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A excursão ao castelo parte às nove.

A excursão ao castelo parte às nove.
The excursion to the castle leaves at nine.
From Lesson 175:As viagens (fazer as malas, o miradouro)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about A excursão ao castelo parte às nove.

Why is it ao castelo and not just a castelo?
ao is the contraction of the preposition a (to) and the masculine word for the (o). In Portuguese, you almost always need to include the definite article (the) before specific locations like castelo.
Why use parte for 'leaves' here instead of sai?
Both partir and sair mean to leave. However, partir is typically used for scheduled departures of things like tours, buses, trains, or flights. sair is more general, like physically walking out of a room.
Why does às nove have an accent mark?
The word às is a contraction of the preposition a (at) and the feminine plural word for the (as). We use the feminine plural here because it secretly refers to horas (hours), which is a feminine word. The grave accent shows that these two small words merged.
Is excursão masculine or feminine? It ends in -ão.
It is feminine, which is why it starts with A excursão. While many short words ending in -ão are masculine (like cão or pão), longer words ending in -são or -ção that correspond to English words ending in -sion or -tion are almost always feminine.

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