Where to go and what we like to do in Portuguese

Movement is life. Every day we perform a set of actions that can be called ritual. However, in our life there are special occupations – what we please ourselves with.
So it’s time to learn how to talk about what we like to do. In Portuguese, of course!

The verb “ir”

One of the most important verbs in Portuguese is a verb “ir” (to go). With its help, we can describe many actions, set the direction and even compose the future tense.
Every day we first go to school, then to the university, then to work, and finally, we go to places of entertainment to have fun and relax. In addition, we go to the gym, to the supermarket for shopping and to other countries to spend our holidays there. We go somewhere all the time!
Unfortunately, it is an irregular verb, so you need to learn its forms by heart:

The verb “ir” means moving in a certain direction. That is, “somewhere”. The direction in Portuguese is given by prepositions. There are two prepositions that describe the direction of going. They differ in the length of time spent in that place. But today we will only talk about one of them – about the preposition “a“.

Preposition “a”

The preposition “a” in Portuguese is analogous to the preposition “to” in English. However, the preposition “a” characterizes movement to some place for a short period. That is:

Vou a Moscovo hoje. (I go to Moscow today.)
Ele vai a Lisboa todos os anos. (He goes to Lisbon every year.)
Nós vamos a Londres três vezes por semana. (We go to London three times a week.)

Countries and cities usually do not have an article. You can make sure by carefully analyzing the examples above. But, what if the article is still needed?

Preposition “a” and the definite articles

The name of most of the countries, such as Belgium (aBélgica), Russia (a Rússia), Brazil (oBrasil) and Japan (o Japão) have a definite article. A similar situation occurs with few cities, for example, o Porto.
When we want to indicate the direction of movement to such cities and countries, we combine the preposition “a” and the definite article “a/as” or “o/os” and get:

a (preposition) + a (article) = à
a (preposition) + as (article) = às
a (preposition)  + o (article) = ao
a (preposition)  + os (article) = aos

Let’s see examples:
Eu vou à Bélgica todos os meses. (I go to Belgium every month.)
Tu vais ao Brasil uma vez por ano porque lá vivem os teus pais. (You go to Brazil one time per year because your parents live there.)
A Maria vai aos Estados Unidos. (Maria goes to the USA).

We act in the same way when we are talking about a place that we mentioned earlier, or if the speaker knows, which place is specifically being referred to.
Ela vai à casa dos pais dela. (She goes to her parent’s home.)
Nós vamos ao ginásio juntos. (We go to the gym together.)
O Paulo vai à praia e depois vai ao café. (Paulo goes to the beach and then goes to the cafe.)

Preposition “a” and indefinite articles

Everything is very simple here. Indefinite articles do not merge with the preposition “a“. That is:

A Maria vai a um bar. (Maria goes to a bar.)
Nós vamos a uma discoteca. (We go to a disco.)
Os meus amigos vão a um restaurante novo. (My friends go to a new restaurant.)

We remind you that indefinite articles are used in the case where we mention a place or thing for the first time in the conversation or it is an entirely indefinite place or thing.

Preference verbs

In addition to our habits of going somewhere, it is very important to be able to express our attitude towards a particular occupation and thing. Regular verbs such as gostar de (to like), adorar (to adore), detestar (to hate) help us with that.
The verbs “adorar” and “detestar” are conjugated similarly to the verb “gostar”, as all are regular verbs.

Let’s put these verbs into practice:

O Tiago gosta de futebol. (Tiago likes football.)
As crianças adoram gelado. (The children like ice-cream.)

As minhas irmãs detestam sushi. (My sisters hate sushi.)

Do not forget that the verb “gostar” always requires the preposition “de” after itself.

These three verbs are convenient to use as you do not need to conjugate a verb after them if you want to say that you like to do something.
That is, after the verbs “gostar (de), adorar, detestar” we use the infinitive:

A Helena gosta de ir ao cinema. (Helena likes going to the cinema.)
Os colegas adoram passear depois do trabalho. (The colleagues adore walking after work.)
Eu detesto lavar a loiça. (I hate washing the dishes.)

Favorite things/ activities

We can go to hundreds of bars, taste many dishes, visit dozens of countries. But how do you single out something special from a large list? We call these things and activities “favorites” and in Portuguese – “preferidos”.
The adjective “preferido” changes in gender and number depending on the noun to which it refers.

O teu filme preferido é o “Titanic”. (You favorite film is “Titanic”.)
A minha música preferida é jazz. (My favorite music is jazz.)
Os meses preferidos da Joana são dezembro e junho. (Joana’s favorite months are December and June.)

Note that, by default, the Portuguese adjectives come after the noun.

Conclusion

Using our articles you can already communicate with Portuguese on common topics. However, do not underestimate the full-fledged Portuguese language courses, where you immediately put your new knowledge into practice. Here we give only some information about the grammar of the Portuguese language. You can learn much more in our lessons!
Just email us and start or continue to learn Portuguese in our school!