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THIS & THAT – Demonstrative Pronouns

July 29, 2014November 21, 2024 By James Hall

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…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

IR in Portuguese (to go)

July 22, 2014July 4, 2024 By James Hall

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…

(2) Beginning Portuguese, (3) Intermediate Portuguese, (4) Advanced Portuguese

Portuguese Adverbs of Degree: A Little, A Lot, etc.

July 14, 2014November 21, 2024 By James Hall

Some Portuguese adverbs are made for adding INTENSITY (emphasis). They have their own name too: adverbs of intensity. You don’t need to actually know… what an “adverb of intensity” is – you already use them every day. You just need to know the vocabulary for expressing things like, ‘hardly’, ‘almost’, ‘completely’ as in, ‘I kind…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

de vez em quando

July 11, 2014November 21, 2024 By James Hall

Once in a while. Portuguese does a lot with the word . It’s important to get up-to-speed on the way vez is used. Almost… none of it is intuitive – you need to memorize these. Think about how English uses time and once to say different things: The time of my life. Once upon a…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Você está atualizado?

July 5, 2014November 21, 2024 By James Hall

ATUALIZAR is a really great verb that you can use to say things like, Eu preciso atualizar omeusoftware. ➜ I need to update my… software. and the past participle, atualizado (a): O seu currículo está atualizado? ➜ Is your CV (resumé) up-to-date? and in the form of an adjective, atual: Ele comprou o sistema mais…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Assigned seating in Portuguese

July 3, 2014February 15, 2023 By James Hall

In English when we are talking about seating in an airplane, or a theater we just use the word seat. But when you want… to talk about assigned seating in Portuguese, there is a special word that you need to use: o assento. Whenever it’s a reserved seat situation it’s called um assento. Qual é…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Bom, Boa, Bem

May 28, 2014April 11, 2024 By James Hall

Why do people sometimes say tudo bem, and other times it’s tudo bom? I used to wonder about that. And it’s really silly because… the answer is obvious. Just as we sometimes say in English “I’m well” we also will say “I’m good.” It’s exactly the same with tudo bem / tudo bom. You can…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

Coming to Brazil? 5 Reasons You Need to Speak Portuguese

May 26, 2014November 21, 2024 By Josh Plotkin

Are you planning on spending some time in Brazil? How’s your Portuguese? Brazil has a lot to offer travelers and foreigners who relocate here,… but in order to take advantage of these opportunities, you need to speak Portuguese. While Brazilians do their best to speak some English, it’s really difficult to spend more than a…

(1) Portuguese Learning Tips

Using te for você: Object Pronouns

May 6, 2014April 1, 2024 By James Hall

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…

(4) Advanced Portuguese

Learning Portuguese: 3 habits of successful learners.

April 17, 2014November 17, 2023 By James Hall

The students that are on the road to speaking Portuguese fluently do several key things differently. I see these over and over again. They… are so striking that I’m going to call them, The 3 habits of successful learners. These people are among the few that actually get to the ultimate goal: fluency. They ask…

(1) Portuguese Learning Tips

Portuguese Comparatives

April 11, 2014June 7, 2024 By James Hall

Comparing one thing to another usually involves a comparison word plus a preposition. A comparison word is one of these: superior, inferior, maior, menor,… pior, melhor, igual, mais alto, mais baixo Notice in these examples how ‘do que’ means ‘than’ as in bigger than, better than etc. maior > Minha prancha é maior do que…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Learning Portuguese: strategies

April 6, 2014November 21, 2024 By James Hall

When it comes to learning Portuguese, you need to do it all. You can’t just study vocab or practice sing-a-longs. Here’s what we recommend: Use flashcards to memorize core vocabulary. Watch video dialogs that are interesting and tell a story. Analyze what happened and what was said in the dialog. Practice pronouncing the most difficult…

(1) Portuguese Learning Tips

Portuguese Pronunciation

March 19, 2014September 8, 2023 By James Hall

We’re starting to post the first pronunciation videos! The first 10 lessons of A Virada now have the corresponding pronúncia training. They look just… great. Luciana and Andre have done an amazing job at showing us the language in all it’s GLORY. This is like watching bees pollenate flowers in super-slow motion. Everything is there…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

MUDAR de Ideia : Change your mind.

