Portuguese

Phrases
Bom dia – good morning
Boa tarde – good afternoon
Bom noite – good evening
Oi, Como vai? – Hi, How are you?
Olá, tudo bem? – Hello, How are you?
Eu sou surfista do Lago Paranoá – I am a surfer from Lake Paranoá
Liberdade pra Dentro da Cabeça – liberty from inside the head
I am – Eu Sou
Andei só – I walked alone
Semente nativa – native seed
Plantei uma flor no coração dela – I planted a flower in her heart
Não deixa a alegria ir embora – do not let the joy go
Meu Cantar – my singing
Acordamos de manhã bem cedo para trabalhar – Woke up early in the morning to work
Preciso demonstrar pra ela – necessary to demonstrate for her
Que mereço seu tempo pra dizer – that deserves your time to say
Desafinado – slightly out of tune
Samba de Uma Nota Só – One Note Samba
Meditação – Meditation
Dize que eu desafinado, que eu não sei cantar – “Say I’m out of tune, and I don’t know how to sing
Se você disser que eu desafinado amor – “If you go so far as to say I’m out of tune dear”
Saiba que isto em mim provoca imensa dor – “You must know that this hurts me a lot
Só privilegiados têm o ouvido igual au seu – “Only privileged people have a musical talent as developed as yours”
Eu possuo apenas o que dues me deu – And I have but this one that God has Given Me

Lesson 1
-Many letters represent more than one sound
-Some sounds can be represented by more than one letter
-Several factors can affect the sound of a letter:
The letter or sound’s position in the word
The letter or sound’s position in the syllable
The sound that comes immediately after the sound in question
If a vowel, whether it is stressed or becomes before or after the stressed syllable
-Pronounciations of the consonants, B, F, K, P, V, W, and Y are all pronounced similar to English
-The same vowel letter can produce different vowel sounds, depending on its position in a word relative to the stressed syllable and which consonant sounds follow it.  Vowels can also be nasalized.

A – pronounciation – Ato (act, action, thing), Página (page), cardápio (menu, card), caso  (case, event, happening) – vowel is stressed

Uma, cama (bed) – vowel is unstressed
Canto (corner), samba, mãe (mother, old lady, old woman), são (healthy, sane, sound)– vowel is nasalized
Pai (father, old man), aos, mau (bad, ill), quase (half, next to, almost) – vowel is adjacent to another syllable (dipthong)

B – Brasil, Bombeiro (fireman)

C – cedo (early), ciúme (jealousy), casa, coisa (thing, object), curso (class, lecture, school)

Ç – maçã (apple), laços (cord, brotherhood)

Ch – chegar (to arrive, to come), chato (boring, annoying), achar (to find, to think)

D – data (date), doutor, dúzia, dia, dizer (to say), dez, depois, cidade, pode, cadê

E – Ela, até, pedra, ele, mesa, vejo, tempo, vento, sem, leite, papeis, meu, céu

F – Fofo, café

G – gente, gíria, garoto, gosta, guria, Guerra, guia, aguentar, linguista

H (always silent)– Hoje, história

I – idade, ilha, vida, limpo, ingles, sim, vim, viu, partiu, ruivo

J – já (ever, ready, already, now), jogo (game, sport), junto (up)

K – kilobyte, karaoke, workshop

L – livro (book), logo, falta, Silvio, mal, brasil

Lh – milho, julho

M – māe, chamar, tempo, falam, sim

Lesson 5
Vamos comensar – let’s get started
Os dias da semana – Days of the week
Segunda-feira (fee-tah)  – Monday
Terça-feira  – Tuesday
Quarta-feira – Wednesday
Quinta-feira – Thursaday
Sexta-feira (Ses-tah fee-tah) – Friday
Sábado – Saturday
Domingo – Sunday

Asking/Saying what day of the week it is

Ask: Que dia da semana é hoje? (Que gia da semana e hoy-ge) – What day of the week is today?

Answer: Hoje + é + day – Today is + day

O dia – day
Hoje – today
Amanhã – tomorrow
Ontem – yesterday
A semana – week
O fim-de-semana – weekend
A semana passada – last week
A próxima semana – next week

Words

Pronouns

Meu – my, mine
Eu – I, self, conscious self
O – you, him, the

Common Words

Não – no
Menino – boy
Muito – much, very, jolly
Obrigado/obrigada – thankyou
Bom – good
Para – for / towards
A – the
Alegria – joy
Flor – flower
em – in
Coração- heart
No (em+o) – in ie. “No Brasil” =in Brazil
Cabeça – head
Dentro – inside
Semente – seed
Nativa – native
Trabalhar – word
Para – toward
Bem – good
Manhã – morning
Só – alone
Artigo – article
Noite – night
Surfista – surfer
Casulo – cocoon
Do – de + o
Lago – Lake
Bicho – animal
Mato – bush
Cifra – figure (lyrics)
Deixa – cue
Nativo – natural
Casa – house
Filhos – children

Verbs
Ser – to be
Cantar – to sing
Jogar – to play
Ir – to go
Andar – to walk
Acordar – to wake up
Deixar – to allow / to let
Demonstrar – to demonstrate
Dizer – to say
Merecer – to deserve

Grammar
O = long “u” sound
Ch = “j” sound as in Dijon mustard (kind of an “sh” sound as in shoe)
à = a nasal “uh” sound as in bum, just listen to people talk
X = “sh” sound
E = high “e” sound
Ç = a “z” sound
De= a “gee” sound
Te = a “gee” sound
J = a “shu”
Hã = a “yah” sound
Er = an “eh” sound
St= a “sh” sound as in isto
Ei is the conjugation for past tense on an ar verb in 1st person
Ie. Plantei = I planted

An Introductory Portuguese Grammar

Gender- nouns ending in –o (or –u) are generally masculine; nouns ending in –a are generally feminine.  Most other endings are not sure indices of gender.

