Learn Portuguese (Portugal): A que horas abres a loja? - At what time do you open the shop?

A que horas abres a loja?

At what time do you open the shop?

Breakdown of A que horas abres a loja?

Questions & Answers about A que horas abres a loja?

Why does the sentence start with A, making it A que horas instead of just Que horas?

In Portuguese, when you ask at what time an event happens, you use the preposition a (meaning "at" here). If you just wanted to ask "What time is it?" right now, you would drop the A and say Que horas são?.

Why is horas plural? Could I say A que hora?

In Portuguese, time is almost always treated in the plural because you are counting the hours. So, "At what time" translates to A que horas (literally "At what hours"). You only use the singular for "one o'clock", but for a general question like this one, you should always use the plural.

Where is the word for "you" in this sentence?

It is built right into the verb! abres is the "you" (informal) form of the verb abrir (to open). Because the verb ending -es tells us exactly who is doing the action, Portuguese speakers usually drop the pronoun tu (you).

Are the two as in this sentence (A que horas... and ...a loja) the exact same type of word?