Carnival: Asking where main parade route starts

💬 After onde, the verb comes before the thing: começa o desfile. Swap in any event, as in onde começa o concerto "where the concert starts".

💬 em + a becomes na, and de + o becomes do. These merges are never optional, so you'll hear them constantly with place names.

🇵🇹 Most Portuguese towns have a Praça do Município next to the town hall. It's a common starting point for parades and public celebrations.

💬 Fica "is located" is the go-to verb for where places are, not é or está. For example, Onde fica a estação? "Where is the station?"

💬 The ão is nasal, pushed through the nose, roughly (nown). Don't say it like English "now".

💬 Placed before a number, uns means "about" or "roughly". Use umas with feminine words, as in umas duas horas "about two hours".

💬 Times and distances use plural são when the number is plural. Notice são uns dez minutos, not é.

💬 é que after a question word is a very common, natural way to ask in Portugal. Here lá "there" also moves before the verb.

💬 Siga is the polite command form you'll hear in directions. Others follow the same pattern: vire "turn" and desça "go down".

💬 sempre normally means "always", but in directions it means "keep going".

💬 Asking the time something happens uses plural horas: a que horas. The answer uses às, as in às três "at three".

💬 às is a + as merged, because clock hours are treated as plural and feminine. The exception is one o'clock: à uma "at one".

💬 encher literally means "to fill". Used with no object, as here, it means a place gets packed.

💬 In casual speech, que here means "because". It's a quick way to add a reason after advice.

💬 obrigado changes with the speaker, not the listener. Men say obrigado and women say obrigada.

💬 The -se attached with a hyphen goes after the verb in polite commands. It's the normal order in Portugal, as in Sente-se "Sit down".