Learn Portuguese (Portugal): O comboio parte em cinco minutos.

O comboio parte em cinco minutos.

The train leaves in five minutes.

Breakdown of O comboio parte em cinco minutos.

Questions & Answers about O comboio parte em cinco minutos.

The current lesson is about telling time with 'a' or 'às' (at). Why does this sentence use 'em' (in) instead?

You use a or its contractions like às to talk about a specific clock time, like saying 'at five o clock' (às cinco). But here, we are talking about a countdown or an amount of time from now: 'in five minutes'. For this, Portuguese uses the preposition em, just like English uses 'in'.

Is parte a regular verb?

Yes, parte comes from the regular verb partir, which means 'to leave' or 'to depart'. Since o comboio (the train) is an 'it', we use the regular 'he/she/it' ending for -ir verbs, giving us parte.

I have heard the word 'trem' for train before. Why is it comboio here?

In Portugal, the word for train is always comboio. The word 'trem' is used in Brazilian Portuguese. Since you are learning European Portuguese, you will always hear and use comboio.

Does em change or combine with anything here?