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A visita guiada começa às dez.

A visita guiada começa às dez.
The guided tour starts at ten.
From Lesson 243:Boa viagem (dar boleia, o passe)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Breakdown of A visita guiada começa às dez.

dez
ten
começar
to begin
a visita guiada
the guided tour

Questions & Answers about A visita guiada começa às dez.

Why is the contraction às used here instead of just a or em?
In Portuguese, telling time requires the preposition a combined with the definite article for the hour. Since the implicit word for hours (horas) is feminine and plural, we use the article as. The preposition a plus the article as merge to form the contraction às. If the tour started at one o'clock, you would use the singular à uma.
Is it common to leave out the word horas after dez?
Yes, it is very common and natural to drop horas in everyday speech, just like we say "at ten" instead of "at ten o'clock" in English. You only need to include horas if you want to sound particularly formal or emphasize the exact time.
Could I use the verb iniciar instead of começar in this sentence?
You could say inicia, but começa is much more common for everyday events. The verb iniciar is more formal and sounds a bit like saying "the tour commences" rather than "the tour starts."
Why does the word guiada come after visita?
Guiada is the past participle of the verb guiar (to guide), acting here as a descriptive adjective. In Portuguese, most descriptive adjectives come immediately after the noun they modify. Since visita is a feminine singular noun, the adjective must end in -a to match it.

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