As usual, there are just too many options! Detesto opções! ~ o Chatão (annoying person) Trying to say “about” in Portuguese can quickly turn into a grande confusão that has your reaching for your phone. As usual, the problem is the huge number of options. And como sempre (as always) the solution is: Relaxar… Respirar……
Read more...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…
Read more...(PRECISO DE VOCÊ COMIGO = I NEED YOU WITH ME) The verb is a lot like GOSTAR in that it usually gets followed by a de — BUT, unlike gostar, not all the time. The de is there because you are literally saying I need of something. When do you ned to add the “de”?…
Read more...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 =…
Read more...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….
Read more...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…
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. Everyone gets these mixed-up (confundida) ~ That DE makes all the difference! Use ACABAR…
Read more...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 >…
Read more...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…
Read more...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…
Read more...Mudar de ideia Brazilians are a flexible bunch. They love to set dates, appointments, meetings and decisions, often without much hesitation. But it’s all in a constant state of flux. You will discover that it’s partly just their nature to agree to things. It’s actually a very charming trait. But, it also causes a lot…
Read more...To say you’re on holiday in Portuguese it’s, você está de férias. But to say the word holiday, it’s feriado. It’s just like in English when we say Summer holiday or talk about being on holiday. So it’s: on holiday = de férias holiday = feriado Simple, but confusing. Practice these: on holiday (de férias) I’m on vacation >> Eu estou…
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