One of the first things you’ll notice in Brazil is the word “mesmo.” You’ll hear it everywhwre! It has a few common uses: as “really” to emphasize, as “even though” triggering the subjunctive, and as “the same”. This post will show how to use ” mesmo”, and when it needs to become “mesmA” 😉
Read more...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!
Read more...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.
Read more...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…
Read more...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,…
Read more...Using the Imperfect 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 Imperfect Subjunctive is used for case (1): actions that are extremely unlikely to happen or to have happened. If I were…
Read more...JANICE Pois não senhor. “Pois não” translates to “at your service”. You’ll only hear it in this type of situation – being served. WILLIAM Olá, bom dia. Eu quero uma Coca-Cola. Uma Coca-Cola Zero. JANICE Olá e, seja bem vindo meu amigo. Mas, nós não temos Coca-Cola. WILLIAM Não tem. Sério? Você aqui tem sucos!…
* New 3rd part will begin right after a replay the first two segments 🤞 This really is how this would play out in Brazil. Not that the maids here cover up the inevitable accidents, but just that things do_break. All 3 of these chapters happened to me, personally. Having a housekeeper is a real…
Why does the subjunctive tense exist? Eu não sei. Researching this on Grammarist, the section on The Subjunctive starts like this: The subjunctive mood is complicated. For an in-depth explanation, see our post on the subject. Wikipedia says this: The subjunctive is a grammatical mood (that is, a way of speaking that allows people to…
The phrase pensei que seems like it should always trigger the subjunctive, but not so. In Portuguese, there are grey areas that don’t always strictly obey the grammar rules. All languages have inconsistencies. The thing to learn in this dialog is that pensei que is a phrase that is used all the time, and you…
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...MARCOS Adivinha quanto eles querem pagar. QUEREM: this is of course, the 2nd person plural conjugation of querer: they/you-all want. You rarely get to hear this one because it’s much more common to hear I want, she wants, you want. RAMON Bom, o cargo de gerente de vendas é sempre em torno de 5 a…
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…
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