The seasons of the year are called as estações do anothe seasons of the year in Portuguese.
Their names have Latin origins, which by now you may have noticed is very common in Portuguese. (Don’t you wish you had paid more attention to Latin in school? 😜 ) Just like English, the seasons of the year are not capitalized in Portuguese.
a primaveraspring
o verãosummer
o outonoautumn
o invernowinter
Each season can be broken into months, days, and hours.
Duration of the seasons in Portuguese
- primavera: 20 de março - 21 de junhoMarch 20 - June 21
- verão: 21 de junho - 23 de setembroJune 21 - September 23
- outono: 23 de setembro - 21 de dezembroSeptember 23 - December 21
- inverno: 21 de dezembro - 20 de marçoDecember 21 - March 20
Em fevereiro, ainda é inverno.In February, it is still winter.
Agosto é um mês de verão.August is a summer month.
O outono começa na quinta-feira.Autumn starts on Thursday.
Each season has its own holidays or important dates.
Practice English??? Seems I need to learn my own language. I’m English and until reading this section have always thought seasons were proper nouns and therefore capitalized! Every day’s a school day……
Haha, it really seems like they SHOULD be capitalized, doesn’t it? I’m sure many people make the same mistake, in both languages. 🙂
Could you explain when to use ‘o’ and when to use ‘do’ with regards seasons? For example ‘o inverno e’ depois do outono’ (and how do I find the portuguese symbols on my laptop keyboard if not in word lol??!!!)
“O” stands for the definite article “the” and “do” is actually a contraction – it’s what you get when you combine the preposition “de” with “o”. So the choice doesn’t really relate to the seasons; it’s just that you use “do” whenever there is a preposition required (which is sometimes a tricky thing to determine!).
In English, we would say “after autumn”, but in Portuguese you can’t just say “depois outono”. The preposition “de” is required after “depois”, just as the “o” is required before “outono”. Then “depois de o outono” becomes “depois do outono”.
You’ll learn about this in greater detail when you get to the Prepositions units, but you can read more about “de” in particular in this learning note: The Preposition “De”
As for the Portuguese symbols, we have a guide here that tells you the keyboard shortcuts for each accent mark depending on which type of device you’re using: Typing Portuguese Accents
I hope that helps!
The punctuation options will appear above if you were to hold down any letter key, at least on a US keyboard.
To me, the ‘A’ in the fast version of “A era” sounds like “ei era” instead of the “ɐ” I usually hear (and also hear in the slow version of “ɐ era.”) Does the pronunciation of ‘A’ change when it’s before a word starting with ‘E’? Does it change any other times?
The pronunciation of the A is presumably unaltered by an E vowel. But the A sound itself does have a small range of variation – different people may pronounce it slightly more closed or more open.
As for cases where the pronunciation is affected by other vowels, this forum topic may help: Basic pronunciation: que – Practice Portuguese Forum
Olá, I am really enjoying the course.
I have a question about the pronunciation of em.
I think of it as ey (as in eye) + ng (as in angle).
This works for some phrases from the course e.g.
‘Estamos em setembro’ and ‘A primavera está em marcha.
But in other phrases, the em sounds more like an just open e with no ng e.g.
‘A primavera termina em maio’, ‘A primavera começa em março’ and
‘Ela aposta em mim’
Is this just my hearing?
If em does have more than one pronunciation, is the any guidance on when to use which one?
Olá! Thanks for your comment. The pronunciation of ’em’ is consistent – the E should sound somewhere between ‘eye’ and ‘aim’ (so, not entirely open), with the nasal influence of the ending M. But depending on the words around it, some sounds may sort of blend together and give you the impression that the sound is varying 🙂
Hello, I often see other words such as “época” and “temporada”. Do those words mean seasons too? Or, are they more common in Brazil? Thank you for your time
Both época and temporada mean season in European Portuguese.
If you’re talking about a sports season, you’d usually use época.
If you’re talking about a season of a TV series, you’d use temporada.
Examples: Esta época desportiva vai ser muito emocionante! = This sports season is going to be very exciting!
A série de televisão Friends teve 10 temporadas. = The TV series Friends had 10 seasons.
🙂
Thank you. I was looking for this particular explanation