Portuguese Basics

Hey Everybody: I created this page from my experiences as a bilingual speaker of English and Portuguese (European dialect) while taking Brazilian Portuguese classes at UF. I congratulate anyone trying to familiarize themselves with the language. To native speakers of Portuguese it is the effort that counts the most when we hear non-native speakers trying to speak in Portuguese. I geared the info on the site towards those trying to get the essentials and also addressed aspects of the language that native English speakers have trouble remembering or understanding. If you are visiting Portugal, check out my Figuring Out Schedules section.

About the Language

Portuguese has two main dialects that come from the countries of Brazil and Portugal and each have their own dialects within them. One obvious difference between these two dialects are the rhythm or timing of the sound system of the spoken language (phonology). Brazilian Portuguese is syllable-timed while European Portuguese (like American English) is stress-timed (Ricardo). If you are learning to read and write Portuguese while learning to speak the language it would be easier to learn Brazilian Portuguese, because the timing gives the impression that words are spelled the way they sound (Bond). In a stress timed language, vowels that are between two stressed phonemes (most basic units of meaningful sound in a language) seem to be "skipped" when speaking but are in the writing system (orthography) (Macedo 3).

Conjugation/Conjugação

As you can see from this chart Portuguese has three verb endings: -ar, -ir, -er. Sentences are formed just as in English with the pronoun at the beginning of the sentence followed by the verb. For native speakers of English, it can be overwhelming to learn the many different tenses of the language. The best advice I can offer is to practice speaking and writing in the tenses as much as possible.
Present Tense /Presente
Pronomes/Pronouns Comprar/to Buy Vender/to sell Abrir/to open
Eu/I Compro Vendo Abro
Tu/informal you (Portugal) Compras Vendes Abres
Ele/Ella/Você/He/She/informal you (Brazil) Compra Vende Abre
Nós/We Compramos Vendemos Abrimos
Eles/Elas/They (masc)/(fem) Compram Vendem Abrem
Here are some of the common helping verbs: ser, estar, ter and haver. Also, dar and fazer are useful verbs that are irregularly conjugated. The yellow background is for verbs conjugated in the present tense. The red background is for the perfect past and the green background is for the present future.
Pronomes/Pronouns Ser/to be Estar/to be Ter/ to have Haver/there is Dar/to give Fazer/to do
Eu/I sou estou tenho hei dou faço
Tu/informal you (Portugal) és estás tens hás dás fazes
Ele/Ella/Você/He/She/informal you (Brazil) é está tem há dá faz
Nós/We somos estamos temos havemos damos fazemos
Eles/Elas/They (masc)/(fem) são estão têm hão dão fazem
Eu/I fui estive tive houve dei fiz
Tu/informal you (Portugal) foste estiveste tiveste houveste deste fizeste
Ele/Ella/Você/He/She/informal you (Brazil) foi esteve teve houve deu fez
Nós/We fomos estevemos tivemos houvemos demos fizemos
Eles/Elas/They (masc)/(fem) foram estiveram tiveram houveram deram fizeram
Eu/I serei estarei terei haverei darei farei
Tu/informal you (Portugal) serás estarás terás haverás darás farás
Ele/Ella/Você/He/She/informal you (Brazil) será estará terá haverá dará fará
Nós/We seremos estaremos teremos haveremos daremos faremos
Eles/Elas/They (masc)/(fem) serão estarão terão haverão darão farão

There are many more conjugations in the Portuguese language which creates a challenge for even native speakers of Spanish trying to learn the language. If you can understand what the conjugations signify than you will be amazed at their efficiency in expressing the attitudes of the speaker. If grasping all of the indicative and subjunctive tenses are just too much, than focus on the basic conjugations you need in order to get by and memorize common expressions that use the other rarer conjugations. For example, grasping the future subjunctive has always been a challenge for non-native speakers but it is commonly used in the expression "Se Deus quiser" which means the same as "God willing."

