Posts Tagged ‘learn portuguese online’

Hurt and wounded in Brazil

Posted By jhall_3rd on September 26th, 2011

Sometimes Brazilian Portuguese hurts so bad!

The most common verbs used to express being hurt, wounded or injured are: aleijar, machucar, magoar & ferir.

But which to use and when? Let’s look at some examples…

MACHUCAR is usually used to say that something is physically hurt. It’s used broadly and can even refer to something like a hurting like a heart or a soul.

> Ele já me machucou bastante com certas coisas que me disse.

> Eu me machuquei no ônibus.

MAGOAR is mostly used to talk about emotional and psychological hurt.

> Com o coração magoado eu me encontro.

> Essas palavras podem magoar mesmo!

FERIR is used equally for physical as well as emotional situations.

> De acordo com os bombeiros, ninguém foi ferido gravemente.

> Ele ficou apenas levemente ferido no acidente.

ALEIJAR is almost always a grave injury and translates as to maim, lame, multilate.

> A máquina acabou aleijando meu amigo.

> Como seria se você fosse aleijado, e nunca pudesse jogar bola de novo?

Posted in Learn Portuguese, Portuguese grammar and vocab

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What do you think?

Posted By jhall_3rd on September 16th, 2011

ACHAR or PENSAR?

They both mean ‘to think’ BUT,

in this context it’s better to use achar in most cases like:

> Eu acho que o correios fica na esquina.

> O que você achou do filme?

> O que você acha?

Reserving PENSAR for situations where you want literally express what you THINK, or THOUGHT such as…

> Eu penso o seguinte…

> Pensando melhor, eu prefiro jantar neste restaurante.

> Eu pensei que era maior!

Posted in Learn Portuguese, Portuguese grammar and vocab

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Please, have a seat.

Posted By jhall_3rd on September 3rd, 2011

Sente-se, por favor.

Sentar = to sit.

But, when used in a reflex way like: ‘have a seat!’ or, ‘take a seat’ — it has to used with a ‘se.’

Can I please sit down? > Posso sentar?

Please, have a seat. > Sente-se, por favor.

Posted in Portuguese grammar and vocab

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When it comes to…

Posted By jhall_3rd on September 1st, 2011

In english, we say ‘When it comes to football, Brazil has some of the best players’. >> ‘when it comes to X, blah blah blah Y.’

To express this in Brazilian Portuguese, it’s like this:
Quando se trata de… EASY!

Examples,

> Quando se trata de amor vc sabe perder?

> Quando se trata de beleza natural, acho as ruivas as mais lindas!

Posted in Learn Portuguese, Portuguese grammar and vocab

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Alma Gêmea

Posted By jhall_3rd on August 29th, 2011

Soul mates. The perfect fit.

Not something you bump into everyday but, when it happens it’s a beautiful thing.

In portuguese the expression is perfect: ‘soul twin’ > alma gêmea

ALMA = soul, spirit, heart or essense

GÊMEA = twin

Alma Gêmea.

“As pessoas acham que alma gêmea é o encaixe perfeito (perfect fit) e é isso que todo mundo quer. Mas a verdadeira alma gêmea é um espelho, a pessoa que mostra tudo que está prendendo você, a pessoa que chama a sua atenção pra você mesmo para que você possa mudar sua vida. Uma verdadeira alma gêmea é provavelmente a pessoa mais importante que você vai conhecer, porque elas derrubam as suas paredes e te acordam com um tapa. Mas viver com uma alma gêmea pra sempre? Não. Dói demais. As almas gêmeas só entram na sua vida para revelar a você uma outra camada de você mesmo e depois vão embora.” (Do livro: comer, rezar e amar)

Do you agree?

Posted in Learn Portuguese, Portuguese slang and expressions

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Running into everyone, everywhere

Posted By jhall_3rd on August 19th, 2011

Life is random.
É meio aliatório. Por acaso, coisas acontecem.

We wander the streets trying to get things done and – bump into people. Friends, aquaintances, enemies, ex-bosses, the famous, the would-be. In Brazil, running into people on the street seems to happen much more than anywhere else!

So what’s the best verb to talk about this? As usual, there are several options! Let’s look at the best ones:

DEPARAR

> Quando me deparei com ela meu coração ficou batendo muito rápido parecia que ia sair do meu peito!

ESBARRAR

> Estava no shopping hoje e, sem querer esbarrei com ela, minha ex!

DAR DE CARA

> Ao entrar no facebook dei de cara com o vídeo que meu amigo Marcus postou em seu mural.

CRUZAR

> Se você cruzar com ele na rua, não esqueça falar sobre a ideia!

* Of course, you can always use ENCONTRAR. But, encontrar implies something pre-arranged; not by chance!

Posted in Learn Portuguese, Portuguese grammar and vocab

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Maybe you will learn Brazilian Portuguese…

Posted By jhall_3rd on April 1st, 2011

Just maybe.

You already know that you can say “maybe” with TALVEZ. Did you know you can use DE REPENTE also?

Sim!

Though de repente technically means “suddenly,” it’s also used in every day speech to mean perhaps or, maybe!

The big plus is that you don’t need to use it with only the subjunctive mood, as talvez requires.

> Quem sabe, talvez seja melhor viajar na segunda-feira.

With de repente you can use any voice:

> De repente levaria menos tempo andar na praia.

You can use the conditional:

> De repente levaria menos tempo levar o ônibus.

or, the subjunctive:

> De repente seja porque ela já tem emprego.

De repente você está prendendo!

Posted in How to learn better/faster., Learn Portuguese, Portuguese grammar and vocab

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Cidade Baixa

Posted By jhall_3rd on March 30th, 2011

What a great film this is.

Rent this and take some time out to practice the language. Watch it first in english. Then, turn on the portuguese subtitles and listen in portuguese. Is your dictionary handy because you’ll need it

Aprenda!

This is truly the best way to learn the language – with your visual and audio cortex stimulated!

Posted in Brazilian Culture, Learn Portuguese, Portuguese grammar and vocab

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Carteira de Trabalho

Posted By jhall_3rd on January 10th, 2011

O indice de desemprego no Brasil está em baixo. The unemployment rate in Brazil has fallen to an historic low figure of about 6%. When talking about “rates” like this it’s also common to say “taxa” – a taxa de desemprego. “Taxa” is also used when talking about the tax rates and interest rate – “a taxa de juros”.

Not everyone who works is officially employed. Those who do use their government issued Carteira de Trabalho which is signed by their employers (os empregadores) which gets noted in the official data collection system. Just like anywhere else, only those that are officially employed are eligible for benefits – os benefícios like retirement and worker’s insurance.