Breakdown of A delegação chegou a Lisboa aquando da cimeira.
Lisboa
Lisbon
a
to / at (direction)
chegar
to arrive
a delegação
the delegation
aquando de
at the time of
a cimeira
the summit (political meeting)
Questions & Answers about A delegação chegou a Lisboa aquando da cimeira.
How does aquando de differ from saying durante or na altura de?
aquando de is a formal preposition meaning 'at the time of' or 'on the occasion of'. It fits perfectly here because the sentence involves official events like a delegação (delegation) and a cimeira (summit). While durante (during) or na altura da (at the time of the) mean roughly the same thing and are used in everyday speech, aquando de belongs to a more formal, journalistic, or administrative register.
Why does it say aquando da instead of just aquando de?
The base phrase is aquando de. Because it is followed by the specific, feminine noun cimeira, the preposition de must contract with the feminine definite article a (the) to form da.
Why do we use chegou a Lisboa rather than chegou em Lisboa?
In European Portuguese, the verb chegar (to arrive) always takes the preposition a when indicating a destination. While you might hear chegar em in Brazilian Portuguese or see it mixed up by beginners, at this level it is important to lock in chegar a for European Portuguese.
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