In Portuguese, there are several ways to refer to something that happened in the past – each with different shades of meaning. When you choose one Portuguese past tense over another, you’re letting people know more about the story you’re telling. Talking about the past is always an act of story-telling. The Preterit Indicative tense…
Read more...You can score BIG points just being able to meet & greet in Brazil. Before you even know how to say anything else, learn these. Use them to practice your pronunciation – you’ll be using them over and over. For example — Tudo bem is the main thing everyone says when seeing someone you know…
Read more...I am with luck. That is literally how you would say “I’m lucky” in Brazilian Portuguese: eu estou com sorte. estar com (beginner) In Brazilian Portuguese it’s important to remember that this special combination of ESTAR + COM is used to say things like: I’m hungry. > Eu estou com fome. I’m thirsty. > Eu…
Read more...You need to learn Portuguese. You have to learn Portuguese. Just as in English, there are two ways to express need in Brazilian Portuguese. Each has its own specific way of being used. (1) precisar PRECISAR = to need. Precisar is a little tricky because you must always put a “de” after it unless it’s…
Read more...Words that connect us. In this first of a series of posts we are going to talk about those words & phrases that are always there — holding the sentence together. Tudo bem? In grammar-speak, these are called conjunctions. Do not be afraid. They are your friends. You already use them all-the-time 😉 Aditivas: Indicam…
Read more...Vamos emobra! When Brazilian’s say goodbye. IN ORDER OF USAGE (most common first) — the ways Brazilians say good-bye. (1) Tchau! (2) eu vou embora EMBORA = away. Eu vou embora. = I’m going away (leaving). Most dictionaries list this as: em•bo•ra | {conj.} (apesar de; ainda que; ainda) That’s because this is an expression…
Read more...You have to do this, you have to do that. This is a must-know! The good news: It’s easy to express to have to in Portuguese. The key is knowing how to conjugate the verb TER. ter to have I have eu tenh o you/he/she has você/ele/ela tem In Portuguese, you add a que to…
Read more...This was a seriously scary moment moment for me. I could_not mess up my 1st attempt at speaking a complete sentence – to an actual brazilian – that was not, oi tudo bem. in actual Brazil. A failure would bring trauma. It would set me back months if not all the way to zero. I…
Read more...There are so many different ways to express again/another time that it can get confusing. Let’s focus on the four most common ways that Brazilians say one more time. In order: (1) de novo (2) mais uma vez (3) outra vez (4) novamente Can we just use any of these in all situations? Sim… quase….
Read more...I’ve written about the expression pode deixar and, me deixa em paz ~ me deixa sozinho (leave me in peace ~ leave me alone)… but the one that keeps coming back is: deixa para lá. Por quê? Why does this one generate the most interest? Deixa para lá. Probably because deixar is one powerful verb….
Read more...This post is making me extremely hungry. Here’s the deal: once you know these you don’t have to bother to learn the Portuguese equivalents. No need to. They are already in use in the common vocabulary here. Just be sure to say these words with your best brazilian accent. We’ve gotten a native to record…
Read more...I’ve posted about FICAR before – Ficar Grammar & Portuguese Verb Ficar. FICAR is a big deal and using it correctly can be powerful. Italians have a big problem with this verb because apparently, it means to fuck in Italian. That’s their problem, not yours. Actually, Brazilians do use FICAR to talk about casual hook-ups…
Read more...You’ve heard it said: Brazil is a slow-paced world. Everything happens according to some tropical relógio (clock). And that’s true – mais ou menos. But being in a hurry still happens here. There is always more to do than there is time to do it. Even in Brasil. How to say hurry up in Portuguese…
Read more...at the store in the restaurant on the subway For some reason I just can’t stop thinking about prepositions of place: in, on & at Right in the middle of a hike. In the middle of my friend telling some crazy story about getting arrested on New Year’s eve here (Rio de Janeiro). O quê?…
Read more...How would you say something like, You seem to be doing great or, You look tired -? How about, looking good or, seems like a good option -? I remember always getting stuck when trying to express – to seem, to appear. Then I discovered two things: 1- You don’t have to be so literal…
