From ... to (de ... a, or a ... de)

Portuguese Questions Grammar
1

I can’t get my head around the translation of “from … to”. There are two flashcards

  • eu trabalho de segunda a sexta
  • o aeroporto fica a cinco quilómetros de minha casa

Is it the case that de … a and a … de can be used interchangeably, or is there another reason for the different examples?

2

The first sentence can be translated literally as:
“I work from Monday to Friday.”
In the second sentence, it helps to think that ‘fica’ means ‘is situated’. This then makes better sense of the use of ‘a’: A clumsy but literal translation would be:
“The airport is situated at 5 km from my house”
But of course in English we would simply say:
“The airport is 5km from my house.”

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3

Thank you very much Michael. Yes, that makes sense, and thinking like that makes it easier to remember that the preposition is needed.

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4

I second @michael.pearce’s explanation :slight_smile: “De… a” and “a… de” are not interchangeable; the prepositions are used differently in each case.

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