A sem/com acento, diferença entre "ir a" e "ir para a"

Portuguese Questions
1

Yesterday I had the following examples in a lesson:

  1. Nós íamos à praia.
  2. Tu ias a todas as festas.
  3. Eu ia para a escola de manha

2 questions:

  1. Why is there an accent on the “a” in the first but not on the “a” in the second and third sentence?

  2. What is the difference between “ir a” (first sentence) and “ir para a” (third sentence)?

Muito obrigado pelo responder!

3

Olá, @hjrudolph!

  1. Why is there an accent on the “a” in the first but not on the “a” in the second and third sentence? In the first sentence, à is a contraction between the preposition a and the definite article a, because the two are being used together. The accent is required because of this. In the other sentences, since there are no contractions, there are no accents. The second sentence only has the preposition a, while the third sentence only has the definite article a. Neither has both.

  2. What is the difference between “ir a” (first sentence) and “ir para a” (third sentence)? Both a and para are prepositions that are commonly used to express movement. They can be used interchangeably to some extent, but they often express different durations of movement. This topic discusses this in more detail: “A” or “para” with verbs of motion? - Portuguese Questions / Grammar - Practice Portuguese

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4

Muito obrigado, Joseph!

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