Archive for September, 2014
How To Say “I Had Done” in Portuguese Posted by Adir on Sep 30, 2014
Olá, pessoal! In today’s post we are going to learn how to say “I had done”, “I had gone”, “I had worked” etc. It’s simple: use the verb “ter” in the imperfect form (tinha, tinha, tinha, tínhamos, tinham, tinham) + the past participle of the main verb. Here’s an example with regular verb trabalhar (to…
Song: Jogado Na Rua, by Guilherme e Santiago Posted by Adir on Sep 25, 2014
Salve, pessoal! In the last decade there has been a boom in the sertanejo universitário music. Sertanejo is Brazil’s country music and the universitário (university student) is a variation for more romantic and/or party kind of songs. I chose one to share with you: Jogado Na Rua. It’s one of those songs that someone’s broken-hearted…
07 Expressions With Verb “Ficar” Posted by Adir on Sep 18, 2014
Salve, pessoal! Tudo bem? Ficar is a very, very common verb in Portuguese and it has several interesting idioms. Let’s learn them! 01. Ficar com as pernas bambas – to go weak in the knees Não posso ver sangue. Fico com as pernas bambas quando vejo. – I can’t see blood. I go weak in…
How To Use “Há” or “A” Posted by Adir on Sep 15, 2014
Hello there! If you’ve been studying Portuguese for some time you may have noticed that we have a lot of homophones – those words that sound the same but are written somewhat differently (homo = same; phono = sound). As these words are confusing, many people don’t get them write when they write them. Such…
Grammar: Contractions with Countries and Cities Posted by Adir on Sep 12, 2014
Olá pessoal! Portuguese has some preposition + article contractions that foreign students don’t always get right. So first let’s review the most common contractions with em (at, in, on) and de (of, from). Em em + o = no em + a = na em + os = nos em + as = nas De…
Pronunciation Practice: A Outra Noite Posted by Adir on Sep 9, 2014
Olá, pessoal! In this post we’re going to practice our pronunciation and reading in Portuguese. Below you have a text called “A Outra Noite”, by Rubem Alves. I recorded the text in regular speed (not too slow and not too fast) so you can follow with the text. My study tip is: listen to the…