Learn Portuguese (Portugal): É madrugada. A festa é exaustiva e estou a bocejar. - It is early morning. The party is exhausting and I am yawning.

É madrugada. A festa é exaustiva e estou a bocejar.

It is early morning. The party is exhausting and I am yawning.

Breakdown of É madrugada. A festa é exaustiva e estou a bocejar.

to be (temporary / location)

a festa

the party

Questions & Answers about É madrugada. A festa é exaustiva e estou a bocejar.

Why do we use é (from ser) for madrugada instead of está, since the time of day changes?

In Portuguese, we always use the verb ser to tell the time or to state the period of the day, even though it feels temporary. So we say é madrugada (it is early morning) or é tarde (it is late), just like we say são duas horas (it is two o'clock).

What time of day exactly is madrugada?

Madrugada refers to the very early hours of the morning, usually from midnight until sunrise. In English, you might translate it as the middle of the night or the early hours.

Why is it a festa é exaustiva (using ser) rather than está? Isn't a party a temporary event?

Even though a party eventually ends, being exhausting is treated as a characteristic of the event itself, not a temporary mood or state it goes in and out of. When describing the inherent qualities of an event (like a movie being boring or a party being exhausting), we use ser.

Is estou a bocejar the standard way to express an ongoing action in Portugal?

Yes! In European Portuguese, ongoing actions (things happening right now) are formed using estar a followed by the infinitive of the verb (here, bocejar). You might remember this from earlier lessons as the Portuguese equivalent of the English -ing ending.