Brazilians love conversation and will often change the topic mid-stream, often without giving any clue. Usually though, they will say one of several things:
Vamos mudar de assunto.
Mudando de assunto…
Falando de outro assunto…
*Notice how “de” is used here. You could say ’vamos mudar o assunto’ — but it’s much more common to hear the ‘de’.
Yes, it is.
Though for some weird reason it’s almost never presented in any of the Brazilian Portuguese grammar books or anything else. But it’s omnipresent. You won’t last 5 minutes in Brazil without getting it. It’s not slang — it’s part of the language*
The pronunciation is like você in that the ‘e’ is pronounced ‘AY’
Let’s see it in action:
> Cadê você? Where are you?
> Cadê meu carro? Where’s my car?
> Cadê seu telefone? Where’s your telephone?
> Cadê a tua irmã? Where’s your sister?
*This is an expression that emerged from “o que é de…?” to “quedê?” to “cadê?”
It can get a little confusing when talking about sizes of things. You can use maior/menor; superior/inferior; grande/pequeno
And, you can mix them up as well : You can say, for example – that something is menor and also say it’s inferior.
This clip is from the upcoming Semantica Series, a Virada:
Here are some ways to use this very useful verb:
cama compartilhada >> a shared bed.
internet compartilhada > shared internet.
visão compartilhada >> shared vision.
responsabilidade compartilhada >> shared responsability.
From upcoming series, Semantica Intensivo. Should be out end of 2012.
PHILLIP
Ai, ai, ai que dor! BIANCA Meu Deus. Ai foi mal peraí, peraí fique parado. PHILLIP O que foi? BIANCA Você se machucou e caiu. PHILLIP Isso eu sei. BIANCA Você está com uma dor? PHILLIP Você apareceu na minha frente! Você deve andar no calçadão! BIANCA Não, senhor! A ciclovia é compartilhada! PHILLIP "Com parte de yada"? BIANCA Com-par-ti-lha-da. É para bicicletas e pedestres. O senhor não é daqui, não é?
Notice how we use “do” and “did” all the time when asking questions:
Did you go out last night?
Do you think we should go now?
You went out last night?
You think we should go now?
This snippet from Series 1 is a good example — She asks him: “Do you want to go to the hotel by bus, or by taxi?”
The way to say this in Portuguese is:
> Você quer ir ao hotel de ônibus, ou de táxi?
She could have just as well said,
> Você quer pegar um ônibus, ou um táxi?
(Do you want to get a bus, or a taxi?)
Or also,
> Vamos de ônibus, ou de táxi?
(Let’s go by bus or take a cab?)
Many different ways to say the same thing. But always, without the “do”.
If you’ve already gotten past the basics and are no ready to dive into the different verb tenses, you really want to start with the “simple past” — you don’t need to remember this but, it’s true label is: The Preterite Indicative.
You can see the formation of this conjugation here.
The biggest issue is always the pronounciation.
Remember, for the AR verbs it’s like this:
falar
eu falei > falAYY
você, ele, ela falou > falOHH
for ER verbs it’s:
ver
eu vi > vEE
você, ele, ela viu > vEEUU
IR verbs are the same:
pedir
eu pedi > pedEE
você, ele, ela pediu > pedEEUU
The Advanced Dialogs series has great examples and practice of real-life situations of this tense.
*We’ll do the irregular verbs in our next post.
That’s what olympic athlete Rafaela Silva said after being eliminated (declassificada) for an illegal Judo move.
And the expression, “cabeça quente” — hot head is something we would say as well.
What’s worth learning from this is that Brazilians use ‘cabeça’ in expressions all the time.
Let’s see…
de cabeça para baixo = upside-down
> Depois que ela foi demitida, a vida dela virou de cabeça para baixo.
cabeça cheia = overloaded
> O João está com a cabeça cheia hoje.
levanta a cabeça = lift your head up / be proud
> Levanta sua cabeça amiga. Você fez o melhor que pode hoje!
cabeça dura = stubborn / hard-headed
> Ele é um cabeça dura! Nunca aceita um conselho de ninguém.
cabeça oca = airhead
> Juliete realmente é uma cabeça oca.
esquentar a cabeça = get excited, worried
> O passado já era. Não vale a pena esquentar a cabeça!
cabeça fraca = impressionable
> Ele é um cabeça fraca, nem tem opinião própria.
*** Use ‘estar+com’ (or, ‘estar+de) when it’s a temporary situation, use ‘ser+um/a’ when it’s permanent!
> Series 1 will get you squared=away with the verbs SER & ESTAR!
