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O meu pai bebe leite à noite.

O meu pai bebe leite à noite.
My father drinks milk at night.
From Lesson 25:Telling time (é uma, são...)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about O meu pai bebe leite à noite.

Why does à have an accent pointing left in à noite?
The accent shows a contraction. It combines the preposition a (meaning "at" or "in") with the feminine word a (meaning "the") that goes with the feminine noun noite. So, a + a merges into à.
The lesson uses às for telling time. Why is it singular à here instead of às?
We use the plural às for specific clock times because hours are plural (like às oito horas for "at eight o'clock"). But for general times of day like noite (night) or tarde (afternoon), the noun is singular, so we use the singular contraction à.
Why do we say O meu pai instead of just Meu pai?
In European Portuguese, you almost always put a "the" before possessive words like "my" or "your". Because pai (father) is a masculine noun, we use the masculine word for "the", which is o, right before meu (my).
Is the word leite masculine or feminine?
It is masculine (o leite). Nouns ending in "-e" can be tricky because they do not follow the typical "-o" (masculine) or "-a" (feminine) patterns, so their gender just has to be memorized as you learn them.

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