Do you always end up losing track of time and running late?<\/p>\n
Maybe you’re too busy appreciating the here and now to make it to the next event on time. Or maybe you just aren’t all that worried about punctuality.<\/p>\n
In this post, you’ll learn how to talk about<\/strong>\u00a0time in Portuguese <\/strong>as well as some important time-related vocabulary so that you can start keeping track of time like a native Brazilian Portuguese speaker!<\/p>\n [fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Like all communication, talking about time is a two-way street. You have to be able to tell the time, but also be able to ask for the time.<\/p>\n Here are a few common ways that people ask<\/a> for the time in Portuguese.<\/p>\n Common ways to ask “what time is it?”<\/strong><\/p>\n Que horas s\u00e3o?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Quantas horas s\u00e3o?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Less common\/colloquial ways to ask “what time is it?”<\/strong><\/p>\n Que horas que \u00e9 agora?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Que horas tem?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Note<\/strong>: The last two are colloquial ways to ask the time, and while you may hear them spoken (especially in Rio de Janeiro), it’s very unlikely that you’ll ever see them written.<\/p>\n The very first step towards saying the time in Portuguese is getting a good grip on Portuguese numbers<\/a>. If you’re feeling ambitious today, why don’t you give a go at learning 1 to 100!<\/p>\n After you know your numbers (at least from one to 12), you’ll then want to learn the following terms to talk about time in Portuguese:<\/p>\n Hora<\/em> <\/strong>(Hour)<\/p>\n Minuto<\/em> <\/strong>(Minute)<\/p>\n Segundo<\/em> <\/strong>(Second)<\/p>\n Rel\u00f3gio<\/em> <\/strong>(Watch\/Clock)<\/p>\n Remember, in Portuguese, each noun has a gender<\/a>.<\/p>\n For the above nouns and most others, an\u00a0o\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>at the end indicates it’s masculine, and an\u00a0a<\/em><\/strong> indicates it’s feminine.<\/p>\n Now all that’s left is to take your newly mastered numbers and start forming sentences!<\/p>\n Did you recognize the verb used in the previous section on how to ask for the time in Portuguese? Both s\u00e3o<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>and \u00e9<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>are conjugations of the irregular verb<\/a> ser<\/em><\/strong>. <\/em>When using\u00a0this verb to tell time, all you really need to know is whether the hour is singular or plural.<\/p>\n When singular use \u00e9:<\/em><\/p>\n \u00c9 uma hora.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(It’s one o’clock.)<\/p>\n If the hour is plural (aka anything other than one o’clock), use s\u00e3o:<\/em><\/p>\n S\u00e3o quatro horas.<\/em> <\/strong>(It’s four o’clock.)<\/p>\n S\u00e3o oito horas.<\/em> <\/strong>(It’s eight o’clock.)<\/p>\n Often Portuguese-speaking countries use a 24-hour clock to tell time. In this case, for times after 12 p.m., you’d add 12 to the hour.<\/p>\n S\u00e3o dezesseis horas.<\/em> <\/strong>(It’s sixteen o’clock. \u2192 It’s 4 p.m.)<\/p>\n S\u00e3o vinte horas.<\/em> <\/strong>(It’s twenty o’clock. \u2192 It’s 8 p.m.)<\/p>\n This 24-hour clock is often used in formal situations and in written Portuguese, such as when posting store hours<\/a>.<\/p>\n When you want to be more specific, there are plenty of ways to tell time\u00a0by the minute, half-hour, quarter-hour, etc.\u00a0<\/em>Take a look at the examples below to see how you can be more exact when telling time in Portuguese:<\/p>\n To do this, simply add e<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>and\u00a0the number of minutes<\/strong>:<\/p>\n S\u00e3o quatro horas e quinze.<\/em><\/strong> (It’s four fifteen.)<\/p>\n You can also leave off the horas\u00a0<\/em>as in:<\/p>\n S\u00e3o quatro e quinze.<\/em> <\/strong>(It’s four fifteen.)<\/p>\n Let’s have a look at a few more examples:<\/p>\n S\u00e3o oito e dez.<\/em> <\/strong>(It’s eight ten.)<\/p>\n S\u00e3o cinco e quarenta e cinco.<\/em><\/strong> (It’s five forty-five.)<\/p>\n S\u00e3o nove e trinta.<\/em> <\/strong>(It’s nine thirty.)<\/p>\n While it’s totally acceptable to say\u00a0nove e trinta,\u00a0<\/em>more often people will say e meia<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>instead of trinta<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n S\u00e3o nove e meia.<\/em> <\/strong>(It’s nine thirty.)<\/p>\n S\u00e3o sete e meia.<\/em> <\/strong>(It’s seven thirty)<\/p>\n On the other hand, if the time is exactly on the hour, you can emphasize this by using em ponto<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n S\u00e3o onze horas em ponto.<\/em><\/strong> (It’s eleven o’clock exactly. Literally, this means, “it’s eleven o’clock on the dot.”)<\/p>\n Finally, sometimes in Portuguese, when the time is nearing the next hour, people will count backward from that hour.<\/p>\n This is similar to English when people say “five to nine.” This is done by using the phrase para as<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>as in:<\/p>\n S\u00e3o cinco (minutos) para as nove (horas).<\/em> <\/strong>(It’s five (minutes) to nine (o’clock).)<\/p>\n In this case, using the words minutos<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>and horas<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>is completely optional.<\/p>\n Let’s check out some more examples:<\/p>\n S\u00e3o quinze para as tr\u00eas.<\/em> <\/strong>(It’s fifteen to three.)<\/p>\n S\u00e3o dez para as seis.<\/em> <\/strong>(It’s ten to six.)<\/p>\n Chances are when traveling to a Portuguese-speaking country<\/a> and talking about the time you’re going to want to be able to put everything into context.\u00a0From scheduling that forr\u00f3<\/em> lesson<\/a> for tomorrow afternoon to telling a new friend to drop by for caipirinhas<\/em><\/a> at 10 p.m., it’s a good idea to learn how to talk about the time before you travel.<\/p>\n To prepare for your trip, you could try learning some basic phrases for telling the time in Portuguese on a language app<\/a> or, for extra support, you could try a language learning program like FluentU<\/a>.<\/p>\n FluentU offers an array of authentic Portuguese videos\u2014like music videos and interesting talks\u2014with interactive subtitles that you can use to check the meaning of any new vocabulary. You can even use the contextual video dictionary to find other videos where specific terms like the ones mentioned in this post are used in context by native speakers.\u00a0<\/p>\nHow to Ask for the Time in Portuguese<\/h2>\n
How to Say the Time in Portuguese<\/h2>\n
Learning Numbers and Key Vocabulary<\/h3>\n
Conjugating the Verb Ser<\/em><\/h3>\n
How to Tell Time by the Minute in Portuguese<\/h2>\n
Essential Vocabulary to Use While Telling Time in Portuguese<\/h2>\n