Log inSign up

Tu disseste que o barulho aconteceu à noite.

Tu disseste que o barulho aconteceu à noite.
You said that the noise happened at night.
From Lesson 77:Past tense of fazer, dizer, and trazer·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about Tu disseste que o barulho aconteceu à noite.

Why is "you said" translated as tu disseste instead of following the regular -er verb rules?
Dizer (to say/tell) is an irregular verb in the simple past tense (Pretérito Perfeito). Instead of using the normal stem, it changes to diss-. For the tu (informal "you") form, you add the ending -este, making it disseste.
Do I always need to include que here, or can I leave it out like we often do in English?
Unlike in English, where you can easily say "You said the noise happened" (dropping the word "that"), in Portuguese you cannot skip it. You must always use que to connect the two halves of the sentence (Tu disseste que...).
Is aconteceu also an irregular past tense verb like disseste?
No, aconteceu (happened) is completely regular. It comes from the verb acontecer (to happen). Because o barulho (the noise) acts as a singular "it", we use the regular third-person ending for -er verbs in the past tense, which is -eu.
Why does the "a" in à noite have a backward accent mark?
That mark (called a grave accent) shows that two words have contracted, or merged, into one. It combines the preposition a (at/in) and the feminine definite article a (the) from a noite. Together they form à, so à noite translates literally to "at the night."

Learn Tu disseste que o barulho aconteceu à noite and more in Portuguese

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Portuguese →