Breakdown of O jantar era às oito, e ela vinha sempre.
ser
to be
e
and
ela
she
sempre
always
oito
eight
às
at the (fem. pl.) / to the (fem. pl.)
o jantar
the dinner
vir
to come
Questions & Answers about O jantar era às oito, e ela vinha sempre.
Why do we use era instead of foi for "was" in this sentence?
era is the Pretérito Imperfeito (a past tense used for habits and descriptions) of the highly irregular verb ser (to be). We use it here because telling time in the past (era às oito) is considered setting a scene or describing a background state, rather than a single completed action.
vinha looks very different from its infinitive. What verb is this?
It is the Pretérito Imperfeito of the irregular verb vir (to come). Because the sentence says she "always used to come" (sempre), we need this tense to show it was a repeated, habitual action in the past.
It is easy to confuse the past tenses of ver (to see) and vir (to come). How can I remember which one is vinha?
They are very easy to mix up! In the Pretérito Imperfeito, ver (to see) becomes via (she used to see), while vir (to come) becomes vinha (she used to come). Notice how vinha has that nasal "nh" sound, which is unique to the past habit form of vir.
Why does às have a backwards accent mark in às oito?
The word às is a contraction of the preposition a (at) and the feminine plural word for "the", as. Hours in Portuguese are feminine and plural because they implicitly refer to as horas. The grave accent (pointing left) simply shows that these two short words merged together.
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