Breakdown of Tu vais ao teatro e ao museu.
e
and
tu
you
ao
to the / at the (m.sg; f.sg à, m.pl aos, f.pl às)
ir
to go
o museu
the museum
o teatro
the theater
Questions & Answers about Tu vais ao teatro e ao museu.
Why do we use ao instead of just a in this sentence?
ao is a contraction of the preposition a (to) and the masculine word for 'the', which is o. Since both teatro and museu are masculine nouns, you combine a + o to make ao (to the).
Do I always have to use a or ao after vais?
When talking about going to a destination, yes! The verb ir (to go) almost always links to its destination with the preposition a (to). Here, vais (you go) follows that rule to give us ao teatro and ao museu.
Why do we repeat ao before museu? Can't I just say ao teatro e museu?
In Portuguese, it is a grammatical rule to repeat the preposition and the article for each item in a list. You cannot skip the second one like we often do in English. You must literally say 'to the theater and to the museum'.
How do I pronounce the word ao?
It sounds very similar to the 'ow' sound in the English word 'cow'.
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