After years of studying and reading Portuguese, I came across an expression that I hadn’t noticed until recently. «Toca a + verb»… as in “Toca a pôr o Manto, Harry.” I have a vague idea about the meaning but now I’m seeing it in a lot of text (and Portuguese legends on movies). Any ideas the reason for using «Toca a ir» instead of «Vamos»? How common is this expression?
Olá, @mcguirejajm. No particular reason to use it other than adding some flavor to speech 
“Toca a pôr o manto” could easily be shortened to “Põe o manto” with no change in meaning, for example. The expression is common enough in daily life.
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My grandparents used this with us a lot. It’s similar to when we use the word “get” in English, even though what we’re doing has nothing to do with getting. It’s like “Get moving”, “Get going”, “Get eating”. It’s certainly very informal and a little bossy.
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