Portuguese/Contents/L2/Lesson Twelve - The Weekend

Dialogue 2 Ricardo: Bom dia. Como está? João: Bem, obrigado. Agora estou a ler um livro. E você, o que está a fazer? Ricardo: Estou a ouvir música. E a sua família? João: A minha esposa está a comer e as minhas crianças estão a jogar o futebol. João: Bom! O meu filho está a nadar. Adeus. Ricardo: Adeus!

Here Ricardo and João are talking about what they and their families are doing.

Estou a ler um livro - I am reading a book.

In Portuguese, as in English, there are two ways to say what you do in the present. One is the simple present tense. 'I run', or 'They swim'. However, we can also say 'I am running' or 'They are swimming'. This is called the "present progressive" tense, and this is the tense that our two friends are using in this dialogue here.

Unfortunately there are two different forms of the present progressive. One is used in Portugal and one is used in Brazil. We have encountered the European Portuguese form. It can be formed as follows...

EUROPEAN PORTUGUESE present progressive

estar (conjugated)

+

a

+

ler/nadar/comer (etc.) (infinitive)

Let's do some practice...

Who is doing what? Read the text and answer the questions in English. O Jack está a comer uma maçã. Ele gosta da maçã. A Helen está a falar com a professora.