Somehow, saying one another in Portuguese or, to each other just seems too tricky in Portuguese. Let’s take a closer look at this much-overlooked phrase to see what it is exactly that’s tripping us up. Hint: it’s the ao that’s the problem 😵. Let’s break it down. In English we say things like, We’ll see…
Read more...As usual, there are just too many options! Detesto opções! ~ o Chatão (annoying person) Trying to say “about” in Portuguese can quickly turn into a grande confusão that has your reaching for your phone. As usual, the problem is the huge number of options. And como sempre (as always) the solution is: Relaxar… Respirar……
Read more...Use I find the Portuguese Imperative pretty confusing! The Imperative is a mood, not a verb tense, btw. Verb tenses are the individual conjugations within a mood: eu falo, você fala, nós falamos ETC. A mood has tenses. The Portugues Imperative is a MOOD. Mood indicates the attitude of the speaker toward a subject. In…
Read more...Portuguese verb DAR: um bicho de 7 cabeças. A 7-headed animal. Bicho (slang) = animal. É mesmo. I get daily requests to explain the Portuguese verb DAR is one of those verbs like FICAR or DEIXAR that can change their meaning depending on the context. These verbs were a great pain to learn because I…
Read more...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...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...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...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 always occur….
Read more...What is the Portuguese JEITO? It’s just an expression: JEITO = way, as in: let’s find a way. It’s somewhat notorious because Brazil has been known as the place where anything is possible. This comes mostly from the recent past in which one could for example, buy their way into a green card, bribe someone…
Read more...In the previous post we talked about this verb tense — the imperfect subjunctive, as well. So many of you have asked to see even more examples of this super-useful grammar trick so: aqui estão! (here they are!) the Imperfect Subjunctive is insanely great. Even better with the Conditional! And BTW, only language professors need…
Read more...The subjunctive mood has been known to break students. Every serious Portuguese student runs straight into it. Some get hurt. Some get scared. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The Portuguese Subjunctive is actually a rose with thorns. It’s a beautiful part of the language that should be embraced and used with style,…
Read more...Assim is the 90th most used word in the Portuguese language! Assim has two main meanings: Assim in Portuguese = like this, like that Eu sou assim. ➜ I’m like this/that. The verb SER is used because this is a permamnent condition. Nós somos assim. ➜ We’re like this/that I just wanted to show the…
Read more...How do Brazilians use FALAR and DIZER? Is there really a difference?
Read more...We’ve written about ACABAR de before — because it’s such a useful combination. When you place a de after acabar, it takes on the meaning of, to have just. ACABAR in Portuguese by itself means: to end, to end-up, to finish. Everyone gets these mixed-up (confundida) ~ That DE makes all the difference! Use ACABAR…
Read more...Using the Imperfect 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 Imperfect Subjunctive is used for case (1): actions that are extremely unlikely to happen or to have happened. If I were…
Read more...Ter in the Future Tense The common way is to use the verb ir as a helper verb (the future tense with ir) Eu vou ter mais tempo amanhã. > I’m going to have more time tomorrow. Ele vai ter que correr. > He’s going to have to run. Você vai ter uma namorada nova….
Read more...Prerequisite Reading: Portuguese verb TER. Superpowers? Sim, TER has superpowers. Though these are considered advanced-level, any ambitious learner can start using them now! Just keep in mind that the conjugation of TER is very irregular. Let’s start with the most used: The Imperative of Ter You will hear these all_the_time: Tenha um bom dia! >…
Read more...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: Eu parei de comer açucar….
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...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...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: Chegou a hora de trabalhar. ➜ It’s time to work….
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...We all have our own unsolved mysteries about SAMBA, right? Do you really have to go to a samba school to learn samba? Is there some store where you buy those outfits? Can men samba too? Does it mean you’re gay if you do? It’s just like salsa – but with less clothing? It just…
Read more...There’s this perception that Brazilians enjoy a drink. Verdade ou mito? VERDADE. It’s the weather. Imagine if all the skanky bars in your town were open air, tables spilling out onto the sidewalk where you could instantly see smiling people with cold drinks. I bet you’d stop by at least once in a while. That’s…
Read more...It took me forever to learn how to express the idea of to suppose or, to assume. I would always wind up using achar or, imagniar — both of which really don’t mean the same thing. The solution is simple, elegant – and rare: SUPOR in Portuguese means to suppose. A verb ending in -or! These…
Read more...There are three ways that Brazilians ask, “what happened?”: (1) O que aconteceu?; (2) O que foi?; (3) O que houve? (verb HAVER). And they often mix these together! Ordered by popularity they are: O que aconteceu? You’ll often hear it said like this: O que é que aconteceu. = literally: What is (it) that…
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