There are 4 important Portuguese contractions that you need to know. This is one of the hardest things for beginners to get the hang of. It took me years to feel confident using contractions. I think that if gender weren’t involved they would be easy to pick up. That said, the contractions used in Portuguese…
Read more...Mine, Yours, His & Hers The words that we use to convey POSSESSION are pretty simple because all objects are treated as gender-neutral. In Portuguese of course, there are always two options: the masculine and the feminine. These are called possessive pronouns and they are going to test the limits of your patience until you…
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...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…
Read more...You use the Portuguese Reflexive when you want to clear that you’re talking about yourself or, herself, themselves etc. When we say The Portuguese Reflexive, we’re really talking about those pronouns that get added right before a verb. These are called Reflexive Pronouns: Reflexive Pronoun Eu me Eu me levantei. (I got myself up) Você…
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...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…
Read more...IR has to be one of the most satisfying verbs to speak in the past (preterit) tense. SAY IT: eu fui (FOO-EY), você foi (FOY). FUI & FOI – these are how you express went. I went (fui), you/he/she went (fui). It’s the past tense for action that is DONE, DONE, DONE. (the complete conjugation…
Read more...To say “without stopping” it’s just sem – without- plus the verb (almost any verb) in it’s infinitive form. You can use this format to say things like, sem falar, sem pagar, sem pensar, sem perguntar and so on. Very useful. sem falar = without saying sem pagar = without paying sem pensar = without…
Read more...Brazilians are very curious about foreigners in their country. They will surely ask you: De onde você é? : of where you are (literally speaking).
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 I’m like this/that. > Eu sou assim. The verb SER is used because this is a permamnent condition. We’re like this/that > Nós somos assim. I just wanted to show the…
Read more...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…
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. I’ve noticed that so many people are getting these two forms mixed-up (confundida). Examples…
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….
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