Portuguese/Contents/BPL1/Segunda lição

Verb 'ser'/Verbo "ser"

You learned, at the last lesson, that there were two copula verbs in Portuguese. You've already learned the first one, "estar". Now it is time to learn the other one, ser, which denotes a permanent situation or condition. It is not a regular verb. The verb ser is conjugated in the present indicative as follows:

Person	Portuguese	English
1. s.	eu sou	I am
2. s.	você é	you are
3. s.	ele/ela é	he/she/it is
1. p.	nós somos	we are
2. p.	vocês são	you all are
3. p.	eles/elas são	they are

See some examples:

Nós somos alunos. ("We are students.")

Eles são felizes. ("They are happy.")

To illustrate the difference between "ser" and "estar", compare the next two phrases:

Eu estou alegre. – "I am happy (right now)."

Eu sou alegre. – "I am happy (a happy person)."

Possessive pronouns/Pronomes possessivos

The possessive pronouns (pronomes possessivos) in Portuguese are the same than the possessive adjectives. As adjectives, they agree in gender and number with the possessed thing. They are:

Possessive pronouns and adjectives
Portuguese				English
Masculine		Feminine		Adjective	Pronoun
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
meu	meus	minha	minhas	my	mine
seu	seus	sua	suas	his, her, its	his, hers, its
nosso	nossos	nossa	nossas	our	ours
seu	seus	sua	suas	their	theirs

Just like adjectives and nouns, the plural forms are made adding -s.

meu apartamento ("my apartment/flat")

meus apartamentos ("my apartments/flats")

minha casa ("my house")

minhas casas ("my houses")

The inflection patterns of "teu" (compare with "tu") and "seu" are the alike.

seu livro ("his/her/its/their book")

seus livros ("his/her/its/their books")

sua revista ("his/her/its/their magazine")

suas revistas ("his/her/its/their magazines")

The pronouns "vosso" (compare with "vós") and "nosso" (compare with "nós") are inflected just like adjectives.

nosso trabalho ("our work")

nossos trabalhos ("our works")

nossa piada ("our joke")

nossas piadas ("our jokes")

As "você" and "vocês" are address pronouns, they behave as third person pronouns. So, the possessive forms of them are "seu"-words. This is a important and confuse point, as you saw that "seu" can mean either "your(s)", "his", "her(s)", "its" and "their(s)". So instead of using "seu" (which have that lot of meanings) one changes it for:

Portuguese	English
dele	of him
dela	of her
deles	of them (masculine)
delas	of them (feminine)
de vocês	of you all

Those are all contractions of the preposition "de" and the personal pronouns "ele", "ela", "eles", "elas". The same rule applies for "vocês" (but no contraction can be made between "de" and "vocês"). So, the possessive form used is "de vocês" ("of you").

o escritório dele ("his office")

o escritório dela ("her office")

o escritório deles ("their office")

o escritório delas ("their office")

o escritório de vocês ("your office")

At everyday language, "seu" is used only as possessive form of "você", making things much easier.

But some even do not use "seu" for "você", because of the confuse meanings it may have. Those use "teu" instead. It is grammatically wrong because "teu" is the possessive form of "tu". Grammatically, one must use the pronoun alongside with its respective possessive form: "tu" with "teu" and "você" with "seu".

Concluding, the possessive pronouns are:

Possessive pronouns and adjectives (informal speech)
Portuguese				English
Masculine		Feminine
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
meu	meus	minha	minhas	my, mine
seu	seus	sua	suas	your, yours (using "você")
dele				of him, of it
dela				of her, of it
nosso	nossos	nossa	nossas	our, ours
de vocês				your, yours
deles				of them (masculine)
delas				of them (feminine)

Common greetings, thanks and goodbyes/Cumprimentos, agradecimentos e despedidas comuns

Portuguese greetings ("cumprimentos") and goodbyes ("despedidas") are quite simple. The most usual ones among them are:

Common greetings
Portuguese	English	Notes
oi, olá	hello, hi
bom dia	good morning	(lit. "good day") it is spoken only at morning
boa tarde	good afternoon
boa noite	good evening
Common goodbyes
Portuguese	English	Notes
tchau	bye
até (a próxima vez)	see you	(lit. "until the next time")
boa noite	good night

This obrigado means "thank you" (not to be confused with "obligated" means obrigado).

