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Onde in Portuguese: ONDE, AONDE, DE ONDE, PARA ONDE

March 23, 2021August 2, 2023 By James Hall

Where’s it at? Nowhere to go. Where you from? Where to? ONDE In Portuguese can have these same superpowers. The key to discovering them… is in examining real examples in real context.

(2) Beginning Portuguese

The Portuguese Imperative

March 4, 2021September 17, 2024 By James Hall

The Portuguese Imperative can be confusing! Brazilians simply do not use the imperative in a consistent way! There is however, a method to… the madness. Let me explain. The conjugation of the imperative (used when giving a command) is the same as the present tense WHEN using the informal “tu” form. In other words…

(4) Advanced Portuguese

I can hardly wait.

March 3, 2021August 5, 2023 By James Hall

There are 3 ways that Brazilians use to say that something hard to wait for. The most common is with “mal posso esperar” –… “badly able to wait” (literally). We usually say “I can hardly wait” and Brazilians say, “Eu mal posso esperar”.

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Portuguese verb DAR – 7 ways to use it

February 2, 2021April 22, 2024 By Raquel Semantica

The Portuguese verb DAR is a shape-shifter. When combined with other wordfs it can take on meanings like: working out, able to, worth it,… can & cannot. We’ll dive into its multifaceted meanings, from giving luck to taking charge. Explore 7 uniquely useful ways DAR adds life and detail to what you want to say.

(4) Advanced Portuguese

tudo vs. todo

January 26, 2021April 6, 2024 By James Hall

TUDO in Portuguese is used when talking about non-specific things. So for example when you say “tudo bem” you’re saying, “everything’s fine /… all is well”. Use TODO & TODA when you want to get more specific about things. For example, when saying something like, “I like to see here every day before going to work”…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

ESTAR – the definitive reference

January 10, 2021August 11, 2023 By James Hall

If you already know how to use SER & ESTAR correctly, you’re ready this: our ultimate reference for ESTAR. All of the tenses and… moods (with examples) ESTAR can be used for in Portuguese. BEHOLD the glory of ESTAR 🇧🇷.

(4) Advanced Portuguese

Precisar + de : Portuguese verb PRECISAR

December 23, 2020April 24, 2024 By James Hall

The verb PRECISAR is a lot like GOSTAR in that it gets followed by a “de”. But unlike gostar, not always! The “de” is… there because you are literally saying “I need OF something”. PRECISAR de alguma coisa. If you need an ACTION rather than a thing, the “de” does not get used.

(2) Beginning Portuguese

Você tem certeza?

December 9, 2020August 15, 2023 By James Hall

Você tem certeza… ? Brazilians love a sure thing. They are a positive people. To be sure about something is instrinsically optimistic and Brazilians… love it. Let’s learn the every-day phrases that they use to talk about sureness and certainty.

(2) Beginning Portuguese

Lá in Portuguese

November 3, 2020November 5, 2024 By James Hall

Lá in Portuguese is actually used in many different ways in day-today conversation. To Brazilians it’s much more than just, “there”! Let’s look at… the most common examples and how “lá” gets incorporated into some of the most iconic Portuguese expressions.

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Acabar de – in Portuguese

October 28, 2020July 26, 2024 By James Hall

By combining ACABAR with “de” (acabar de) you immediately gain SUPERPOWERS. You’ll be able to say things like: I just arrived; She wound up… buying that car, and more! The amazing thing about Portuguese is that you can shape-shift verbs just by adding connector words like “de” or, “a” for example.

Using POR in Portuguese

October 13, 2020August 12, 2024 By James Hall

Using POR in Portuguese is not as simple as saying, “for”. It turns out that POR is used to express “for” in just a… very specific way. Let’s take a closer look at exactly how, and see by examples when and when not to use it.

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

POR vs. PARA in Portuguese

October 12, 2020October 17, 2023 By James Hall

It’s far too easy to get these two simple words confused! Whether to use POR vs. PARA quickly becomes an easy decision as soon… as you see some key examples of each, in-context. Let’s do exactly that!

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Portuguese Articles: the The

October 9, 2020August 21, 2023 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) Most nouns that end in “o” take the “o”article. Most “a” ending words use “a” for “the”. (2) You can also combine…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

the Preterit Indicative ~ar verbs

October 6, 2020August 16, 2024 By James Hall

The Preterit Indicative is sometimes called “the simple past tense” (or, the preterit). It’s the clearest past tense in Portuguese because It describes action… that is over and done. Simple! Use it to say things like: I played soccer yesterday; Did she go to the club with you?; I liked the movie a lot — Don’t use it to say things like: If I were feeling better I’d go too; I was taking a shower when you called.

(2) Beginning Portuguese

the Portuguese infinitive

October 5, 2020December 21, 2023 By James Hall

In English, the infinitive form is “to” + the verb. Like this: to dance, to kiss, to spend etc. The Portuguese infinitive is just… the verb itself: falar, comer, dormir etc. There’s no need to add a “to”. Every verb is born in its infinitive beauty self-contained and ready for use.

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

GOSTAR

October 5, 2020August 21, 2023 By James Hall

GOSTAR is obviously going to be one of your top-10m verbs that you use. There are two aspects of it that you need to… be aware of to use it right: (1) the “de” that always (always) follows gostar; (2) the way that Brazilians actually say, “I like this and that” using the PAST tense rather than the present. In this post we’re going to look at the most common ways you’ll hear GOSTAR used, and learn how to use it effectively.

(2) Beginning Portuguese

Portuguese Contractions

October 3, 2020August 31, 2023 By James Hall

The 3 most common Portuguese contractions are: (1) from em: no, na (2) from de: do, da (3) from a: ao, à. Once you… know these 3, all the others will make sense! The hardest part is just getting used to saying for example, “no” when you do not mean “não” – but rather: em + o (in the).

(2) Beginning Portuguese

Portuguese possessive pronouns

September 22, 2020August 31, 2023 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, 2020August 14, 2024 By James Hall

Use the Future Subjunctive to talk about future events that are UNSURE to happen. The words IF and WHEN usually often trigger this tense. For example: Quando você chegar no Brasil, me ligue! This is likely to happen, but NOT 100% certain. Notice that the conjugation is simply the INFINITIVE form of the verb!

(4) Advanced Portuguese

the Present Subjunctive

September 14, 2020April 12, 2024 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.

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

When to use the Portuguese Reflexive

September 6, 2020November 6, 2024 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)…

the Imperfect Indicative

July 1, 2020April 16, 2024 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, 2020July 4, 2024 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, 2020April 8, 2024 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, 2020June 20, 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…