Latest Posts

the Future Subjunctive

September 15, 2020May 5, 2022 By James Hall

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.

Advanced Portuguese

the Present Subjunctive

September 14, 2020May 5, 2022 By James Hall

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…

Intermediate Portuguese

When to use the Portuguese Reflexive

September 6, 2020March 1, 2022 By James Hall

You use the Portuguese Reflexive when you want to be 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)…

Saying can in Portuguese?

August 31, 2020October 8, 2021 By James Hall

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.

Advanced Portuguese

the Imperfect Indicative

July 1, 2020March 1, 2022 By James Hall

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….

por acaso & de propósito

June 24, 2020October 8, 2021 By James Hall

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…

Intermediate Portuguese

FUI in Portuguese – the past tense of IR

June 22, 2020September 28, 2021 By James Hall

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…

Intermediate Portuguese

Without in Portuguese

May 13, 2020September 12, 2020 By James Hall

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…

De onde você é?

May 1, 2020January 4, 2021 By James Hall

Brazilians are very curious about foreigners in their country. They will surely ask you: De onde você é? : of where you are (literally… speaking).

Beginning Portuguese

The Portuguese JEITO

April 27, 2020September 12, 2020 By James Hall

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…

Advanced Portuguese

Imperfect Subjunctive + Conditional

April 19, 2020May 5, 2022 By James Hall

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…

Advanced Portuguese

the Portuguese Subjunctive

April 5, 2020May 5, 2022 By James Hall

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,…

Advanced Portuguese

Assim in Portuguese

March 25, 2020October 4, 2021 By James Hall

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…

Qualquer in Portuguese

March 22, 2020October 4, 2021 By James Hall

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…

Intermediate Portuguese

FALAR, DIZER or CONTAR?

March 15, 2020October 4, 2021 By James Hall

How do Brazilians use FALAR and DIZER? Is there really a difference?

Advanced Portuguese

Acabar in Portuguese vs. Acabar de

March 2, 2020October 4, 2021 By James Hall

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…

Advanced Portuguese

the Imperfect Subjunctive

March 1, 2020May 5, 2022 By James Hall

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…

Advanced Portuguese

Other tenses of TER

December 2, 2019October 4, 2021 By James Hall

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….

Advanced Portuguese

te for você

November 29, 2019October 4, 2021 By James Hall

I think this is the best example. It’s so natural. From the new Novela (o Retorno) The scene: Lucas has to spend the night… in Unkle Leo’s room. Leo: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Line-by-line: (1) Eu ensino para você. >> I’ll teach you. (2) Eu vou te ensinar. >> I’m going to teach you….

Advanced forms of TER

November 25, 2019October 4, 2021 By James Hall

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! >…

Muito or Muita?

November 3, 2019October 30, 2021 By James Hall

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….

Intermediate Portuguese

What kind? in Portuguese.

October 28, 2019October 4, 2021 By James Hall

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…

Intermediate Portuguese

parar de & começar a

September 5, 2019October 4, 2021 By James Hall

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: I stopped eating sugar >…

Advanced Portuguese

Inviting Yourself

August 9, 2019October 4, 2021 By James Hall

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…

Advanced Portuguese

Waiting, in Portuguese

June 25, 2019October 4, 2021 By James Hall

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…

Boost your Portuguese vocabulary in 3 steps

May 2, 2019October 4, 2021 By James Hall

No amount of “hacking” and optimizing the process of learning Portuguese will get you to fluency without first constructing a foundation. And that foundation… has to be made of the most-used words and phrases. This base of vocabulary is the most important ingredient in the recipe for language acquisition. Once this solid base has been acquired, all pathways to learning the language are open.

Language Learning Tips

perto de

April 17, 2019October 4, 2021 By James Hall

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…

Intermediate Portuguese

Porta das Fundos – laugh and learn Portuguese

March 11, 2019October 4, 2021 By James Hall

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…

Advanced Portuguese

a partir de

December 11, 2018October 4, 2021 By James Hall

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…

Advanced Portuguese

Saying: to run into, to bump into

December 6, 2018September 14, 2020 By James Hall

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…

Advanced Portuguese