Time and Dates in Portuguese

In Brief

Ask Que horas são? for the current time and answer with singular É uma hora but plural São duas horas. Minutes are joined with e (três e meia), weekdays often appear with an article inside na/no, and dates normally use a cardinal number followed by de plus the month: 15 de agosto.

Overview

Talking about schedules, opening hours, appointments, birthdays, and travel requires several small patterns rather than one large rule. At A1, the essentials are straightforward: use ser (“to be”) to give the time, learn the weekdays and months, and build a date as day + de + month. If you already know Portuguese cardinal numbers, you have most of the raw material.

English habits can nevertheless cause mistakes. Portuguese says literally “are two hours,” not “it is two o’clock”; it uses e (“and”) between hours and minutes; and it normally writes dates in day–month–year order. Articles and prepositions also matter: “on Monday” is commonly na segunda-feira, while “in August” is em agosto, without an article in standard European Portuguese.

This article uses European Portuguese as its main reference, matching forms such as sais. Important Brazilian Portuguese alternatives are identified in the usage notes rather than mixed into the beginner rule.

How It Works

Asking and telling the time

The broad question Que horas são? means “What time is it?” Portuguese treats the clock reading as a subject of ser (the verb “to be”). Use singular é with one o’clock and plural são with every other hour.

Time	Portuguese pattern	Example
1:00	É uma hora.	É uma hora. — It is one o’clock.
2:00–12:00	São + number + horas.	São quatro horas. — It is four o’clock.
1:05	É uma e + minutes.	É uma e cinco. — It is five past one.
3:30	São + hour + e meia.	São três e meia. — It is half past three.

The word hora is feminine, so 1:00 uses uma, not um. In everyday answers, hora/horas is often omitted after the number: São quatro and É uma are complete and natural. Meia is short for meia hora (“half an hour”), which explains its feminine ending.

For minutes after the hour, join the two numbers with e:

• 2:10 — São duas e dez.
• 5:15 — São cinco e um quarto. or São cinco e quinze.
• 8:30 — São oito e meia.

For the latter part of an hour, you can either continue counting the minutes or count back from the next hour:

• 9:40 — São nove e quarenta.
• 9:40 — São vinte para as dez. (“It is twenty to ten.”)
• 12:45 — É um quarto para a uma. (“It is a quarter to one.”)

Notice para as before plural hours but para a uma before one. These forms contain the definite article (a word corresponding to “the”): a for one o’clock and as for the other hours.

Asking when something happens

Use A que horas ...? when you want the time of an event rather than the current clock time:

• A que horas sais? — What time do you leave?
• A que horas começa o filme? — What time does the film start?

Answers normally use à before one o’clock and às before other clock times. These are contractions (two words combined into one): a + a = à and a + as = às.

Question or answer	Meaning
A que horas?	At what time?
À uma.	At one.
À uma e meia.	At half past one.
Às duas.	At two.
Das nove às cinco.	From nine to five.

Do not confuse São duas (“It is two”) with às duas (“at two”). The accent mark distinguishes às from the plain article as.

Parts of the day

When the hour might be ambiguous, add a part of the day:

Portuguese	Meaning	Typical use
da manhã	in the morning	after midnight through the morning
da tarde	in the afternoon	after noon through late afternoon
da noite	in the evening/at night	evening and night
ao meio-dia	at noon	12:00 in the daytime
à meia-noite	at midnight	00:00

Thus São oito da manhã is 8:00 a.m., while São oito da noite is 8:00 p.m. Portuguese does not need the English abbreviations a.m. and p.m. in ordinary speech.

Days of the week

Portuguese weekdays are not capitalized unless they begin a sentence. Feira may be omitted in informal speech, especially when the context is clear, but the full forms are safest for learners.

Portuguese	English
segunda-feira	Monday
terça-feira	Tuesday
quarta-feira	Wednesday
quinta-feira	Thursday
sexta-feira	Friday
sábado	Saturday
domingo	Sunday

For one specific or upcoming weekday, European Portuguese commonly uses na with the weekdays ending in -feira and no with the weekend days:

• na segunda-feira — on Monday
• no sábado — on Saturday
• no domingo — on Sunday

Here na = em + a and no = em + o. To express a repeated schedule, use the plural: às segundas-feiras (“on Mondays”), aos sábados (“on Saturdays”).

Months and dates

Months also begin with a lowercase letter in normal Portuguese writing.

Portuguese	English	Portuguese	English
janeiro	January	julho	July
fevereiro	February	agosto	August
março	March	setembro	September
abril	April	outubro	October
maio	May	novembro	November
junho	June	dezembro	December

A date is normally built with cardinal numbers (the ordinary counting numbers) in this order:

day + de + month + de + year

• 15 de agosto — August 15
• 25 de abril de 1974 — April 25, 1974
• 2 de janeiro de 2026 — January 2, 2026

Unlike English, Portuguese does not normally turn every date into an ordinal such as “fifteenth.” The first day of a month may be 1 de maio or, especially in Brazil, primeiro de maio.

To ask for the date, use Que dia é hoje? (“What date/day is it today?”). A simple answer is Hoje é dia 15 de agosto or Hoje é 15 de agosto. A date can also function as a noun phrase with an article, as in o 15 de agosto de que falámos (“the August 15 we discussed”). In European Portuguese, an event scheduled for a date commonly uses a: A reunião é a 15 de agosto.

