Breakdown of Às quatro horas da tarde, como um requeijãozinho.
de
of / from / by (means of transport) / wearing (attire)
um
a / an / some (all forms)
quatro
four
comer
to eat
a hora
the hour
a tarde
the afternoon
às
at the (fem. pl.) / to the (fem. pl.)
o requeijão
the cottage cheese
Questions & Answers about Às quatro horas da tarde, como um requeijãozinho.
Why does the word take the suffix -zinho instead of just -inho to make requeijãozinho?
Words that end in a nasal diphthong (two vowels combined with a nasal sound, like the -ão in requeijão) generally take the suffix -zinho or -zinha rather than -inho or -inha. Adding a Z makes it much easier to pronounce smoothly!
The main stress shifts when we add a diminutive suffix. Why does requeijãozinho still have a tilde (~) on the a?
You are right that the main spoken stress shifts to the zi syllable. Usually, written accent marks (like an acute accent) disappear when we add -zinho for exactly this reason. However, the tilde (~) is an exception. It stays because its primary job is to tell you that the a has a nasal sound, not just to show stress.
I usually see como used to mean "like" or "how". Does it mean "like" here?
Not in this sentence! While como is a very common word for "like" or "as", here it is simply the first-person singular ("I") present tense of the verb comer (to eat). The context of the sentence (time of day, food) is your biggest clue that it means "I eat".
Why do we say da tarde here instead of de tarde?
When you specify an exact time on the clock, you use da (a contraction of de + a) before manhã, tarde, or noite. Therefore, às quatro horas da tarde means exactly "at four in the afternoon". You would use de tarde if you were talking generally about an event happening "in the afternoon" without naming the exact hour.
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