Mesmo in Portuguese

One of the first things you’ll notice when you come to Brazil is the word mesmo floating around here and there, apparently with no concrete meaning. Well, it’s not one of those words that can mean almost anything depending on the situation – mesmo in Portuguese has just a few common usages. Let’s review: Isn’t…

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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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alguma coisa – something in Portuguese

In English, it’s pretty simple: something or nothing. The Portuguese options are (surprise) numerous and confusing. Let’s break-these-down and make them more user-friendly. You’ve learned alguma coisa, right? And that’s clear: alguma (some) coisa (thing) = something. But you rarely hear Brazilians say that. There are other options they favor – most depend on what…

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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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What did you say? in Portuguese

The first word that really tripped my up was, what. A learner’s goal is to get people -on the street, in a store, wherever and whenever — to repeat themselves. The more the better! The more you hear something spoken IN-CONTEXT (about something, some moment you are IN), the faster you’ll be speaking it yourself….

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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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mais in Portuguese

Mais (more) finds its way into many expressions, always playing 1 of 2 possible roles. It’s not simply to say most or, more.  It’s always used to (1) compare one thing to another;  or (2) to say simply most or, more. Examples of mais to express most can be found in this other post. Using mais…

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Quem é? & Qual é?

Pay attention to the way that Brazilians use who, and which. They use these two a bit differently than we do. Quem é? Who is it? That’s what you say before opening the door or when a stranger calls on the telephone. But quem also means whom. In Portuguese there is just, quem. ➜ Who’s is…

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Present tense irregular verbs

The Portuguese present indicative (“the present”) gets boring fast. To liven things up a bit, let’s take a look at the most common Present Tense irregular verbs. ☞ Regular present tense verbs are here: ar-verbs, er-verbs, ir-verbs There are some patterns to these irregular conjugations, but not many. I think the best way to learn…

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Portuguese verb TER

Portuguese verb TER is the one you’re going to use more than any other. TER To have. But it can also be used as: is there / are there any. PRONOUNCED: TER: the Present Tense to have ter I have eu t enho you/he/she have(has) você/ele/ela t em Portuguese verb TER is among the Brazilian…

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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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CONSEGUIR in Portuguese

Are you getting sick of my posts that just deal with a verb? It’s not for lack of other subjects, it’s just that VERBS ARE KEY to building sentences and, fluency. Verbs are also handled very differently in Portuguese than in English. We use phrasal-verbs extensively: get-over, get-going, get-ahead, get-away and on, and on, and…

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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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The future with IR

The Present Tense of IR can be used to talk about the future! The fastest and easiest way to start talking about the future is with the verb IR. Forming the future with IR is just a matter of knowing its conjugation in the present tense. That sounds confusing. But it’s not a big deal…

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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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The Portuguese Imperative

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…

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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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Portuguese verb DAR – 7 ways to use it

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…

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tudo vs. todo

Todo mundo (everyone) gets confused about these. Tudo in Portuguese sounds so much like todo & toda that it’s tough to keep them straight ~ even though these are three of the most-used words in the language. TUDO = all, everything for GENERAL things. TODO & TODA = all, everything for SPECIFIC things (things that…

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ESTAR – the definitive reference

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…

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Você tem certeza?

Are you sure? That’s for sure. You’re right! Isn’t that so? Brazilians are positive people 😉 They will frequently affirm confirm and encourage an idea or thought. And they do so in specific ways. Brazilians use several key phrases but most affirmations are based on just two words: CERTEZA: Você tem certeza? Are you sure?…

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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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