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the Preterit Indicative of irregular verbs

October 29, 2020January 30, 2023 By James Hall

When I last posted about the Preterit Indicative, it was all about regular verbs. Now let’s look at the most common IRREGULARs in this… tense. » *regular verbs are here. The “simple past tense” (the Preterit Indicative) is used to talk about action that’s over and done – in the frame of your story: I…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

acabar de – in Portuguese

October 28, 2020September 15, 2022 By James Hall

I couldn’t believe how hard it was to say, “I just got home” or, “They just arrived” — I tried to use só or,… somente for just. Then I would say something like, I soon got home or, I now arrived home. Crazy difficult. Then I discovered ACABAR DE. ACABAR + de + VERB =…

The Use of POR in Portuguese

October 13, 2020May 3, 2023 By James Hall

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…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

POR vs. PARA in Portuguese

October 12, 2020September 15, 2022 By James Hall

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…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Portuguese Articles: the The

October 9, 2020April 18, 2022 By James Hall

The first thing that struck me as wrong with the use of o and a for THE. One letter? I really wanted at least… an el or, la. Portuguese Articles (called: definite articles) are actually super-practical. Two immediate and big payoffs: (1) You can use the o and a as it! You can also combine…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

the Preterit Indicative ~ar verbs

October 6, 2020May 5, 2023 By James Hall

The Preterit Indicative is “the simple past tense” Ready to move on the past tenses? Start here, with the Preterit Indicative. I call it… the simple past because it’s the clearest, simplest verb tense (*a verb tense describes a time that something happened.) in Portuguese. Hang around here a bit and you will meet the…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

the Portuguese infinitive

October 5, 2020September 29, 2021 By James Hall

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….

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

gostar

October 5, 2020September 27, 2021 By James Hall

GOSTAR (complete conjugation) is one of those verbs that you will use all the time. Unless you don’t like anything 🙁 But then you… will have to say. “Eu não gosto…” because it’s just not cool to use the word hate (ODIAR) except very rarely. Gostar is used differently than most any other verb in…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

Portuguese Contractions

October 3, 2020January 12, 2022 By James Hall

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…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

Portuguese possessive pronouns

September 22, 2020September 28, 2021 By James Hall

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…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

the Future Subjunctive

September 15, 2020February 26, 2023 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.

(4) Advanced Portuguese

the Present Subjunctive

September 14, 2020March 2, 2023 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…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

When to use the Portuguese Reflexive

September 6, 2020May 22, 2023 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.

(4) Advanced Portuguese

the Imperfect Indicative

July 1, 2020September 15, 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…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

FUI in Portuguese – the past tense of IR

June 22, 2020March 20, 2023 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 of…

(3) 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).

(2) 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…

(4) Advanced Portuguese

Imperfect Subjunctive + Conditional

April 19, 2020February 15, 2023 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…

(4) Advanced Portuguese

the Portuguese Subjunctive

April 5, 2020February 15, 2023 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,…

(4) Advanced Portuguese

Assim in Portuguese

March 25, 2020February 15, 2023 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… Eu sou assim. ➜ I’m like this/that. The verb SER is used because this is a permamnent condition. Nós somos assim. ➜ We’re like this/that I just wanted to show the…

Qualquer in Portuguese

March 22, 2020May 5, 2023 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…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

FALAR, DIZER or CONTAR?

March 15, 2020February 15, 2023 By James Hall

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

(4) 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…

(4) Advanced Portuguese

the Imperfect Subjunctive

March 1, 2020September 15, 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…

(4) 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….

(4) 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! >…