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Vocês estiveram em casa na quarta-feira?

Vocês estiveram em casa na quarta-feira?
Were you at home on Wednesday?
From Lesson 78:Past tense of ter, estar, poder, and saber·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about Vocês estiveram em casa na quarta-feira?

Why is it estiveram (from estar) here instead of foram (from ser)?
In English, we just use "were" for both, but Portuguese distinguishes between permanent and temporary states. Because being at home is a temporary location, we use the past tense of estar (estiveram) rather than ser (foram).
How is the past tense of estar formed for vocês?
Estar is an irregular verb. In the simple past tense (Pretérito Perfeito), its stem changes completely to estiv-. For vocês (you plural), as well as eles and elas (they), we add the plural ending -eram to make estiveram.
Why do we say em casa instead of na casa?
When talking about being "at home" in a general sense, Portuguese uses just the preposition em, much like we drop "the" in English. If you used na casa (em + a), it would specifically mean "in the house", referring to a physical building rather than the concept of home.
Why does Wednesday have na in front of it?
To say you did something "on" a day of the week, Portuguese uses the preposition em. Because days of the week ending in -feira are feminine nouns, we must combine em with the feminine word for "the" (a). Em + a shrinks down into na.

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