Word
Eu vou a Lisboa, mas volto à noite.
Meaning
I am going to Lisbon, but I return at night.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Eu vou a Lisboa, mas volto à noite.
Why do we use a instead of para in vou a Lisboa?
In Portuguese, a and para both mean "to", but they show different intentions. We use a for a short trip where you plan to return soon. Because the speaker explicitly says volto à noite (I return at night), we know it's a quick trip, making a the perfect choice. If they were moving to Lisbon for a long time or permanently, they would use para.
Why is it just a Lisboa and not à Lisboa like we see with some other places?
Many cities and countries in Portuguese are treated as masculine or feminine and use definite articles (like "the" in English). For example, going to Porto is ao Porto (the preposition a + the masculine article o). However, Lisbon is an exception and does not use an article at all. Therefore, we just use the plain preposition a without merging it with anything.
Why does à noite have an accent mark on the à?
The accent points backwards to show that two words have squeezed together into one. It is a contraction of the preposition a (meaning "at" or "in") and the feminine article a (meaning "the"). Since noite is a feminine noun, we need both, and a + a = à.
Why is there no (I) before ?