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Tag Archives: Grammar

How to say “coulda, woulda, shoulda” in Portuguese Posted by on Apr 15, 2013

Hello, there! Some people think Portuguese is a very hard language because of its several verb conjugations. This may be true in some cases but there are some verb phrases that are pretty easy to use, like shoulda (should have), coulda (could have), woulda (would have) and as a bonus, musta (must have)! Shoulda! Let’s…

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What the @$% are you doing? Posted by on Apr 10, 2013

E aí, pessoal, tudo bem? The post title was only to catch your attention to today’s topic: how to say what you are doing, em português. So, let’s go for it! First, this verb phrase has two parts: the verb estar (in the present) + the main verb in the gerund. Let’s review the verb…

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Time adverbs in Portuguese Posted by on Dec 14, 2012

Oi! Tudo bem? E hoje é sexta-feira! Coisa boa, né? Today we are going to take a look at time adverbs in Portuguese. Don’t worry, I didn’t include those rare ones, only the most common in everyday conversation, ok? Estão prontos? Vamos lá! hoje – today ontem – yesterday amanhã – tomorrow de manhã –…

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How to use “a gente” in Portuguese Posted by on Nov 26, 2012

Olá! How was your long weekend? Did you have fun? Let’s kick our week off with a very interesting feature of spoken Portuguese: using “a gente”. “A gente” means “the people”, but it is widely used in spoken Portuguese to replace the pronoun “nós”. It is not considered substandard or impolite and it is found…

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Making comparisons in Portuguese Posted by on Aug 13, 2012

In Portuguese we have three kinds of comparison: igualdade, superioridade and inferioridade. Here is how they are formed: 1. Comparações de Igualdade tão + adjective + quanto O Pedro é tão alto quanto o Ricardo. – Pedro is as tall as Ricardo. Meu pai não é tão rico quanto o seu. – My father isn’t…

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How to use “mal” and “mau” – the answers Posted by on Jul 11, 2012

Hello, there! Here are the answers to Monday’s test on how to use mal and mau. 1. Ele é um MAU profissional. 2. Ele está trabalhando MAL. 3. O chefe está de MAU humor. 4. O chefe está sempre MAL-humorado. 5. O empregado foi MAL treinado. 6. MAL chegou ao escritório, teve o desprazer de…

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How to use “mal” and “mau” Posted by on Jul 9, 2012

Mau and mal sound the same in Portuguese and oftentimes even native speakers have difficulty using them correctly. So today let’s learn some basic rules. Mal Mal can be an adverb, noun or conjunction. As an adverb it means “badly”, “incorrectly”. It is the opposite of bem (well). Ele fala inglês muito mal. [He speaks…

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