Priberam is a great site to go to when you are in need of a dictionary and there are conjugation charts for any verb. Also, if you want to check a block of text for spelling errors click on FLiP.pt and then "Corrector Ortográfico."

The Vocabulary and Other Essentials

Exchange Rate/Câmbio: Portuguese Currency: Euro Brazilian Currency Reais (plural) Real (singular)

Greetings: In English people will informally greet each other with a "hello" or a "hi," but in Portuguese it is polite to use these greetings even in informal situations. In small towns even people passing by will say these greetings. Bom Dia/Good Morning, Boa Tarde/Good Afternoon, Boa Noite/Good Evening (night). When beginning a conversation with someone in Portuguese it is rude to just jump into the matter at hand without asking how someone is doing. In Portugal the informal manner would be:"Como estás?" and the formal would be "Como está o senhor (or other title)?" In Brazil, "Como vai?" suffices for both informal and formal although in the formal you would add on the person's title or sir just as in the Portuguese example. An appropriate response would be "bem" which means "I'm fine" or "tudo bem" which means "everything is fine." When first meeting someone always address them by their title or if they do not have one, senhor for men and senhora for women. Even though most people will ask you to address them informally it is still important to show formality first. Unlike English, names and titles have definite articles before them. For example: o senhor, a Maria. In Portuguese, men should always say "thank you" as "obrigado" while women will always say "obrigada" (Lima Glossário Inglês 7). This is the only part of the language where the identity of the speaker affects the way something is said. Saying "please" in Portuguese can either be "por favor" or "faça favor" and sometimes no smoking signs will say "É favor não fumar." "Com licença" is used if you want to say "excuse me" before getting up from the dinner table or when you want people to make room for you as you pass through a crowd

Here are some expressions you might have a hard time with because they do not directly translate well:

pois não= even though it has the word "no" in it, this means yes and is usually an informal response to a basic request (Lima Glossário Inglês 14)

fazer parte de = be a part of Eu não vou fazer parte desta brincadeira/I am not going to be a part of this foolishness (King 28).

mesmo quando= even when Mesmo quando eu uso um mapa fico perdida/Even when I use a map I get lost (King 40).

parecer com= look like Eles dizem que ele parece com o Manuel/ They say that he looks like Manuel (King 100).

bem= very Vou me levantar bem cedo/I am going to get up very early (King 122).

valer a pena= worth it Não vale a pena ir lá/ It's not worth it to go there (King 180).

Vocabulary Differences Between the Portuguese and Brazilian Dialects

Here are some words that differ between the two dialects. This is in no way meant to be a comprehensive list, but just a few popular examples. In general the differences in vocabulary are not great enough that words such as these cannot be deduced from the context. Most speakers of Portuguese will say "Dá para entender/It's good enough to understand" when asked about the differences between the two dialects.
Brazilian Portuguese English Gloss
Suco Sumo Juice
Onibus Autocarro/Carreira Bus
Time Equipa Team
Xícara Chávena Cup
Sorvete Gelado Ice Cream
Fila Bicha (means gay in Portuguese) Line/Queue
Prefeito Câmara Town Hall/Mayor's Office
Café da Manhã Pequeno Almoço Breakfast
Banheiro Casa de Banho Bathroom

Writing in Portuguese

Accent Marks/Os Sinais de Acentuação Gráfica:Not only does familiarization with the accent marks in Portuguese help you figure out the pronunciation of vowels, but it also means the difference between two words. For example: avó=grandmother avô=grandfather and esta=this, está=verb ‘to be' in 2nd person present tense

Accent Mark

Name/Nome

Example/Exemplo

´

acento agudo

também (also)

`

acento grave

à (to the)

ˆ

circunflexo

vôo (flight)

˜

til

avião (plane)

··

trema

subseqüente (subsequent)

 

¸

cedilha

desembaraçado (confident)

This chart is adapted from King (301).

