Archive for January, 2014
Breaking Up is Hard to Do… Even in Portuguese! Posted by Adir on Jan 30, 2014
Hello, there! Breaking up is hard to do… or so they say! Check out this dialogue between two friends: Rafael and Jéssica. Practice your pronunciation and improve your vocabulary with the notes below. Rafael: E aí, Jéssica! Quanto tempo! Jéssica: Oi, Rafa! É mesmo! Tudo bem com você? Rafael: Opa, tudo certo. Ainda tô trabalhando…
Using Vague Language in Portuguese (with audio!) Posted by Adir on Jan 23, 2014
E aí, pessoal? Tudo em ordem? In spoken Portuguese, it’s very common to use vague language. In this post I’m going to show you some examples. Let’s start with quantities and qualities. Instead of boring you with rules, let me give you some real-life examples. Isso custa uns mil reais. [around] Isso custa aproximadamente mil…
You’d Better Not Come Making Excuses Because… Posted by Adir on Jan 16, 2014
…this is what this post is all about: making excuses. We all need to make excuses some time to get away from an unpleasant conversation so today I’m going to give you some example excuses that you can use and still be polite! Here are some example situations. Numa ligação pessoal [During a personal…
The Secret of Pronuncing Endings “oo” and “ee” Posted by Adir on Jan 9, 2014
Hello, there! A reader tweeted and asked me to write a post (with audio) about the endings “oo” and “ee”. But before that let me tell you a little story. After several attempts to unify the Portuguese language spelling, on January 9th 2009 the Novo Acordo Ortográfico (New Ortographic Agreement) was signed and Portuguese-speaking…
A Simple Technique to Help You Become More Fluent in Portuguese TODAY! Posted by Adir on Jan 2, 2014
Olá, pessoal! Feliz 2014! I’m sure this year is going to great for all of us so my only resolution is to help you become more fluent in Portuguese. Because of that I’m going to teach you a technique that I’ve never written about in the blog: backchaining. Before teaching you what backchaining is I’d…