Breakdown of O advogado ainda não chegou ao tribunal.
não
not / no
a
to / at (direction)
chegar
to arrive
ainda
still / yet / even (with comparatives)
o tribunal
the court
o advogado
the lawyer
Questions & Answers about O advogado ainda não chegou ao tribunal.
Why is ainda não placed before the verb instead of at the end of the sentence like "yet" in English?
The English translation says "has not arrived", but chegou is the simple past tense. Why don't we use a perfect tense here?
In European Portuguese, the present perfect (like tem chegado) is used specifically for actions that have been happening repeatedly or continuously up to the present, translating more like "has been arriving". For a single completed action or a state of not having done something once, like "has not arrived yet", you just use the simple past tense (Pretérito Perfeito).
Why does the sentence use ao tribunal for "at the court" rather than a translation of "at" like em or no?
The verb chegar pairs with the preposition a to indicate the destination you are arriving at. Since tribunal is a masculine noun, the preposition a combines with the definite article o to form ao. While you might occasionally hear em used with chegar in informal speech or Brazilian Portuguese, standard European Portuguese strictly requires a.
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