Portuguese Language Blog

In this series, we’ll explore lesser known tourist attractions in Brazil, especially in harder to reach places.

Today, we’re going to take a look at Ilha do Mosqueiro, an island located in the Pará River, seventy kilometers from the city of Belém. The island boasts thirteen freshwater beaches along seventeen kilometers of the river.

Besides the beach, the island also has several churches, the Mercado Municipal, and environmentally protected areas where you can explore the region’s wildlife.

While on the island, you can also try the local cuisine, most famous for tapioquinha, tapioca pancakes made from cassava, and caldeirada, a fish dish made from locally caught fish, shrimp, potatoes, and hard-boiled eggs.

One of the most important things to bear in mind when learning Portuguese is that there is a big difference between written Portguese, which is more formal and sticks to the grammar books, and oral Portuguese, which is a whole different story.

One place where this becomes apparent is the use of the word “não” in creating a negative sentence. Gramatically speaking, it is incorrect to place “não” at the end of the sentence; logistically, it is constantly placed at the end of the sentence in spoken Portuguese. Though technically, this structure is grammatically incorrect, it is frequently used this way in the oral form, usually in a response to a question.

Let’s take a look.

How it’s written: Não quero ir na festa. I don’t want to go to the party.

How it’s spoken: Quero ir na festa não. I don’t want to go to the party.

To be safe, stick to the grammar rules when writing, be it a term paper or a business email, but when spoken, it’s ok to speak like the Brazilians do.

Let’s look at a few more examples we’re likely to hear in spoken Portuguese.

Sei não, cara. I don’t know, man.

Podemos ir não. We can’t go.

Gosta não. She doesn’t like it.

Está triste não. He’s not sad.

American businessman David Neeleman, the founder of JetBlue Airlines, launched his brand new Brazilian airline yesterday, Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras SA. The airline began flights from Salvador, Bahia; Campinas, São Paulo; and Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. Next month, two more cities will be added: Vitória, in Espirito Santo, and Curitiba, in Paraná. In 2009, twenty more cities will be added.

The airline bears resemblances to US-based company JetBlue. Azul will offer live TV on individual monitors on each seat, the first airline in Latin America to do so. Like JetBlue, the idea of the airline is to avoid the country’s busiest airports and to fly to less congested ones at a low price. The aircrafts are designed with reclining ultraleather seats, with a section of each cabin furnished with seats that recline further than the others.

The concept of the new airline is to be able to provide high-quality, low cost air travel, since only 5% of Brazilians fly domestically due to the high cost of airfare. Current prices in December start at around R$318 (US$138) round-trip, payable in installments.

To find out more, visit the official Azul website.