Breakdown of Apetece-te ir ao cinema hoje?
hoje
today
ao
to the / at the (m.sg; f.sg à, m.pl aos, f.pl às)
ir
to go
o cinema
the cinema
apetecer
to feel like (apetece-me...)
Questions & Answers about Apetece-te ir ao cinema hoje?
Why does the sentence start with Apetece-te instead of using a normal word for 'you'?
The verb apetecer (to feel like or to appeal to) works backward compared to English. Instead of saying 'You feel like...', you literally say 'It appeals to you...'. The -te is the 'to you' part for informal situations. So apetece-te translates to 'does it appeal to you?'.
How would I ask this same question to someone formally?
Why is it ao cinema and not just a cinema?
In Portuguese, you almost always include the definite article ('the') before specific places. The word ao is a mandatory contraction of the preposition a (to) and the masculine singular article o (the). You are literally saying 'to go to the cinema'.
Could I say Tu apeteces... to mean 'You feel like...'?
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