Read more...In english we say, I wanted to this and that… all_the_time. To say the same thing in portuguese it’s tempting to say something like, Eu estava querendo x & y…. But this is very clunky, isn’t it? Brazilians will use the imperfect past form of QUERER to express this. Like this: Eu queria fazer uma…
Read more...One sure way to quickly improve your Portuguese is to get lost… in Brazil. Even if just for a few hours. All of your speaking inhibitions will immediately disappear and you’ll be compelled to do the single best thing for improving your skills: speak to a real Brazilian! Brazilians are a helpful bunch. I’ve made…
Read more...PARA can mean either to (some place), or for (in order for). This harmless preposition confuses people all the time because there exist also the preposition a, which also means to. Everyone asks which is correct: Eu vou à praia, or Eu vou para a praia-? Both are correct. Some will say that you should…
Read more...Many Portuguese learners get tripped-up with the past tense. But there are some hacks that can get you speaking quickly. One of them is learning to use Portuguese participles. The past participle is just a verb conjugation that describes something that is over and done: written, said, cooked, closed etc. Learning the Portuguese participles is…
Read more...The Portuguese Present Progressive is one of the first conjugations you will learn, but many students are afraid to actually use it. I was too, until I could really hear/see someone using them! *Taken from a longer dialog. The Present Progressive (ing): -ar verbs: ando / -er verbs: endo / -ir verbs: indo » From…
Read more...Most Portuguese courses start by teaching the future tense (using IR). Como vai? That’s because it’s the simplest thing to learn. But in the real world you want to be able to talk about what happened a few minutes ago; what happened yesterday, and so on. And, this is NO BIG DEAL to do. You…
Read more...*Obviously things have changed since this was posted. The current exchange rate is even better. The latest USD > BRL exchange: What it all means. If you haven’t been following the latest financial news about Brazil, you might be surprised to hear the US Dollar is once again, king of the land here in Brazil….
Read more...Wallace asks: “Eu gostei muito de esse blog acerca de etiqueta no Brasil! Você pode escrever um blog sobre de como viajar com segurança no Brasil? Por exemplo, como os turistas devem vestir-se, onde não devem ir, e como usar o ônibus e o metrô de uma maneira segura. Eu planejo visitar Rio de Janeiro…
Read more...If you’ve already got some of the basics down and are looking for ways to get into a conversation, I’m going to give you a list of very common Portuguese sentences that you can use as openers. These are all simple, yet powerful and: interesting openers. This list will give you some great openers and…
Read more...Use the Present Progressive it to talk about things that are happening right now! Think of it as progress in the present: working, shopping, talking, studying. The Present Progressive is roughly equivalent to the ing ending in English. It’s easy to learn. There are no irregular verbs in this tense! Even more good news: the…
Read more...Previously, we looked at how to use the portuguese verb SER. Now let’s look at the differences between SER and ESTAR. Ser Ser is for intrinsic, somewhat permanent characteristics. Meu nome é Raquel. My name is (permanently/always) Raquel. Eu sou brasileira. I am (permanently/always) Brazilian. Ele é casado. He is (somewhat permanently) married. Estar Estar…
Read more...Get comfortable with the double-cheek kiss. Brazilians are much more liberal with body touching and personal space than Americans. This is generally a very cool thing. You will often see even younger boys holding hands as a sign of friendship. Women do the two-kiss greeting. But beware. Don’t automatically go in for the air-kiss on…
Read more...Let’s explore the different ways we can talk about what’s going on, what someone is doing, what you do, I do, others do. FAZER Which of course becomes FAZENDO (the gerund) when you want to say DOING. O que você está fazendo? âžœ What are you doing? Now let’s ask someone WHAT THEY DO, for…
Read more...Portuguese gets complicated as soon as you start trying to say this and that. To this day I get these wrong. That’s because in Portuguese there are 3 different cases to consider. The subject can be male, female, or unknown. In time this starts to come naturally. Actually, what happens is you start to anticipate…
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…
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