Breakdown of Às vezes a gente faz um piquenique no parque.
um
a / an / some (all forms)
no
in the / on the / at the (m, f, pl forms: na, nos, nas)
o parque
the park
fazer
to do
às vezes
sometimes
a gente
we / people (colloquial)
o piquenique
the picnic
Questions & Answers about Às vezes a gente faz um piquenique no parque.
Why does the sentence use faz instead of fazemos if it means "we have"?
The phrase a gente means "we" in an informal, everyday sense, but grammatically it functions as a third-person singular subject (literally "the people"). That's why it pairs with faz (the he/she/it form) instead of the "we" form fazemos.
In English we say "have a picnic", but here it uses faz. Do you always use fazer for picnics?
How does Às vezes mean "sometimes", and what does the backward accent mean?
Às vezes translates literally to "at the times", which is the Portuguese idiom for "sometimes". The grave accent (`) on Às shows that it is a contraction of the preposition a (to/at) and the feminine plural article as (the).
Can I just say nós fazemos instead of a gente faz?
Absolutely. Nós fazemos um piquenique means the exact same thing and is completely correct. A gente is simply a very common, relaxed alternative to nós that native speakers use constantly in daily conversation.
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