. |
Combining Até with Articles
While desde and até usually stand alone before months, days of the week, or time words like amanhã (tomorrow), they combine with definite articles when required (such as before parts of the day).
When até is followed by the feminine definite article a (as in a noite), they merge and are written with a grave accent: até à.
| I stay at the seminar from noon until night. | Fico no seminário desde o meio-dia até à noite. |
