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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Most verbs have various related incarnations as nouns, adjectives, adverbs etc. MELHOR and MELHORAR are super-used words/verbs but also causes big confusion – I think just because these are (1) hard to pronounce, and (2) have so many similar sounding variations. Melhor and melhorar can be used in different ways to express: improve, improvement, improving,…

We’ve gotten several requests to explain and show how the portuguese verb dar can be used. This is one of those verbs like ficar or, pegar that can change their meaning depending on the context. I remember feeling “deceived” and a bit mad when it dawned on me that people were using verbs that I…

Eduardo Não dá, não dá! Não entendo nada! Nem física, nem literatura e nem gramática. Eu odeio química! Química! Por que que eu preciso aprender isso? Ana Calma filho. Sei que não é fácil. Você tem que ter calmo e estudar muito. Não dá. This is a great way to start a sentence. Literally no…

If you’ve ever heard this and wondered what it really means, PARABÉNS – your Portuguese is pretty advanced. Let’s break this expression down. You will hear it in business situations, or whenever someone is trying to help you out. Qualquer dúvida estou à disposição basically means, Feel free to ask any questions or, I’m available…

This clip caught my attention. It’s a soft news piece. Except for the intro, it’s spoken clearly and not too fast. The vocabulary is really core also. Once you get past the intro it’s perfect for training your ear (intermediate-advanced level). We use a lot of video (quase 100%) in our course, but we generally…

We use a lot of video (quase 100%) in our course, but we avoid anything that ‘s from a TV or the movies. The vast majority are just too fast and full of irrelevant vocabulary. If you do want to try a Brazilian movie, make sure you watch like this. But this clip caught my…

Why does it seem so hard to express say something so simple as each other? In English we include these two words all the time to mean you and I or, them. It’s not that complicated. We say things like: We’ll see each other later on. We love each other very much. * You can…

You’re already using “ao” to say at the or, to the, but it has another entirely different meaning when used together with a verb in the infinitive. When I first started hearing people say this I didn’t even notice t since it’s just an “ow” before of a verb. I thought it was some weird slang….

Those of you that are already comfortable with the differences between SER & ESTAR are ready for this: ESTAR-the definitive reference. I wanted to do a review of all its uses (ie, verb tenses) in all its GLORY. *In order of importance (use) the present > eu estou (conversational= tô) > você está (conversation =…

TO WISH FOR / THAT / TO in Portuguese I thought something was wrong with my dictionary when I couldn’t find the Portuguese verb to wish for. Such a basic thing. It’s as if there were no verb for to want. Maybe wishing is an innately American thing. Or perhaps Brazilians are just content and…