Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Os rapazes vão ao teatro e aos correios. - The boys go to the theater and to the post office.

Os rapazes vão ao teatro e aos correios.

The boys go to the theater and to the post office.

Breakdown of Os rapazes vão ao teatro e aos correios.

o rapaz

the boy

and

to the / at the (m.sg; f.sg à, m.pl aos, f.pl às)

to go

Questions & Answers about Os rapazes vão ao teatro e aos correios.

Why do we use ao before teatro but aos before correios?

This sentence shows how to say 'to the'. The word teatro is masculine singular, so the preposition a (to) combines with the article o (the) to make ao. Since correios is masculine plural, a combines with os to make aos.

Why is 'post office' plural (aos correios) here when the English translation is singular?

In Portuguese, it is standard to refer to the post office in the plural form: os correios. Because the noun is plural, the contraction before it must also be plural (aos).

How did the word rapaz (boy) become rapazes?

For Portuguese nouns that end in the letter -z, you make them plural by adding -es to the end. So, rapaz becomes rapazes.

Which verb is vão from?

It comes from the irregular verb ir (to go). Vão is the form used for 'they', which matches our subject os rapazes (the boys).