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Questions & Answers about Moramos cerca da estação.
Why is there no word for "we" in this sentence?
I usually see perto de for "near". Is cerca de exactly the same?
They can both refer to physical closeness, but perto de is much more common when talking about physical distance. The phrase cerca de is usually used to mean "about" or "approximately" when talking about numbers or time, like cerca de duas horas for "about two hours". Seeing it used for physical distance like this is less common in everyday speech but still correct.
Why does the sentence use da instead of just de?
The expression for "near" is cerca de. Because estação (station) is a feminine noun, it requires the feminine word for "the", which is a. In Portuguese, the preposition de and the article a must combine to form the contraction da.
How do I know moramos means "we live" (present) and not "we lived" (past)?
In European Portuguese, the spelling gives it away! The present tense is moramos, with no accent. The past tense has an accent mark on the "a" to show a more open vowel sound: morámos. Because there is no accent in this sentence, we know it is definitely the present tense.