Breakdown of A primeira expedição chega ao destinatário daqui a quatro dias.
quatro
four
ao
to the / at the (m.sg; f.sg à, m.pl aos, f.pl às)
a
to / at (direction)
chegar
to arrive
o dia
the day
primeiro
first
daqui a
in (time from now)
a expedição
the dispatch
o destinatário
the recipient
Questions & Answers about A primeira expedição chega ao destinatário daqui a quatro dias.
The English translation says 'in four days'. Why do we use daqui a instead of just em?
In Portuguese, to say that something will happen a certain amount of time from now, we use daqui a. It literally means 'from here to'. If you just said em quatro dias, it could sound like the journey itself takes four days to complete, rather than the arrival happening exactly four days from today.
Could I use dentro de here instead of daqui a?
The English translation says 'will reach', but chega is in the present tense. Why not use the future tense?
In Portuguese, it is very common to use the present tense for future events, as long as the time of the event is clearly stated. Because the sentence includes the time anchor daqui a quatro dias, the future meaning is already clear, so the present tense chega works perfectly. You could also say vai chegar or chegará, but the present tense is very natural here.
Why do we say ao destinatário instead of just o destinatário?
The verb chegar (to arrive or reach) requires the preposition a to indicate the destination. Since destinatário (recipient) is a masculine noun, the preposition a combines with the definite article o (the) to form ao.
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