Hello, everyone!
Here’s a new question, courtesy of Jamie Skinner:
Olá Luís!
I have been learning Portuguese for about 3 months now. I study really hard…. But I wanted to find some books to read on the kindle store.
All I can find for language learners is Brazilian Portuguese short stories. Do you happen to know any beginner/intermediate level Portuguese books?
Thanks
Jamie
Hello, everyone! Olá a todos!
It’s been a long time since someone asked me a question through the Q&A Form, but I’m glad to be back – hopefully it’s something that can be of help to all of you! Today’s question is from Ben – his message went as follows:
Olá, Luís! Muito obrigado por este sito! Aprendo tanto quando leio os teus postagens!
Tenho uma questão sobre a pronúncia dos vogais nasais. Sei que “am” e “em” se pronunciam nasalmente quando ficam no fim duma palavra. Isto é mesmo quando a palavra seguinda começa com um vogal? Ou se pronuncia o “m”? Alguns exemplos: O homem arrogante… Eles falam apesar de… Elas queriam acabar…
Espero que a minha questão é clara! Também queria que correte a minha gramática se tu podes!
Muito obrigado, Luís!
Ben
My answer, as always, can be found just after the jump (:
Hello, everyone! Today I bring you a question about sound changes and stress patterns in verb forms. A quite pertinent question, something that we usually just take for granted but that can be hard for someone to learn. Here’s the question:
Olá Luís,
Gosto muito do seu blog!!
Há umas regras gerais sobre como pronunciar os vogais nas palavras como ‘meter’ e ‘ganhar’ etc que não mudam no processo de inflexão?
Por exemplo, metem, mete, meto, e metam (de Conjuntivo), e ganhava, ganho, ganham, e ganhe, ganhem (de Conjuntivo), etc. São muitas diferenças entre EP e BP?
Obrigado pela ajuda!
Huawen
Follow me after the jump to learn more about this!
Hello, everyone! Here’s a new question from Yuliya (and for all of you, of course):
Olá, Luís!
Vou perguntar te de novo. Esta vez sobre do verbo para a palavra “claro”. Como é que é correto “está claro” ou “é claro”? Na Internet vejo ambas formas usadas.
E segunda pergunta é sobre o tempo passado que deve ser usado para dizer “It was clear”. Foi claro? Era claro? Ou esteve(estava) claro?
Se não te importares, gostava de te pedir para reveres esta mensagem.
Obrigada, Yuliya
Hello, everyone! I’ve just received a very interesting question about European Portuguese pronunciation from Sarah:
I’ve been using Memrise but I’m confused with the o at the end of the word.
Sometimes I can hear it quite clearly and other times it seems to have vanished. Is there an easy way to know when to pronounce it or not?
Obrigada
Hello, everyone! This time we have a question from Michael João, a Kiwi-Portuguese with some very pertinent questions about clitic pronouns:
Kia ora Luis!
Michael here from New Zealand again.
Thank you for your answer about the progressive tense and the use of the gerund in EU Portuguese.
I recently spent 6 weeks in Portugal, and managed to celebrate Santo Antonio in Lisbon and São João in Braga!! Era uma experiênca para a vida inteira!
tenho uma nova pergunta:
Clitics, or the time when the object is stuck to the end of the verb with a hyphen (technical term usage here)
I’d love to know when to use it, and when to put the object before the verb, if there is a rule or a guide, to make sure I can construct sentences like a native.
Memrise (Portuguese: Portugal) give me: “não tinha a intenção de magoá-lo, but then in the same lesson, “nunca me ouve” “magoaste-o”.
as this is something my 20,000+XP in duo never taught me, I’d really appreciate some help with this aspect of EP grammar and sentence formation, and I’m sure your other readers would too.
Thank you so much for this wonderful blog. You are such a great help to so many.
Yours on the other side of the planet
M. João Tavares.
Kia ora, Michael!