Figuring Out Schedules/ Compreendendo Horários

This is probably the easiest and one of the most useful skills to learn if traveling to Portugal.

Meses/Months-are capatilized in Portugal, but not Brasil and follow the same order as in English:janeiro, fevereiro, março, abril, maio , junho, julho, agosto , setembro, outubro, novembro, dezembro

Brazil is in the Southern hemisphere so winter (inverno) is June to August , fall (outono) is from March to May , summer (verão) is from December to February, and spring (primavera) is from September to November ( Lima 52).

Dias Uteis/Weekdays: segunda-feira (2a) Monday, terça-feira (3a) Tuesday, quarta-feira (4a) Wednesday, quinta-feira (5a) Thursday, sexta-feira (6a) Friday.

Fim de Semana/Weekend: sábado Saturday, domingo Sunday.

As you can see the days of the week are not capitalized in Portuguese and their abbreviations are in parenthesis. Also, many people do not say feira when they are speaking. Yes, the days are in number order (don't ask me why Monday is second), so there is no shame in counting on your fingers the days of the week as a memory aid. It is important to remember that in Portugal people take long lunch breaks so many small shops close for a few hours around noon . In some small towns the hours that stores close rotate, so there might be some stores closed 1pm-3pm while others are closed 12pm-2pm . However, this would not be how the times would be written in Portuguese since they use “military time.” After 12pm the hours keep counting up, so that 1:00pm would be written 13:00, until midnight . Take note that this is the way time is written . When people say what time it is they use similar expressions to English such as “São duas horas da tarde/It is two in the afternoon.” No one says it is fourteen hundred hours or the like.

Adjectives/Adjetivos

Unlike Spanish and English, where the adjective always comes either after or before the noun, Portuguese adjective position can be either way. Actually, placement of an adjective either before or after the noun can even change the meaning of what you are trying to say. There are seven adjectives to which this rule applies: pobre (poor/pitiful), grande (big/great), velho (old/longtime), antigo (old/antiquated), simples (simple/common or insignificant), alto (tall in height/high in status), and novo (new/innovative). Here is an example: "o comissário alto" means "the tall commissioner" but "o alto comissário" means "the high commissioner" as in a title. (King 19-21)

Comparatives/Comparativos

In Portuguese, certain words are completely different when used in comparative statements (Lima 98):

I have a small dog/ O meu cão é pequeno.

My dog is smaller than Sara's dog/ O meu cão é menor do que o cão da Sara.

My house has a big door/A minha casa tem uma porta grande .

My house's door is bigger than yours/ A porta da minha casa é maior do que a tua.

That is a bad restaurant/Este restaurante é mau.

This restaurant is worse than that one/ Este restaurante é pior do que aquele.

This is a good car/Este é um bom carro.

This car is better than that car/ Este carro é melhor do que aquele carro.

Bibliography/Bibliografia

 

Bond, Karen. “Pronunciation Problems for Brazilian Students of English.” 2001. Karen's Linguistics Issues. 19 April 2005

http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/pronunciation.html.

King, Larry D. and Margarita Suñer. Para a Frente!: An Intermediate Course in Portuguese. Newark, DE: LinguaText, Ltd,

1991.

Lima, Emma Eberlein O.F. and Samira A. Iunes eds. Falar…Ler…Escrever…Português: Um Curso para Estrangeiros. São

Paulo: EPU, 1999.

Lima, Emma Eberlein O.F. and Samira A. Iunes eds. Falar…Ler…Escrever…Português: Um Curso para Estrangeiros:

Glossário Inglês. São Paulo: EPU, 2001.

Macedo, Donaldo P. and Dale A. Koike eds. Romance Linguistics: The Portuguese Context. Westport , CT : Bergin and

Garvey, 1992.

Ricardo. “ Fórum EMB de Discussões.” 2003. English Made in Brazil Educational Site. 19 April 2005

http://www.sk.com.br/forum/display_message.asp?mid=912.