Saying “te” for você

By James Hall / / (2) Beginning Portuguese, (3) Intermediate Portuguese
te-or-você-portuguese-object-pronouns.jpg

I think this is the best example.
It's so natural.

From the new Story series (o Retorno)

The scene: Lucas has to spend the night in Unkle Leo's room.
Leo:
(1) Eu ensino para você.
(2) Eu vou te ensinar.
(3) Eu te ensino.
(4) Eu falo muito bem Português.
(5) Português para caramba.

Line-by-line:
(1) Eu ensino para você. ➜ I'll teach you.
(2) Eu vou te ensinar. ➜ I'm going to teach you.
(3) Eu te ensino. ➜ I'll teach you.

All three say the same thing. 1 & 3 are identical sentences.

How else could you say this?
How about: Eu vou ensinar para você. >> I'm going to teach you.

Brazilians prefer using the "te" - it's cooler sounding and, shorter.

Write down your own example of using te in place of você and I'll review it 😉

For a more in-depth explanation of the object pronoun te.

Grammar: object pronouns (simple): me, te

There are two extremely common substitutions made in conversational Portuguese:

para você > gets replaced by te
para mim > gets replaced by me

These make sentences shorter, more streamlined.
*Note the word order changes. The pronouns me, te go before the action verb.

Ela falou para você ? ➜ Ela te falou? (Did she tell you?)

Pode falar para mim? ➜ Pode me falar? (Can you tell me?)

Eu vou falar para você. ➜ Eu vou te falar. (I'm going to tell you.)

You can also replace você in situations like this:

Eu não conheço você. ➜ Eu não te conheço. (I don't know you.)

Ele vai ajudar você? ➜ Ele vai te ajudar. (He's going to help you.)

Eu ajudo você. ➜ Eu te ajudo. (I'll help you.)

Post: Using te for você: Object Pronouns

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Grammar: object pronouns (advanced): lo, la

Simple object pronouns: Substitute te for você.
Advanced object pronouns: You can say “it” and, “them” by using the pronouns -lo, -la, -los, -las
These pronouns get attached to the end of the verb.
Like this:

Forming

Remove the final letter of the verb and add -lo, -la, -los, -las to express
-lo » him, it (M)
-la » her, it (F)
-los » them (M)
-las » them (F)

abrir + o = abri-lo » to open it (M)
fazer + a = fazê-la » to make it (F)
levar + os = levá-los » to take them (M)
conhecer + as = conhecê-las » to meet them (F)

*When you take away the letter you have to compensate by adding an accent (acute for “a” and circumflex for “e”). Not necessary for ~ir verbs

EXAMPLES

É um prazer conhecer ele. » É um prazer conhecê-lo. It's a pleasure to meet you. (M)

É um prazer conhecer ela. » É um prazer conhecê-la. It's a pleasure to meet you. (F)

Eu vou o concertar. » Eu vou concertá-lo. I'm going to fix it. (M)

Eu vou a memorizar. » Eu vou memorizá-la. I'm going to memorize it. (F)

*The word “lo” is a Portuguese pronoun that when used, makes your conversation sound more natural and more fluent, and at the same time it breaks the boredom of repetition and redundancy.

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