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Adeus, Emilio Santiago… Posted by Adir on Mar 20, 2013
Brazilian singer Emilio Santiago, 66, died this morning in Rio de Janeiro. He had a stroke on March 7 and had been struggling with it since. Emilio graduated in Law, but the passion for music and singers like Nelson Gonçalves, Anísio Silva and Cauby Peixoto led him to participate in music festivals in the seventies…
Are you fluent in Portuguese? Posted by Adir on Mar 14, 2013
I have been a teacher for over twenty years and I always get the question: how long till I become fluent in a foreign language? Since there is no definite answer to the fluency question, I hope the following descriptions will give you a better understanding of what’s expected when learning a language, and the different…
Learn Portuguese with Gangnam Style Posted by Adir on Mar 12, 2013
The Internet is a many splendored thing, right? I friended these guys on Facebook, who live in Belo Horizonte (state of Minas Gerais) and have a group called Real Life English. Their group helps people from all over the world to learn English and one of them, Josh Plotkin, made a very cool video using…
Feeling sick, em português Posted by Adir on Mar 7, 2013
You finally made it to Brazil, having a grea time at the beach when suddenly you start coming down with something. In this post let’s learn very useful expressions to use when this happens. Não estou me sentindo muito bem. I’m not feeling very well. Estou me sentindo um pouco indisposto. I’m feeling a little…
Talking about work in Portuguese Posted by Adir on Mar 6, 2013
Salve! Tudo bem por aí? Today we are going to talk about work, in Portuguese! Check out this dialogue between two friends, Leandro and Renato: Leandro: O que foi? Você parece chateado. Renato: Na verdade estou mesmo. Estou cansado de fazer as mesmas coisas chatas entra dia sai dia no meu trabalho. Sabe, preencher fichas…
Collocations with verb “perder” Posted by Adir on Feb 28, 2013
Olá, tudo bem? Collocations are basically word combinations. For example, in English we say “to make a decision”, but in Portuguese people “take a decision”. Today let’s look at some very common collocations with verb “perder”! 1. Perder algo = to lose something, to misplace something Perdi minhas chaves. Não sei onde estão. [I’ve lost…
How to use the hyphen in Portuguese Posted by Adir on Feb 26, 2013
Olá! After the 2009 spelling reform, Portuguese has other (and easier) ways to use the hyphen. Let’s see how it is done now. 1. Different vowels – Don’t use the hyphen infraestrutura extraoficial autoestrada semiárido ultraelevado 2. Same vowels – Use the hyphen anti-inflamatório auto-observação micro-ondas contra-argumento 3. Same consonants – Use the hyphen sub-base…