Gender of the speaker	Singular
Masculine	obrigado
Feminine	obrigada

Some actually say "muito obrigado" insted of "obrigado" ("muito" means "very").

Obrigado por sua ajuda! ("Thank you for your help!")

Muito obrigado por sua ajuda! ("Thank you very much for your help!")

Orally, there is also a reduced form of "obrigado":

'Brigado por sua ajuda! ("Thanks for your help!")

Days of the Week and Months/ Dias da semana e meses

Days of the week/Dias da semana

Most of the names of the days of the week today, are adaptations made in the medieval age from the Classical Latin roots, this is true to other Latin based languages such as Spanish or Italian. But in Portuguese this was made in an easier way, naming it after fairs (naming system used in Ecclesiastical Latin). So, except for Sunday and Saturday, the days of the week are formed by ordinal numbers plus the Portuguese word for "fair":

Portuguese			English
Word	Latin root	Literal meaning	Word
(o) domingo	dies dominicu	"Lord's day"	(the) Sunday
(a) segunda-feira	secunda feria	"second fair"	(the) Monday
(a) terça-feira	tertia feria	"third fair"	(the) Tuesday
(a) quarta-feira	quarta feria	"fourth fair"	(the) Wednesday
(a) quinta-feira	quinta feria	"fifth fair"	(the) Thursday
(a) sexta-feira	sexta feria	"sixth fair"	(the) Friday
(o) sábado	sabbatum	"shabat day"	(the) Saturday

For time expressions, the copula verb used is "ser".

Hoje é sábado. ("Today is Saturday.")

Meu aniversário é em uma sexta-feira. ("My birthday is in a Friday.")

Months/Meses

English	Portuguese
January	Janeiro
February	Fevereiro
March	Março
April	Abril
May	Maio
June	Junho
July	Julho
August	Agosto
September	Setembro
October	Outubro
November	Novembro
December	Dezembro

Introduction to verbs/Introdução a verbos

The infinitive of all verbs in Portuguese language end in -r. The vowel before the -r is called the stem vowel, and it rules the conjugation of the verb. The root is what comes before the stem vowel. There are three stem vowels, that divides the verbs in three groups:

• first conjugation ("primeira conjugação"): infinitive ends in -ar.
• second conjugation ("segunda conjugação"): infinitive ends in -er.
• third conjugation ("terceira conjugação"): infinitive ends in -ir.

Also, there are some infinitives that end in -or. Those are all derivate forms of the verb "pôr", ("to put") that is an irregular verb. All its derivates follow "pôr"'s conjugation pattern. This verb comes from the old Portuguese "poer" (Latin "ponere"), so all verbs in -or are considered to be irregular verbs of the second conjugation.

Dialogue/Diálogo

John está indo para a aula de português. Outra estudante de português, Andréia, fala com ele. Andréia: Boa tarde! John: Boa tarde! Andréia: Por favor, que dia é hoje? John: Hoje é segunda-feira. Andréia: Temos aula hoje? John: Desculpe mas não sei. Andréia: Tudo bem, muito obrigada de qualquer jeito! John: De nada! Andréia: Nós estamos atrasados! Rápido, a aula já está começando! John: É mesmo!

Vocabulary
Word	Translation	Notes
começar	start
de	of
de qualquer jeito	anyway	lit. of any way
desculpe	sorry
(o) dia	(the) day	masculine noun (though ends in -a)
é mesmo!	really!
hoje	today
não	no	interjection, never used with nouns.
o que	what, what thing
por favor	please	lit. for favour
que	what, which
que dia é hoje?	what day is it?	lit. what day is today?
rápido	quick
saber	to know
segunda-feira	Monday	lit. second fair
sobre	about