Question 1

The lesson is about time contractions like à and às. Why do we use ao here?

Accepted Answer

When telling time by the hour, we use às because the word horas (hours) is feminine plural. But meio-dia (noon) is a masculine word. To say "at noon", we combine the preposition a (at) with the masculine word for "the" (o). Together, a + o becomes ao.

Question 2

Why is meio-dia masculine if it ends in an "a"?

Accepted Answer

The word meio-dia ends in dia (day), which is a famous exception in Portuguese! Even though it ends in the letter "a", it is a masculine word (o dia). Because of this, any word built with it, like meio-dia, is also masculine.

Question 3

What is the literal meaning of meio-dia, and why does it have a hyphen?

Accepted Answer

It literally translates to "half-day" (meio means half). The hyphen is completely necessary when referring to the exact time of noon (12:00 PM). If you write it without the hyphen (meio dia), it refers to a duration of time, like working for "half a day".

Question 4

Since a family has multiple people, why is the verb come singular?

Accepted Answer

Even though a family contains many people, the noun família is singular—there is only one family doing the action. Therefore, it uses the "he/she/it" form of the verb comer (to eat), which is come, rather than the plural "they" form (comem).

A família come ao meio-dia.

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