What’s so special about the verbs PARAR & COMEÇAR? For starters you’ve probably noticed that you always have to treat these verbs a little differently. For example, you can’t say “I stopped eating sugar” like this: eu parei comer açucar (NÃO!) — you need to include a de like this: I stopped eating sugar >…
Read more...How do you say something like, I’d like to go with you sometime or ask, Can we play with you guys? In Portuguese there are several key verbs that make it easy and clear that you’d like to do something – to participate. Portuguese invitational verbs participar: to participate poder: to be able to, can…
Read more...I found it confusing having two verbs for to wait. ESPERAR AGUARDAR Waiting, in Portuguese – parsing the possibilities What is the difference? When talking about waiting you won’t find a hard rule for either of these verbs. Look at these examples: Eu vou esperar você voltar ao hotel. > I’m going to wait for…
Read more...Vocab, vocab, vocab. Whatever technique is working for you in your quest to master the language, there is no getting around the fact that when it comes to Portuguese vocabulary, the more the better. Kindly ignore any learning program that says to just start talking with the bare minimum of vocabulary. Whether you prefer a…
Read more...perto de I keep coming back to this subject because so many people ask about it. I’ve posted about Portuguese adverbs of position & place before, but today I just want to review the super-common two: perto de: close to and, longe de: far from It’s obvious why the de is there, right? Brazilians say…
Read more...A student just reminded me of a very cool YouTube comedy channel called Porta dos fundos. Besides being insanely funny, it’s actually funny to non-Brazilians as well (but, for advanced & intermediate learners). Even I find most of the great Brazilian way too hard to laugh at. There are just too many subtle cultural references…
Read more...There are several verbs that when used in specific ways open the door to new possibilities. Let’s look at the combination, A partir de and how this one can be used. The Portuguese verb PARTIR means: to leave, depart, go away. a partir de When combined like this, partir takes on the meaning: starting from…
Read more...Why is this so hard to say? to run into, to bump into: Saying it in Portuguese. When you’re in Brazil it’s normal to spend much more time on foot, walking the streets. Even though automobiles inundate life as here, the infrastructure of most cities just can’t handle them and as a result, there are…
Read more...These are really useful ways to talk about the timing of things. These are the most common ones but, you can also modify these to say exactly what you want to say without learning anything else! I put most of these on my flashcard stack and memorized them before traveling to Brazil. Test yourself: Study…
Read more...Chegou a hora – in Portuguese means of course: the time has arrived, the time has come, or simply, it’s time. Seems so simple, right. But how would you say something like: “when the time comes to…” or, “please, be on time –? Simple Use: It’s time to work. > Chegou a hora de trabalhar….
Read more...Stumbling block #1 for new learners is making sense of how Brazilians say small, smaller, smallest & big, bigger, biggest. What’s the big deal? In all Portuguese you express things like short, smart, fat, fast, sexy like this: short = baixo shorter = mais baixo shortest = o mais baixo * And of course, the…
Read more...Is there no end to the suffering? It’s not enough that we have to learn to conjugate 3 different verb types (the ar, ei & ir endings). There is yet another group: the Portuguese ~or verbs! Sim, e não. The good news is, there are only a few of these actually used and: their conjugations…
Read more...In Portuguese there are several ways to refer to something that happened in the past. Each, with different meanings. The Preterit tense is the simplest of these. It’s like saying, I bought my own private jet yesterday.. Why isn’t that enough to know? Because in Portuguese, you will use a different verb conjugation to convey…
Read more...Even I struggle to get this straight. The thing that makes this tricky: In Portuguese we’re constantly reminding you to make sure to get your gender straight. And I’m not talking about your sexual preference here não! It’s a constant struggle to keep word gender correct, certo? Muito or Muita? Minha cerveja está gelada. Meu…
Read more...Great alt-travel blog, The Locales brilliantly leverages local guides and country experts to bring a fresh perspective to many travel destinations. Founder, Weston Moody has posted audio travle-guides and travel advice about subjects such as budget travel, kayaking in Angola, and visting remote areas of the Nepalese Himalayas. The Locales goal is to empower people…
Read more...I got really curious about the use of por in Portuguese. Google Translates por as a long list of words: by, for, per, in, of, to, with, via, out of, for the sake of ETC. Confusing to say the very least. While true that por can translate as all of the above, I’ve found that…
Read more...You can score BIG points just being able to meet & greet in Brazil. Before you even know how to say anything else, learn these. Use them to practice your pronunciatiion – you’ll be using them over and over. For example — Tudo bem is the main thing everyone says when seeing someone you know…
Read more...I am with luck. That is literally how you would say “I’m lucky” in Brazilian Portuguese: eu estou com sorte. estar com (beginner) In Brazilian Portuguese it’s important to remember that this special combination of ESTAR + COM is used to say things like: I’m hungry. > Eu estou com fome. I’m thirsty. > Eu…
Read more...You need to learn Portuguese because you have to visit Brazil before you die. Just as in English, there are two ways to express need. Each has its own specific way of being used. (1) precisar PRECISAR = to need. Precisar is a little tricky because you must always put a “de” after it unless…
Read more...Words that connect us. In this first of a series of posts we are going to talk about those words & phrases that are always there — holding the sentence together. Tudo bem? In grammar-speak, these are called conjunctions. Do not be afraid. They are your friends. You already use them all-the-time 😉 Aditivas: Indicam…
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