Word
Compramos as batatas à palete.
Meaning
We buy the potatoes by the pallet.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Compramos as batatas à palete.
comprar
to buy
a
to / at (direction)
à
at the (fem. sg.) / to the (fem. sg.)
a batata
the potato
Questions & Answers about Compramos as batatas à palete.
Why do we use à here instead of por to mean 'by the'?
In Portuguese, when expressing rate, measurement, or how something is sold (like 'by the kilo', 'by the dozen', or 'by the pallet'), we use the preposition a combined with the definite article, rather than por. So 'by the pallet' becomes à palete.
Where does the accent on à come from?
The grave accent indicates a contraction. It merges the preposition a (used here for measurement) with the feminine definite article a (meaning 'the') that goes with the feminine noun palete.
If I were buying potatoes by the kilo instead, would it still be à?
No, it would change to match the gender of the new noun. Because quilo (kilo) is masculine, you would combine the preposition a with the masculine article o to make ao. You would say: Compramos as batatas ao quilo.
Since compramos means 'we buy', how would I say 'we bought' in the past tense?
It is exactly the same! For regular -ar verbs, the 'we' form (the first-person plural) is identical in both the present tense and the simple past tense. You rely on context or time words (like ontem for yesterday) to know which one is meant.