Breakdown of Vamos à praia de metro.
de
of / from / by (means of transport) / wearing (attire)
à
at the (fem. sg.) / to the (fem. sg.)
ir
to go
a praia
the beach
o metro
the subway
Questions & Answers about Vamos à praia de metro.
Why does the sentence start with Vamos instead of Nós vamos?
In Portuguese, the verb ending usually tells you exactly who is doing the action. Since vamos is the "we" form of the irregular verb ir (to go), it already means "we go" or "we are going". It is completely normal and very common to drop the subject pronoun nós (we).
What does the accent mark on à mean?
That accent marks a contraction. The verb ir (to go) requires the preposition a (to) for destinations. The word praia (beach) is feminine, so it takes the feminine word for "the", which is also a. Instead of saying a a praia, the two identical letters merge into à (to the).
Why do we use the word de before metro?
While English uses the word "by" for modes of transportation (by subway, by bus), Portuguese uses the preposition de (which usually means "of" or "from"). To say you are traveling by a certain vehicle, you will use phrases like de metro, de autocarro (by bus), or de carro (by car).
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