Breakdown of Ela vinha ao cinema comigo às sextas-feiras.
ela
she
ao
to the / at the (m.sg; f.sg à, m.pl aos, f.pl às)
a sexta-feira
the Friday
às
at the (fem. pl.) / to the (fem. pl.)
o cinema
the cinema
comigo
with me
vir
to come
Questions & Answers about Ela vinha ao cinema comigo às sextas-feiras.
Why is vinha translated as "used to come" instead of just "came"?
vinha is the Pretérito Imperfeito (past continuous or habitual past) of the highly irregular verb vir (to come). We use this tense because going to the cinema was a repeated, regular habit in the past. If she only came once, we would use the simple past tense (Pretérito Perfeito): Ela veio.
Is vinha related to the verb ver (to see) or the word for wine?
It is easy to mix these up! vinha is the Imperfeito of vir (to come). The same tense for ver (to see) is via (she used to see). As a bonus, the noun vinha means "vineyard", while vinho means "wine", but in this sentence, it is purely the verb "to come".
Why do we use às before sextas-feiras to say "on Fridays"?
To express doing something regularly on a certain day of the week, Portuguese uses the preposition a (to/at) plus the definite article. Because sextas-feiras is feminine and plural, a + as combines into às.
Why is "with me" translated as comigo rather than using two separate words?
In Portuguese, you cannot say com mim for "with me". It always combines into the single special word comigo. You will see this same pattern with contigo (with you, informal) and connosco (with us).
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