If you’re already pretty comfortable with the differences between ESTAR & SER, then this is for you. It’s incredibly useful to have a one-stop reference for all the different flavors of ESTAR. I always wanted one when I was learning everything but never found anything! ESTAR in all it’s glory *Ordered by importance (use). Complete…
Read more...(PRECISO DE VOCÊ COMIGO = I NEED YOU WITH ME) The verb is a lot like GOSTAR in that it usually gets followed by a de — BUT, unlike gostar, not all the time. The de is there because you are literally saying I need of something. When do you ned to add the “de”?…
Read more...Are you sure? That’s for sure. You’re right! Isn’t that so? Brazilians are positive people 😉 They will frequently affirm confirm and encourage an idea or thought. And they do so in specific ways. Brazilians use several key phrases but most affirmations are based on just two words: CERTEZA: Você tem certeza? Are you sure?…
Read more...I didn’t learn how to use the 3 ways of saying there in Portuguese until I’d been in Brazil for several years. That changed suddenly when talking on the phone I said, Como vai lá? Silence followed. It was as if I had said, Como vai lá em Londres?. Oh! Você quer dizer, Como vai…
Read more...Brazilians use the word lá to express much more than just the literal, there, that place over there. Lá in Portuguese is actually used in many different expressions in everyday speech. Later, we’ll look at the other ways (the other words!) also used to say there besides lá! » ali and aí — these ALSO…
Read more...When I last posted about the Preterit Indicative, it was all about regular verbs. Now let’s look at the most common IRREGULARs in this tense. » *regular verbs are here. The “simple past tense” (the Preterit Indicative) is used to talk about action that’s over and done – in the frame of your story: I…
Read more...I couldn’t believe how hard it was to say, “I just got home” or, “They just arrived” — I tried to use só or, somente for just. Then I would say something like, I soon got home or, I now arrived home. Crazy difficult. Then I discovered ACABAR DE. ACABAR + de + VERB =…
Read more...I got really curious about the use of por in Portuguese. Her’s how Google Translates por: por = by, for, per, in, of, to, with, via, out of, for the sake of AND SO ON. Confusing to say the very least. While true that por can translate as all of the above, I’ve found that…
Read more...It’s really not that hard to pick whether to use por vs. para to say, for. You’ll soon learn that Portuguese has different words to express what we would use one word to accomplish. It’s part of what makes the language very precise. English is considered vague by comparison! por vs. para ~ Can’t we…
Read more...The first thing that struck me as wrong with the use of o and a for THE. One letter? I really wanted at least an el or, la. Portuguese Articles (called: definite articles) are actually super-practical. Two immediate and big payoffs: (1) You can use the o and a as it! You can also combine…
Read more...The Preterit Indicative is “the simple past tense” Ready to move on the past tenses? Start here, with the Preterit Indicative. I call it the simple past because it’s the clearest, simplest verb tense (*a verb tense describes a time that something happened.) in Portuguese. Hang around here a bit and you will meet the…
Read more...In English, the infinitive form is just to + the verb: to dance, to kiss, to spend… I’m just going to sit here until this all makes good sense. The Portuguese infinitive is just the verb itself: falar comer dormir There’s no need to add a to. Every verb is born in its infinitive beauty….
Read more...GOSTAR (complete conjugation) is one of those verbs that you will use all the time. Unless you don’t like anything 🙁 But then you will have to say. “Eu não gosto…” because it’s just not cool to use the word hate (ODIAR) except very rarely. Gostar is used differently than most any other verb in…
Read more...There are 4 important Portuguese contractions that you need to know. But take just a brief moment to appreciate what a learner of our fine language needs to absorb: we’ll, she’ll, it’ll, isn’t hasn’t wasn’t wouldn’t, shouldn’t, and on and on. I bring this up because Portuguese contractions are an object of so much complaining…
Read more...Mine, Yours, His & Hers The words that we use to convey POSSESSION are pretty simple because all objects are treated as gender-neutral. In Portuguese of course, there are always two options: the masculine and the feminine. These are called possessive pronouns and they are going to test the limits of your patience until you…
Read more...The future subjunctive is used to talk about things that are uncertain to occur in the future. %%sep%% The words IF and WHEN usually trigger this tense.
Read more...Using the Present Subjunctive Portuguese uses the Subjunctive mood to indicate something is uncertain to happen or to have occurred. There are 3 different degrees of uncertainty: (1) extremely unlikely, (2) plausible, (3) likely. The Present Subjunctive is used for case (2): actions that are plausible, yet have not yet occurred. Use this tense to talk…
Read more...You use the Portuguese Reflexive when you want to clear that you’re talking about yourself or, herself, themselves etc. When we say The Portuguese Reflexive, we’re really talking about those pronouns that get added right before a verb. These are called Reflexive Pronouns: Reflexive Pronoun Eu me Eu me levantei. (I got myself up) Você…
Read more...Saying CAN in Portuguese can be confusing. Using PODER will take you far, but to really communicate you need CONSEGUIR plus some other useful expressions.
Read more...In Portuguese, there are several ways to refer to something that happened in the past, each with varying shades of meaning. Verb tenses! The Past Imperfect – officially called the Imperfect Indicative (o Pretérito Imperfeito), is used when talking about continuous or ongoing action in the past. Something that used to occur or, would occur. You’ll…
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