Most verbs have various related incarnations as nouns, adjectives, adverbs etc. MELHOR and MELHORAR are super-used words/verbs but also causes big confusion – I think just because these are (1) hard to pronounce, and (2) have so many similar sounding variations. Melhor and melhorar can be used in different ways to express: improve, improvement, improving,…
Read more...Eduardo Não dá, não dá! Não entendo nada! Nem física, nem literatura e nem gramática. Eu odeio química! Química! Por que que eu preciso aprender isso? Ana Calma filho. Sei que não é fácil. Você tem que ter calmo e estudar muito. Não dá. This is a great way to start a sentence. Literally no…
Read more...The Portuguese Gerund ✔︎ The Present Indicative ✔︎ The Subjunctive Mood ✔︎ Portuguese Prepositions ✔︎ You’re on a roll. Portuguese prepositions? No big deal. Then, you run into an everyday sentence like, Eu vou parar de fumar. Sem problema, right? I am going to stop of to smoke. Seems wrong. If you know your gerund…
Read more...If you’ve ever heard this and wondered what it really means, PARABÉNS – your Portuguese is pretty advanced. Let’s break this expression down. You will hear it in business situations, or whenever someone is trying to help you out. Qualquer dúvida estou à disposição basically means, Feel free to ask any questions or, I’m available…
Read more...Como você anda? Easily one the most common ways Brazilians express, How are you doing? / How have you been? » Como você anda? (also: Como tu andas?) Yet, you will not find it in any language book! Is it slang? Is it an idiomatic expression? Is it a very new phrase? Não, não &…
Read more...This clip caught my attention. It’s a soft news piece. Except for the intro, it’s spoken clearly and not too fast. The vocabulary is really core also. Once you get past the intro it’s perfect for training your ear (intermediate-advanced level). We use a lot of video (quase 100%) in our course, but we generally…
Read more...We use a lot of video (quase 100%) in our course, but we avoid anything that ‘s from a TV or the movies. The vast majority are just too fast and full of irrelevant vocabulary. If you do want to try a Brazilian movie, make sure you watch like this. But this clip caught my…
Read more...You’re already using “ao” to say at the or, to the, but it has another entirely different meaning when used together with a verb in the infinitive. When I first started hearing people say this I didn’t even notice t since it’s just an “ow” before a verb. I thought it was some weird slang….
Read more...Forming the Conditional in Portuguese is the English equivalent of would or could. To a language instructor, this tense is known as “the future of the preterite”. We just call it, THE CONDITIONAL. Use it whenever you want to say would or could in the FUTURE (only). It’s not used for the past as we…
Read more...TO WISH FOR / THAT / TO in Portuguese I thought something was wrong with my dictionary when I couldn’t find the Portuguese verb to wish for. Such a basic thing. It’s as if there were no verb for to want. Maybe wishing is an innately American thing. Or perhaps Brazilians are just content and…
Read more...I always wanted to have a quick summary of all the most common ways the verb IR in Portuguese is used. Se você aprender todos desse formas, você já saberia mais sobre o verbo IR do que a maioria dos brasileiros 😉 to go ir (irregular) I go eu v ou you/he/she goes(s) você/ele/ela v…
Read more...I remember feeling very decepcionado when I heard people saying “te” almost the same as you. I was working on perfecting the pronunciation of the word “você” — Was it vo-say or vo-sey? I was hearing people saying things like “Te falei…” and, “Vou te ligar”. These are known as, object pronouns. Is te always…
Read more...In English we say for example, “Get yourself ready, quickly” or – “He explained the rules to me, rudely.” These are called Adverbs of Manner because they express the manner in which something happened. Just as with other Portuguese Adverbs these always ad emphasis and emotion. They are usually trailer-hitched onto the end of a…
Read more...Notícias Only the very geeky (Brazilians say “nerd”) of yo know that we use a CDN (content distribution network) to deliver our videos fast, fast, fast. *In Portuguese of Brazil we use words like rápido and, veloz to say speedy, quick, fast. The good news of the day is that for those of you using…
Read more...Speak in the present perfect. You use it all the time to say for example, “I’ve been working” “We’ve been traveling” or, “What have been doing?” It’s all about the been! To use this verb tense (the present perfect indicative) all you need to do is connect ter with any past participle of a verb….
Read more...My wife just asked me to translate this from English to Portuguese. ‘What?’, I said. Turns out, ‘Juweet’ = ‘did you eat?’ Oh. And we say it all the time. True. It reminded me of the many, many confusing Portuguese language-transformations /convolutions that I hear every day. If you’re trying to get to an advanced…
Read more...To make a conversation flow we use conjunctions. You do it all_the_time. Conclusivas: Indicam relação de conclusão. > pois (posposta ao verbo), logo, portanto, então, por isso, por conseguinte, por isto, assim, etc. Exemplos: >> Ele bebeu bem mais do que poderia; logo, ficou embriagado. > Aditivas > Adversativas > Alternativas > Explicativas
Read more...The previous posts in this series about conjuctions: > Conclusivas > Aditivas > Adversativas > Alternativas Explicativas: Expressam a relação de explicação, razão ou motivo. > que, porque, porquanto, pois (before the verb). Exemplos: >> Ele não entra porque está sem tempo. >> Eu resolvi limpar a janela que fica suja quando chove. >> Ele vai à praia pois está de férias….
Read more...Spectacular Conjunctions, part 3 Alternativas: Como o seu nome indica, expressam uma relação de alternância, seja por incompatibilidade dos termos ligados ou por equivalência dos mesmos. > ou… ou, ou, ora… ora, já… já, quer… quer, etc. Exemplos: >> Ou ela, ou eu.>>> It’s either me or her. >> Você vai ter que comer tudo, quer você…
Read more...Fabulous Conjunctions, part 2 In this second post we present for your learning pleasure, the adversativas — the glue that bonds us. Adversativas: Indicam uma relação de oposição bem como de contraste ou compensação entre as unidades ligadas. >>Adversativas show a relationship of opposition and contrast. Também pode gerar um sentido de consequência a algo…
Read more...Are they calling you a ‘nota dez’ or simply a ‘um-sete-um’ -? You better know. Brazilians love to use numbers with hidden meanings. Let’s look at the most common; zero = brand, spanking, new. > Ele ganhou um carro zero para trabalho. 10= really, really good. > Ela é linda, inteligente e simpatica — Ela…
Read more...In Portuguese there are several ways to refer to something that happened in the past, each with varying shades of meaning. The present perfect indicative (!) includes expressions like ‘I have been going out every night’. Use it when talking about action that has been happening (and still is).
Read more...Once upon a time, the orelhão – public phones, required a token or, ficha. After placing the token in the coin slot it would cair once the party picked-up.
Read more...Quanto this, tanto that, tanto quanto… tanto quanto, tanto quanto… Is there anything more confusing? But damn… I am finally there. I mean, here… aqui. And let me tell you: It’s empowering to be able to say things like: I don’t like Billie Eilish as much as French Toast. My dog does not snore as…
Read more...Have you ever wondered how to translate “been” into Portuguese? It’s a common mistake to think that the verbs for “to be” are involved. The key is to use TER.
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