Brazilians are known for being tardy. Although in professional situations, excuses for being late vary from the traffic to the weather, in social situations they are not deemed necessary and better late than never is the norm.
So when doing business in Brazil expect people to be reasonably punctual but don’t be surprised, or upset when people show up two or even three hours late for parties.
Of course, all this depends on the age group and the formality of the events—young people tend to be more carefree and arrive later than their parents would, and when invited to a non-rsvp social gathering, Brazilians habitually do not pay too much attention to the appropriate time to arrive.
Nowadays everybody has a cellphone or some type of digital device that shows the time, so not having a watch is no excuse. It can happen though that your digital device is still showing the time in your native country when you are visiting Brazil, therefore you’ll need to ask the time.
Que horas são, por favor? What time is it please?
Remember that in Portuguese you use the verb in the plural except for when it is between 1 and 1:59.
É uma hora. It’s one o’clock.
É uma hora e vinte minutos. It’s one twenty.
When you want to know what time something begins you start the sentence with a.
A que horas começa a reunião? At what time does the meeting start?
A que horas o taxi vem nos buscar? At what time does the taxi come to pick us up?
When talking about a length of time you use das….as….
O filme é das 20:00 as 22:00. The movie is from 8 to 10 pm.
When you refer to an action that takes place in the future, use a:
A reunião será daqui a vinte minutos. The meeting will be in 20 minutes.
However, if you are referring to an event that happened in the past use either há or a…atrás:
A empesa foi fundada há cinco anos. / A empresa foi fundada a cinco anos atrás.
The company was established five years ago.
You can go to Lesson 7 of the Essential Portuguese to practice telling time. If you don’t have the Portuguese course, you can try this game on time for free.
