Breakdown of A segunda reunião começa às dez horas.
dez
ten
a hora
the hour
a
to / at (direction)
a reunião
the meeting
começar
to begin
segundo
second
Questions & Answers about A segunda reunião começa às dez horas.
Why is it segunda instead of segundo?
Ordinal numbers act like adjectives and must agree with the noun they modify in both gender and number. Because reunião (meeting) is a feminine singular noun, the ordinal number must take the feminine singular form segunda.
Does the ordinal number segunda always go before the noun?
Yes! Unlike most descriptive adjectives in Portuguese, which usually come after the noun (like a color or size), ordinal numbers like segunda (second) or primeiro (first) almost always come before the noun they modify.
Is there a rule to know that reunião is a feminine word?
Why do we use às instead of just a to say "at" ten o'clock?
When stating what time an event happens, Portuguese combines the preposition a (at) with the feminine plural article as (the). We need the plural article because horas (hours) is a feminine plural word. This combination creates the contraction às.
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