March 12, 2014November 21, 2024 By James Hall

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…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Portuguese adverbs & adjectives

February 6, 2014November 21, 2024 By James Hall

Portuguese Adverbs and Adjectives One quick way to instantly increase your vocabulary is to learn the mente ending. This works for words (adverbs) that… in English, end in ly. So for example, quickly, easily, mainly, totally, freely, and so on. All you need to remember is that you take the FEMININE version of the adverb…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

Portuguese Plural for M and ÃO endings

February 4, 2014November 21, 2024 By James Hall

You can safely use the letter s to make words into the plural, but not always. When forming the portuguese plural for M and… ÃO endings, you have to follow the rules. For words that end in an m, replace the m with an ns. Like this: a bagagem > Quantas bagagens o senhor tem?…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

NEM in Portuguese

January 27, 2014November 21, 2024 By James Hall

In English we say things like, I don’t even want to think about it or, She doesn’t even like ice cream — DON’T EVEN. So, how do you say this in Portuguese? You don’t even care, right? Of course you do! NEM in Portuguese is very similar to saying “not even” And they use it…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Portuguese adverbs of manner

January 21, 2014November 21, 2024 By James Hall

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…

(4) Advanced Portuguese

Before you fly: Portuguese Travel Phrases

January 17, 2014April 8, 2024 By James Hall

The airport is a great place to start practicing your Portuguese. Most airline staff are bilingual and will be very forgiving of your mistakes… and accent. Just go for it and apologize later. Let’s do a typical check-in dialog: AGENTE: Bom dia senhor. Passaporte, por favor. PASSAGEIRO: Aqui está. Eu vou para Recife. AGENTE: O…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

Veloz.

January 8, 2014October 4, 2021 By James Hall

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…

(4) Advanced Portuguese

Portuguese adverbs of position

November 28, 2013November 21, 2024 By James Hall

When you want to describe position and place you always be pulling from a group of words officially called Portuguese adverbs of position. And… you can become a master of these words without so much as know how to spell the word “adverb”. Let’s observe make it happen by following Principle #1: Any fact becomes…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Exagerado.

November 18, 2013November 21, 2024 By James Hall

Brazil recently had a very big scandal in which – for the first time, high-level politicians were convicted and actually imprisoned. Imprisoned! It’s a… big deal. The scandal made international news and is referred to as the mensalão scandal. Aside form the sociopolitical aspects of this, the word itself: mensalão …is very, very interesting. In…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Já é!

November 14, 2013November 21, 2024 By James Hall

This is a really easy to learn expression that means basically, “done” or, “it’s a done deal”. You will get big bonus points using… this. But save it for some situation where you really want to be cool like, Let’s have lunch together sometime? Já é! Já é literally means, It already is. Vinte reais…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Decide now.

August 27, 2013November 22, 2024 By James Hall

Finally, an IR verb that is not irregular. Amazing! Comment below if you can think of another. DECIDIR Say, De•ci•dir! Here are some very… common examples: Você decidiu o que fazer? ➜ Did you decide what to do? Você já decidiu? ➜ Have you already decided? Eu decidi ir ao centro. ➜ I’ve decided to…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

Você tem?

June 26, 2013October 7, 2021 By James Hall

If you’re just starting to put together your first sentences you need to get the verb TER down pretty well. It’s fundamental. TER is… super flexible and you can build lots of really useful sentences around it. Try these out for size: Tenho um problema! * You can skip the “EU” — it’s already clear…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

de férias – on Holiday

June 18, 2013November 21, 2024 By James Hall

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) Eu estou de férias. ➜ I’m…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

Perfectly Speaking

June 4, 2013November 21, 2024 By James Hall

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….

(4) Advanced Portuguese

Advanced Portuguese phrasings.

May 12, 2013November 17, 2023 By James Hall

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…

(4) Advanced Portuguese

Fazer in portuguese: What you did

March 18, 2013November 21, 2024 By James Hall

In portuguese, talking about what you did is simple. There are no do’s and did’s like in English. What did you do? Brazilians use… the verb FAZER. Eu fiz ontem. ➜ I did it yesterday. What did you do yesterday? > O que você fez ontem? Como você fez isso? ➜ How did you do…

(3) Intermediate Portuguese

O Código de Ipanema

February 24, 2013October 12, 2016 By James Hall

The word code is código. To say QR code it’s: código QR. ‘QR code’ is that new square mosaic black & white pattern that’s… starting to appear everywhere — magazines, products and now — the sidewalk in Ipanema (Rio de Janeiro). They are taking over old-fashioned barcodes because they can be read by smartphones and…

(2) Beginning Portuguese

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