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Archive for 'Grammar'

New Portuguese Accent Rules Go into Effect Posted by on Jan 2, 2009

As of January 1st, the accent changes to written Portuguese meant to unify the global language go into effect. This year will be the “Year of Transition” when Brazil begins to adopt the new grammar rules. According to President Lula, the new and old rules can both be used until 2012, but some media outlets…

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É assim não! Posted by on Dec 17, 2008

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”…

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Portuguese Personal Pronouns Posted by on Oct 13, 2008

It’s important to know all of the person pronouns in Portuguese, even if you may not use all of them: Eu (I) [Ee-ew] Tu (you, informal) [Too] Você (you, formal), Ela (She), Ele (He)  [Voh-say, eh-lah, eh-lee] Nós (We) [Noi-ss] Vós (all of you, informal)  [Voice] Vocês (all of you, formal), Elas (them, feminine), Eles…

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Tudo vai dar certo Posted by on May 20, 2008

The best way to use the English expressions, “Everything will be fine,” or “Everything will work out” in Portuguese is to use the expression dar certo. For example: Eu estou muito estressada com tudo isto. All of this is really stressing me out.Não se preocupe, tudo vai dar certo. Don’t worry, everything will work out…

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Poor thing! Posted by on Apr 9, 2008

The word for “poor thing” in Portuguese is coitado, which to the English-speaking ear may sound a bit odd, but don’t worry–it’s not a bad word. We use coitado for males and coitada for females, and add an –inho or –inha if we want to say “poor little thing.” For example: Ele está com dengue…

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Gostar Posted by on Mar 31, 2008

Gostar is an important verb to learn and is luckily fairly easy to use. It means “to like,” but is used in various contexts. Unlike the Spanish gustar, which is a bit tricky for English-speakers to learn, gostar is a completely regular verb. Here are of gostar‘s uses. First, in the present tense, it can…

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Showing Surprise: Part II Posted by on Mar 28, 2008

To finish the week, we’ll look at three more expressions used to show surprise in Portuguese. 1. Puxa / puxa vida! (poo-shah / poo-shah vee-dah): Jeez! Man! Gosh! This expression is meant to show surprise, indignation, or frustration. Examples: Puxa! Esta cidade é bem cara. Man! This city is expensive. Puxa vida! Você esqueceu de…

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