Numeric dates normally follow day/month/year order: 15/08/2026. This is the reverse of the common U.S. month/day/year order, so write the month in words when ambiguity could matter.

Examples in Context

Portuguese	English	Note
Que horas são?	What time is it?	General clock-time question
É uma hora.	It is one o’clock.	Singular é and feminine uma
São três e meia.	It is half past three.	meia means half an hour
São cinco e um quarto.	It is quarter past five.	Literally “five and a quarter”
São dez para as oito.	It is ten to eight.	Counts back from the next hour
A que horas sais de casa?	What time do you leave home?	Asks when an event happens
Saio às sete e vinte.	I leave at 7:20.	às introduces the clock time
A consulta é à uma da tarde.	The appointment is at 1:00 p.m.	Singular à uma
A loja abre das nove às seis.	The shop is open from nine to six.	Time range with das ... às
Encontramo-nos na segunda-feira.	We’ll meet on Monday.	A particular weekday
Não trabalho aos domingos.	I don’t work on Sundays.	Habitual, plural day
As aulas começam em setembro.	Classes start in September.	Month after em, no article
Hoje é dia 15 de agosto.	Today is August 15.	A natural answer to the date question
Nasci a 3 de março de 1998.	I was born on March 3, 1998.	European Portuguese date pattern
O prazo termina no dia 30 de junho.	The deadline ends on June 30.	no dia makes the date explicit

Common Mistakes

Using plural são for one o’clock

• Wrong: São uma hora.
• Right: É uma hora.
• Why: One o’clock is grammatically singular. All other numbered hours use são.

Choosing masculine um with hora

• Wrong: É um hora.
• Right: É uma hora.
• Why: Hora is a feminine noun (a naming word), so “one” takes the feminine form uma.

Omitting e between hour and minutes

• Wrong: São três trinta.
• Right: São três e trinta. / São três e meia.
• Why: In ordinary speech, Portuguese links the hour and minutes with e. A digital display may read 3:30, but that does not dictate the spoken form.

Confusing “it is” with “at”

• Wrong: O comboio parte são oito.
• Right: O comboio parte às oito.
• Why: São oito gives the current time; às oito places an event at that time.

Copying English date order or ordinals

• Wrong: agosto quinze or décimo quinto de agosto
• Right: 15 de agosto / quinze de agosto
• Why: Portuguese places the day before the month and normally uses a cardinal number, not an ordinal.

Capitalizing every weekday and month

• Wrong: Segunda-feira, 15 de Agosto
• Right: segunda-feira, 15 de agosto
• Why: Portuguese weekdays and months are common nouns and normally take lowercase initials.

Usage Notes

European and Brazilian Portuguese share the core clock system, month names, and day–month date order, but prepositions vary. European Portuguese commonly says na segunda-feira, a 15 de agosto, and nasci a 3 de março. Brazilian Portuguese very often says na segunda-feira, no dia 15 de agosto, and nasci em 3 de março. Dia 15 is widely useful in both varieties and avoids forcing a regional preposition choice.

In Brazil, meio-dia e meia (“half past noon”) is widespread because meia refers to an omitted hora. In Portugal, meio-dia e meia is also heard, though speakers may choose doze e meia. Prescriptive debates exist around this expression, but learners should recognize the common spoken form.

Timetables, tickets, and official schedules often use the 24-hour clock: 14h30, read catorze horas e trinta in a formal announcement or simply duas e meia da tarde in conversation. European Portuguese spells 14 as catorze or quatorze; Brazilian usage strongly favors quatorze. The notation 14:30 is also common.

English “next Monday” can be context-sensitive, and Portuguese is no different. na próxima segunda-feira means “next Monday,” while esta segunda-feira means “this Monday.” If misunderstanding would matter, add the date rather than relying on either phrase alone.

Beyond the Basics

You do not need to master these details at A1, but they explain forms you will meet later.

Clock time can be approximate: por volta das oito means “around eight,” cerca das oito means “at about eight,” and passa um pouco das oito means “it is a little after eight.” For deadlines, até às cinco means “by/until five,” while a partir das cinco means “from five onward.”

Portuguese distinguishes a point in time from duration. às três is “at three,” but durante três horas is “for three hours.” To say that something happened three hours ago, use há três horas. To say that it will happen in three hours, use daqui a três horas. These expressions reuse clock vocabulary but belong to a broader system of time prepositions.

Dates may include the weekday: segunda-feira, 15 de agosto de 2026. In formal documents, the place may precede a fully written date: Lisboa, 15 de agosto de 2026. Centuries use Roman numerals in writing and ordinal numbers in speech: século XXI, read século vinte e um in current usage.

Finally, articles can change the meaning of weekday expressions. na segunda-feira points to a Monday understood from context; às segundas-feiras describes a regular Monday pattern; and de segunda a sexta means “from Monday to Friday.” Learn each as a useful phrase rather than trying to translate English “on” word for word.

Practice Tips

1. Run a clock drill. Pick five random digital times and say each aloud in two ways where possible: 9:45 → nove e quarenta e cinco; um quarto para as dez. Always include one o’clock so that é/uma becomes automatic.
2. Build a real weekly schedule. Write one specific plan with na/no and one repeated habit with às/aos for each weekday: na terça-feira versus às terças-feiras.
3. Read dates aloud in Portuguese order. Use birthdays, appointments, and public holidays. Write the month as a word until day/month order feels natural, then practise numeric forms.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Cardinal Numbers — supplies the numbers used for hours, minutes, days, and years.