Thank you so much for your continued readership! It’s great to have a lusodescendente (the noun we use for the descendants of Portuguese people all over the world) who’s so engaged with learning more about the country and the language; it’s also amazing that you had a change to visit Portugal for so long – June really is one of the best months to visit!
Regarding your question, clitics truly are a beast in and of themselves, but there are a few rules about their placement. Unlike BP, regular affirmative sentences will have the clitic after the verb with an hyphen joining the two; to quote your examples:
Here the object pronoun changes (from -o to -lo) because there’s another rule that says that infinitives lose their -r after clitics (you can read about it in the article I wrote about object pronouns, especially under “Lo/La | Los/Las“).
The example you give of proclisis (when the clitic comes before the verb) is an exception, triggered by amongst other things:
These are probably the most significant cases; your question is obviously very pertinent – the language does seem a bit hectic when you see it without this filter – which I’m sure you’ll get with time and practice!
To clarify a few other things, clitics which would be written with -l[o/a/os/as] and -n[o/a/os/as] return to their base form when forced to go before the noun, and assumed mesoclitics become a normal, basic proclitic pronoun followed by the unbroken form of the verb – here is one example of each:
If you have any other questions, please let me know in the comments!
Best from Portugal via Luxembourg all the way to New Zealand :)
Hi, everyone! Here’s another long-suffering question from Yuliya (sorry again for the lack of answers):
Olá, Luís! Tenho uma mais pergunta para fazer.
Encontro alguns advérbios em duas formas: na forma de adjetivo e com término -mente. Por exemplo, “ele fala rápido” e “ele fala rapidamente”. Ou “ele fala fluente” e “ele fala fluentemente”. São ambas formas corretas? É uma forma mais preferida?
Obrigada, Yuliya.
Hi, everyone! Here’s an always very pertinent, interesting question from Yuliya:
Olá, Luís!
Queria saber se há uma diferença entre as “a maioria” e “a maior parte”?
Por exemplo na frase “Hoje em dia a maioria (a maior parte) das pessoas usa telemóvel”?
Obrigada. Yuliya
Hello, everyone! I hope you’re all having a nice week (:
Today’s question comes via Elaine in the United States:
Olá professor! Por favor, queria saber porque o JB (o jornal) não usou o futuro do conjuntivo na oração que começa com: “…enquanto luta contra quem quer (quiser?) expulsá-la de vez…”
«The New York Times comenta que uma sensação de impotência e indignação permeia o Palácio da Alvorada, a residência onde Dilma Rousseff, mesmo afastada é permitida de habitar enquanto luta contra quem quer expulsá-la de uma vez por todas.»
Agradeço desde já, Luís.
The answer will follow after the jump.
Hello, everyone! I hope your Portuguese studies/life is going swell! I’ve been quite busy in the last few days, so I’m only getting up to speed with my messages now (it’s only just the one, so lucky me!). Don’t worry, I’ve written quite a few Words of the week in advance, so you’ll always have those two posts per week guaranteed at least until early July.
Now, here is today’s message from Yuliya:
Olá, Luís!
Tenho uma pergunta que é mais sobre hábitos em vez da gramática: “tu/você” emprego.
Em russo temos as formas formal e informal também. Se eu falo com uma pessoa desconhecida uso a forma formal, o mesmo na Internet ou cara a cara. Claro que há pessoas que usam em russo a forma informal na Internet também, mas não é o hábito geral. Mas em português, encontrei muitas vezes que a forma informal (tu) está utilizada na Internet mesmo falando com os estranhos.
Queria saber se “tu” forma é aceitável completamente para falar com os estranhos nos fóruns ou nas redes sociais? Ainda “você” fica pelas conversas cara a cara?
Muito obrigada pelos todos os materiais de estudo no teu blog. Se não te importares, gostava de te pedir para reveres esta mensagem também. :)
Yuliya
Yuliya, thank you for your kind words (again) and the questions, obviously. I’ll answer them and rewrite your test after the jump.
P.S. If you’d also like your EP skills to be reviewed by me, send me a short message (2 to 3 main paragraphs) to my Q&A form.
The European Portuguese Experience 