The daily activities that we repeat from the morning till night form our routine. The number of such actions is enormous. However, today we will talk about basic daily activities in Portuguese.
Basic actions
First, let’s learn a few verbs and expressions that we can use to describe our daily routine.
- acordar – to wake up
- evantar-se – to get up
- tomar o pequeno-almoço – to have breakfast
- almoçar – to have lunch
- jantar – to have dinner
- deitar-se – lay down (to go to bed)
All these verbs are regular, that is, they are conjugated according to the basic rule. Moreover, they all have an “-ar” ending.
Ele toma o pequeno-almoço às 8.00 (He has a breakfast at 8.00)
Os meus amigos almoçam num restaurante. (My friends have lunch in a restaurant.)
Nós jantamos em casa. (We have dinner at home.)
However, we see that the antonyms “levantar-se” and “deitar-se” have an interesting particle “-se“. Let’s find out what it is.
Reflexive pronouns
The “-se” particle means “oneself”: “to raise yourself”, “to lay down myself” and etc. That is, the action is performed by oneself. It is called reflexive and is conjugated with the verb:
| Pronome reflexivo | |
| Eu | me |
| Tu | te |
| Ele, ela, você | se |
| Nós | nos |
| Eles, elas, vocês | se |
We will show with examples:
A: Eu levanto-me muito cedo de manhã. E tu? (I get up very early in the morning. And you?)
B: Eu também. Mas o meu irmão acorda ao meio-dia. Deita-se tarde e gosta de dormir. (Too. But my brother gets up at the afternoon. He lays down late and likes to sleep.)
We can add reflexive particles to many verbs, but not all. And, some verbs even change their meaning. For example, mudar (to change), mudar-se (to move).
Position of “-se”
In common phrases, the reflexive “-se” comes after the verb. However, the situation changes in several cases.
1) When we add words like raramente (rarely), nunca (never), já (already), ainda (still), só (only), também (too), todos (everybody), the return particle “-se” moves and goes before the verb.
A Sofia raramente se levanta cedo. (Sofia rarely gets up early.)
Tu nunca te deitas à meia noite. (You never lay down at midnight.)
2) The same thing happens when we use the negative particle “não“:
Elas não se deitam na hora. (They never lay down on time.)
3) And after the interrogative words, the reflexive particle comes before the verb:
Como te chamas? (What is your name?)
Quando ele se deita? (When he lays down?)
There is another interesting case for the reflexive verb form for the pronoun “nós“:
Nós levantamo-nos às 7.00 (We get up at 7.00)
Notice that the letter “s” has disappeared: levantamo-nos? This is done to facilitate pronunciation. Therefore, in cases where the reflexive particle comes before the verb, the letter “s” remains: não nos levantamos.
Prepositions for motion
Every day we move and go somewhere, so in order to talk about our routine, it is necessary to learn suitable prepositions.
You already know that we use the preposition “a” to indicate the direction of moving. However, there are nuances. The preposition “a” means that we will spend a short period of time at our destination:
Vou à casa de banho. (I go to the WC.)
Vais à casa da tua mãe. (You go to your mother’s house.)
If we are going to spend a long period of time at our destination, we use the preposition “para“:
Vou para a cama. (I go to the bed.)
Volto para casa às 18.00 (I go back home at 18.00)
Of course, the concept of “time” is relative. You need to understand what to compare with. For example, a vacation trip to Lisbon is considered a short period of time, while a study trip is considered a long one. While coming home from work is a long period, and visiting for a whole day is a short period.
And also, after the verb of movement “chegar” (to come), we always use the preposition “a“.
Prepositions for punctual actions and routine
Sometimes we need to say not only what time we do something, but also what day of the week. In this case, we use the preposition “em“, which merges with the definite article.
O Marco vai ao treino na segunda. (Marco goes training on Monday.)
Moreover, the preposition “em” means that the action will happen once. If we want to say that we do something regularly on the same day, then we use the preposition “a“.
O Marco vai ao treino à segunda. (Marco goes training on Mondays.)
Time intervals
First, we can describe a period of time using the preposition “durante” (during).
Durante a semana tenho muito trabalho. (During a week I have a lot of work.)
Second, we can concretize the time period using the prepositions “de, a / até“.
Das 8.00 às / até às 16.00 tenho aulas de português. (From 8.00 till 16.00 I have lessons of Portuguese.)
And also remember the following expressions: de manhã (in the morning), à tarde (in the afternoon), à noite (in the evening), na hora do almoço / jantar (at lunch/ dinner time)
Amanhã de manha, das 9.00 às 10.00, ela vai estar numa consulta. (Tomorrow in the morning from 9.00 till 10.00 she will be in a consultation.)
Conclusion
With this article, you can talk about what you do every day or regularly. But, we will be glad if the Portuguese language also becomes a part of your routine. To do this, just write to us!