Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Hoje há pouco trânsito em Lisboa. - Today there is little traffic in Lisbon.

Hoje há pouco trânsito em Lisboa.

Today there is little traffic in Lisbon.

Breakdown of Hoje há pouco trânsito em Lisboa.

Lisboa

Lisbon

haver

to be (there is / there are)

in / on / at

hoje

today

Questions & Answers about Hoje há pouco trânsito em Lisboa.

Why do we use pouco here instead of pouca or poucos?

The word pouco means 'little' or 'few'. Because it acts as a quantifier describing the amount of something, it must match the gender and number of the noun it describes. Since trânsito (traffic) is a masculine singular noun, we use the masculine singular form pouco.

If I wanted to say there is 'a lot' of traffic today, how would the sentence change?

You would replace pouco with muito. Just like pouco, it must agree with the masculine singular noun trânsito. The sentence would be: Hoje há muito trânsito em Lisboa.

Is há used for both 'there is' and 'there are'?

Yes! The word há comes from the verb haver. Unlike in English, the Portuguese word for 'there is' and 'there are' is exactly the same. It never changes to a plural form, even if you are talking about multiple things.

Why do we say em Lisboa instead of na Lisboa?

In Portuguese, many cities and countries require a definite article ('the') before them. When the preposition em ('in') combines with an article, it makes words like no or na. However, Lisboa is one of the places that does not use an article. Therefore, we just use the plain preposition em.