Livro (masculine) book
Céu – sky, heaven
Casa – house

Definite article – The singular forms of the definite article are o (masc.) and a (fem.)

O livro – the book                         a casa – the casa

These forms combine with the preposition de as follows.

De + o: do                                        de + a: da

Indefinite article. – the forms of the indefinite article are um and uma

Um livro  – a book                                   uma casa – a house

These forms combine with the preposition de as follows.

De + um: dum                                          de + uma: uma

Present indicative: There are three forms of the present indicative in English, e.g., I speak, I am speaking, I do speak.  These three forms are all represented in Portuguese by the simple form falo.  And this simple form is also used to ask questions: falo? Do I speak?

Falo – I speak, am speaking, do speak; do I speak?

Fala – (he, she, it) speaks, is speaking, does speak

Falamos – we speak, are speaking, do speak

Falam – (they) speak, are speaking, do speak

Negative- In order to form a negative sentence, não not is placed before the verb.

Não falo – I do not speak

Vocabulary

Bem – well                                       o livro – the book
Casa – the house                            muito – very
De – of, from, by                              não – no, not
E – and                                            o nome – the name\
Falar – to speak                              a porta – the door
Inglês – English                               português – Portuguese
Janela – the window                        também – also, too
Sim – yes                                        João – John

A.  1. O nome da hotel. 2. Uma janela da casa 3. Falamos português. 4. João não fala inglês. 5 . Falo inglês 6. Falamos inglês e português.

B.  1. O nome do livro – the name of the book. 2. A porta da casa – The door of the house. 3. A janela do hotel. – The window of the hotel. 4. O nome do hotel. – the name of the hotel. 5. Uma janela duma casa. – a window of a house

C. 1. Falo inglês. – I speak English. 2. Falamos português bem. 3. Joāo fala português? – Does John speak Portuguese?. 4. Noāo fala (he does not speak it). 5. Falam inglês? Do you speak English? Sim, falam. Yes they speak it. 7. Falamos ingles e português. – We speak English and Portuguese. 8. Joāo fala ingles muito bem. – John speaks English very well. 9. Nāo falamos bem o ingles.  – They don’t speak English well. 10. Nāo falo português. – I don’t speak português. 11. Joāo fala ingles. – John speaks English 12. Fala português também  – He speaks Portuguese also.

D. 1. The door of a house – A porta duma casa 2. A name of a book – um nome dum livro 3. The window of the hotel.  A janela do hotel. 4. They speak Portuguese. Falam português. 5. We speak English. – Falamos ingles. 6. John does not speak Portuguese. – Joāo nāo fala português. 7. I speak English very well. – Falo ingles muito bem. 8. We do not speak Portuguese well. Não falamos português bem. 9. They speak Portuguese and English. – Falam português e ingles. 10. He speaks Portuguese well. – Fala português bem. 11.  He speaks English too. – Fala ingles também.

Lesson 2

Formation of plural.  Nouns ending in a vowel sound or dipthong.

1. Nouns ending in a vowel (oral or nasal) form their plural by adding –s.

livro  – book                          livros – books
casa – house                       casas – houses
lente – professor                  lentes – professors
irmā – sister                         irmās – sisters

2. Nouns ending in –m (which is not pronounced but is used to show the nasal quality of the preceding vowel) form their plural by changing this m to n and adding –s 

homem – man                      homens – men
jardim – garden                    jardins – gardens
som – sound                        sons – sounds

3. Nouns ending in the nasal dipthong ão form their plural by adding –s or by changing ão to ões or ães.

Irmão – brother                      irmãos – brothers
Lição – lesson                       lições – lessons
Cão – dog                              cães – dogs

Which of these formations is correct for a given noun may often be determined by referring to the corresponding Spanish plural, e.g., for the above nouns: hermanos, lecciones, and canes.  But note that the plural of verão summer is verões; cf. Spanish veranos.

Definite article (continued). The plural forms of the definite article are os (masculine) and as (feminine).

Os livros – the books                  as casas – the houses

The forms of the definite article combine with the prepositions de and em as follows.

De + o: do                    de + os: dos
De + a: da                    de + as: das
em + o: no                    em + os: nos
em + a: na                    em + as: nas

Thievery Corporation

Meu Destino

Eu vou sem senhuma direção (I’m no ? direction)
E eu so, não preciso nada mais (and I just, I don’t need anything more)
Lua, estrela (moon, star)
Meu caminho, meu destino (my way, my destiny)
Lua, sol, que me dão se calor (moon, sun, give me your warmth)
E eu, e eu (and I, and I)
Chuva, seu olhar que me dá seu calor (rain, his look of me your warmth)
Que me dá a direção (that gives me direction)
Que me dá o meu valor (that gives me my worth)
Que me dá seu calor (that gives me your warmth)