Brazilian Gringos (parte 1)

“Gringo” is not a bad word in Brazil. It’s used as a kind word for any foreigner. DO NOT be offended when someone calls you a gringo! In these next two dialogs we’ll learn some very useful new vocabulário. Whenever you’re getting new vocab in a story with rich context, it’s supremely memorable! Article: Contextual…

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FALTAR in Portuguese

The verb FALTAR in Portuguese is used to describe a lack or shortage of something. It’s very commonly used with expressions “a falta” and “em falta”. a falta, em falta Using Faltar It is pronounced as “fawlt-AH”, similar to the English word “halt”. It is often used to describe current or past shortages, with the…

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Tomar in Portuguese

The Portuguese verb TOMAR can be confusing. The problems comes from the fact that it can take the meaning of to take or to drink or to consume. It’s almost the same thing as beber. In general, Brazilians use tomar when talking about taking something that will become part of their being – that will…

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Dar para

Dar para This is an extension of our post about the many uses of the verb DAR. DAR + para = A beautiful pair. There’s something deeply satisfying about using DAR together with para to say things like, Is he a good kisser? Is that restaurant decent? Is it fixable? ~ you just need to…

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Pode ser

Pode ser : maybe, could be, possible You hear this quite a lot in Brazil! You’re literally saying: to be able to be. Pode ser! And that seems a bit strange – at first. I’m sure that learning to say “maybe” feels strange to english learners as well. » Maybe. Could be. Possibly. » Maybe…

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antes & depois in Portuguese

I’ve been writing about how de hooks-up with certain verbs to change meaning or say specific things. Coisa linda, não é? Now, let’s look at what de does when coupled with with the words antes & depois. I’m going to avoid the grammar-talk and not even use the word adverb again EXCEPT for this excerpt…

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Pode deixar

This was going to be an intermediate level post, but this phrase is so popular that it’s important for everyone to know how to use it. Right away! Pode deixar is one of those phrases that finds it’s way into just about every conversation here. Pode deixar: PODER (to be able to,can) + DEIXAR (to…

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Portuguese Preposition de

The Portuguese preposition de shows up everywhere. As you know, I DISLIKE digging into linguistics unless it’s necessary to move forward / to understand something. *I don’t actually dislike studying the nature, structure, and variation of language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics (!!!). It’s that it doesn’t really help you get…

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I can hardly wait.

This always gave me a real hard time. In English it seems so simple to say for example, I can’t wait to see you or, I can hardly wait to see you.. I’d heard people saying, mal posso esperar para… But this didn’t make much sense. I was understanding this as, bad can wait for……

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Lá in Portuguese

Brazilians use the word lá to express much more than just the literal, there, that place over there. Lá in Portuguese is actually used in many different expressions in everyday speech. Later, we’ll look at the other ways (the other words!) also used to say there besides lá! » ali and aí — these ALSO…

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The Use of POR in Portuguese

I got really curious about the use of por in Portuguese. Her’s how Google Translates por: por = by, for, per, in, of, to, with, via, out of, for the sake of AND SO ON. Confusing to say the very least. While true that por can translate as all of the above, I’ve found that…

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POR vs. PARA in Portuguese

When do you use POR and when is it best to use PARA to say, FOR? You’ll soon learn that Portuguese has different words to express what we would use one word to accomplish. It’s part of what makes the language very precise. English is considered vague by comparison! por vs. para ~ Can’t we…

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the Portuguese infinitive

In English, the infinitive form is just to + the verb: to dance, to kiss, to spend… I’m just going to sit here until this all makes good sense. The Portuguese infinitive is just the verb itself: falar comer dormir There’s no need to add a to. Every verb is born in its infinitive beauty….

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the Present Subjunctive

Using the Present 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 Present Subjunctive is used for case (2): actions that are plausible, yet have not yet occurred. Use this tense to talk…

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the Imperfect Indicative

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….

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por acaso & de propósito

por acaso » by chance Simônimos » inesperadamente, acidentalmente, casualmente, aleatoriamente, arbitrariamente Exemplo: Encontrei meus primos no festival por acaso. Não tínhamos combinado nada. » I met my cousins at the festival by chance. We hadn’t arranged anything. de propósito » on purpose Simônimos » deliberadamente, intencionalmente Exemplo: O propósito da vida é seguir a…

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Qualquer in Portuguese

I’m old enough to remember the lan house. And in Brazil – especially the favelas you can still (it’s 2020) find them! In my early days traveling in Brazil I would always go to the same lan house. I would always go when I knew there would be this one girl working there – but…

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Advanced forms of TER

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! >…

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Muito or Muita?

Even I struggle to get this straight. The thing that makes this tricky: In Portuguese, we’re constantly reminding you 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 vinho está gelado….

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What kind? in Portuguese.

We Americans are so lazy. We get away with saying so much with so little. I probably use the word, kind a dozen times every day. But in Brazil, there are several more options used to say, What kind? in Portuguese. What kind of cheese do you want? I like all kinds of science fiction…

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perto de

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…

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