horas al día
/oɾas al dia/from spelling rules
The phrase "hours per day" in Spanish is horas al día.
This phrase is used to describe the amount of time spent on a specific activity during each twenty-four hour period.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of horas (hours), al (a contraction of a meaning "to/at" and el meaning "the") and día (day).
Is it said differently in some regions?
In some Latin American countries, people may use horas por día to mean "hours per day".
How does it change in a sentence?
The most common way to express this is horas al día, but horas por día is also grammatically correct and uses the preposition por to mean "per".
Did you know?
- In Spanish, the word día is masculine, requiring the article el. This is an oddity because most nouns ending in -a are feminine.
- The word día is not a relative of the English word 'day', despite their similar appearance. It actually descends from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'heaven' or 'sky'.
- In many Spanish-speaking countries, if you are talking about a work schedule, you might hear people use jornada to refer to the block of hours worked, rather than just counting the 'horas'.
Examples in context
- Trabajo ocho horas al díaI work eight hours per day
- El promedio es de cuatro horas diariasThe average is four hours per day
- Duermo ocho horas al díaI sleep eight hours per day
- Juego videojuegos varias horas diariasI play video games for several hours per day
- El empleado trabajó nueve horas al día durante una semana completa.The employee worked nine hours per day for an entire week.
- El entrenador recomienda practicar inglés al menos dos horas diarias.The coach recommends practicing English for at least two hours per day.
- Necesito estudiar tres horas por díaI need to study three hours per day
- Estudio tres horas al día.I study three hours a day.
Example conversation
Mateo and María are discussing their work schedules.
- MateoMaría, ¿cuántas horas al día trabajas?María, how many hours per day do you work?
- MaríaTrabajo seis horas al día.I work six hours per day.
- MateoEso es un horario muy bueno.That is a very good schedule.
- MaríaSí, tengo tiempo para descansar.Yes, I have time to rest.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries día, CC BY-SA 4.0.
