Archive for 'Vocabulary'
Animals as Adjectives Posted by carol on Dec 10, 2015
Oi, pessoal! (Hey, people!) Many languages use animals as an adjective to describe humans. Some may refer to the leading characteristic of the animal in question (such as slow, large) as a basis of comparison, whereas other can be more abstract and have nothing to do with the animal itself. Either way, the meaning of…
No aeroporto – at the airport in Brasil Posted by Ester on Dec 7, 2015
Being in an aeroporto (airport) is never the best experience in the world. The long hours waiting around, the getting in filas (lines), the security check, the gate changes, the delays, and not to mention, the incredibly overpriced comida (food) and produtos (goods). There are ways to making the experience slightly more bearable: try to…
9 gírias (slangs) from different regions in Brasil. Posted by Ester on Nov 30, 2015
Brasil is so big and diverse that there are a good few words and expressions that are used in some places in the country, but people from a different region wouldn’t even know what they mean. Last week we learned a little bit more about some words and their correspondent in another part of Brasil…
Expressions with “bola” Posted by carol on Nov 25, 2015
Brazil is widely known as the country of football. The sport is a national passion and we are famous all across the globe for our talented players and teams. Football is definitely the most popular in our nation and it and an intrinsic part of our culture. Maybe that can explain the number of idiomatic…
Different words – same meaning Posted by Ester on Nov 23, 2015
Hi everyone. Did you know that sometimes Brazilians from different parts of the country don’t understand each other even though we speak the same language? That is not only due to the accent, it is also because some of the words people use are regional. We have different names for objects and sometimes even different…
Augmentative e diminutive in Portuguese Posted by carol on Nov 12, 2015
Olá, galerinha. Tudo certinho? (Hey, you guys, everything all right?) You may have noticed while trying to learn Portuguese or chatting with Brazilians that we really enjoy using the augmentative and the diminutive forms. It’s very common and we use it on a regular basis, so it’s important to learn how it works. The augmentative…
Acentuação gráfica – accents em Português Posted by Ester on Nov 10, 2015
Acento agudo (acute accent): It is always used above any vowel to indicate this vowel is part of the stressed syllable. It also indicates that the vowel sound is an open sound. Exemplos: Ela é uma menina amável. (She is a lovely girl) Esse não é um assunto típico da aula de física. (This…