Ainda é de madrugada

Portuguese Questions Grammar
1

There is this sentence In “periods of time”. Can anyone explain me the meaning of the word “de” in this sentence? Can it be just “Ainda é madrugada” ou “Ainda é a madrugada” ?
Thank you

2

Hi, @zemerivri! The preposition de doesn’t add anything in terms of meaning; you can just think of it as a connecting word. I don’t know and couldn’t find any good explanation of why we’ve gotten used to adding it - it’s just one of those things, apparently :slight_smile: You can say “Ainda é de madrugada” and “Ainda é madrugada”. “Ainda é a madrugada” sounds very strange. The same idea also applies to ‘manhã’ (morning) and ‘noite’ (evening), but not to ‘tarde’ (afternoon), where the presence/absence of de changes the meaning:

  • Ainda é de tarde. = It’s still afternoon.
  • Ainda é tarde. = It’s still late.
3

Thank you very much for your answer. It helps me “getting inside the portuguese mind”

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