Going places in Brazilian Portuguese

Level A1

Going places in Brazilian Portuguese

In English, you can say “I’m going home” without a word like “to.” In Brazilian Portuguese, learn the patterns vou para casa and vou ao mercado, and hear how vai changes the subject to você. You’ll also recognize the informal forms pra casa and no mercado.

Places: casa and mercado

Casa means “home” or “house” and is feminine; its definite article is a. Mercado means “market” and is masculine; its definite article is o. In this lesson, para casa has no article, while ao mercado includes o as part of ao.

Say where you’re going

Use vou plus a destination to say where you are going. For “home,” say “Vou para casa.” For “the market,” say “Vou ao mercado.” English often leaves out “to” in “go home”; Portuguese uses a different expression here: para casa.

Vou expressão de destino.

Why it’s ao mercado

In “Vou ao mercado,” ao combines the preposition a (“to”) and the masculine article o (“the”). English uses “to the market,” with two separate words; Portuguese joins them. For home, this phrase uses para casa: “Vou para casa.”

Ask and answer about destinations

With você (“you”), use vai: “Você vai ao mercado?” means “Are you going to the market?” The subject changes the verb: vou means “I’m going,” while vai goes with você. Answer with vou: “Vou ao mercado.” You can ask about home with “Você vai para casa?” and answer “Vou para casa.”

Informal spoken forms

In informal speech, pra is a shorter form of para: “Hoje vou pra casa.” You may also hear “Vou no mercado hoje” for going to the market. This spoken use of no is different from the pattern ao mercado taught above; recognize it in context rather than using it as the only pattern.

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