Bom dia! About the most common gripe about learning is once you’ve got a decent bank of words and a grasp of how the verbs work, figuring out what little words to put inbetween can seem like a lottery.
There are several very good reasons for this being so difficult (and take heart in the fact that everyone else learning finds this hard - a universal problem)
1 - You do not hear these words clearly pronounced (consider the phrase in English - cup of tea - pronounced cuppatea - who would know that was ‘of’ there if you hadnt seen it written down..) they are great candidates for elision.
2 - They do not translate well from one language to another every time. I’m at home - Estou em casa. You can count on me. Podes contar comigo.
They are grammatical words, obeying tricky grammatical rules (that you do not need to master) or simply set phrases to be learnt.
I could write a book on this subject, but in this post we’ll cover just 2 key points.
1 - What are the small words - articles and prepositions.
2 - Contractions, combinations of prepositions and articles.
Articles are:
THE - o/a/os/as (according to whether the next word is masculine, feminine, singular or plural) o carro, a casa, os carros, as casas (the car, the house, the cars, the houses)
A/AN - um/uma (again, depending on the gender) um carro, uma casa (a car, a house)
Prepositions in English are words like IN ON AT BY WITH FOR TO …
And in Portuguese - EM, DE, POR, PARA, SEM, A …
Choosing the correct preposition takes study - learning expressions and grammatical patterns. We will not cover this here!
But what is 100% essential to know in Portuguese is the rule that articles and prepositions must contract to form different words (with de, em, a and por and o/a/os/as) and there is often no way of knowing that these ‘new’ contracted forms are actually 2 words unless you know.
So, if I want to say I want a slice of the cake here, I say Quero uma fatia do bolo aqui, We are going to the Algarve - Vamos ao Algarve
The cake is in the box - O bolo está na caixa
Let’s walk through the park - Vamos passear pelo jardim
How do the contractions work, it’s like maths!
de + o/a (s) » do/a(s) (substitute the E for o/a(s))
em + o/a(s) » no/a(s) (a bit different - but remembering the em sounds nasal and has a N sound can help)
a + o(s) » ao(s) / a + a(s) » à(s) Here we are combining a, usually meaning to (direction) and o/a(s) meaning the. Making sentences like Fui à praia ontem - I went to the beach yesterday ** Note that the grave accent (or as I like to call it, the 11 o’clock accent) is only used on contracted words, mainly à and às (they all begin with A)
por + o/a(s) » pelo/a)s (again a bit different but remembering that the single R pronunciation is very similar to L pronunciation helps)
The them for this week is ‘O local onde mora’ - The place where you like. Here are some phrases, idioms this week. Notice the little words! (Idioms are interesting, but mostly for learning new words and have a lot of cultural significance)
não ter eira nem beira - be very poor (lit. not have threshing circle or edge)
atirar o barro à parede - attempt to get what you want (lit. throw the clay at the wall)
de cortar à faca - heavy atmosphere (of cutting to the knife)
estúpido como uma porta - very stupid (lit. stupid as a door)
entrar em parafuso - go mad (lit. enter in screw)
Here´s a link to a quizlet set with the words for you to play about with.
If you would like to join the weekly chat group (chatting about this theme) - Thurs 13h-13h45 - all details are in the sign up form here Your first chat is free :)
AND because we learn really well from stories and seeing examples of correct language, every week I put together 3 stories or dialogues on the week’s theme with examples of the week’s words and phrases in a useful context. I strongly believe that we can learn a lot from reading, these mini-texts with translations are just the right length for you to digest easily. (look at the translations first if that helps!)
Dialogues:
A0 / A1
Maria: Olá, João! Que bom ver-te! Onde vives agora?
João: Olá, Maria! Eu vivo em Coimbra. E tu?
Maria: Eu vivo em Lisboa. Gosto muito da minha cidade.
João: Coimbra é mais pequena, mas é muito bonita.
Maria: Lisboa é grande e tem muitos turistas.
João: Em Coimbra há o rio Mondego e uma universidade famosa.
Maria: Que interessante! Em Lisboa há o rio Tejo e muitos bairros antigos.
João: Gosto de visitar Lisboa no verão.
Maria: E eu quero conhecer Coimbra um dia!
João: Então vamos combinar uma visita!
A2
Inês: Olá, Pedro! Continuas a viver no Porto?
Pedro: Sim, continuo. Gosto muito de viver aqui, mas há muito trânsito!
Inês: Eu moro numa vila perto do mar. É mais calma e o ar é limpo.
Pedro: Que sorte! Aqui há muito movimento e barulho.
Inês: Mas o Porto tem muita cultura, não é?
Pedro: Sim, há concertos, museus e bons restaurantes.
Inês: Eu gostava de visitar o Porto para ver amigos e ir às livrarias.
Pedro: E eu gostava de ir à tua vila para descansar um fim de semana.
Inês: Trocamos de casa um dia?
Pedro: Boa ideia!
B1+
Catarina: Tiago, ouvi dizer que te mudaste para Évora. Como está a correr?
Tiago: Sim, mudei-me há três meses. Gosto muito, é uma cidade tranquila e cheia de história.
Catarina: Deve ser diferente de Lisboa.
Tiago: Muito! Aqui a vida é mais calma. As pessoas conhecem-se, e há tempo para conversar.
Catarina: E o trabalho?
Tiago: Continuo a trabalhar remotamente. Isso facilita imenso.
Catarina: E o custo de vida é mais baixo, certo?
Tiago: Sim, e também há menos stress. Às vezes sinto falta da energia de Lisboa, mas aqui durmo melhor.
Catarina: Parece um bom equilíbrio. Talvez eu faça o mesmo um dia!
Tiago: Recomendo. Viver aqui dá outra qualidade de vida.
And here are the translations :)
A0 / A1
Maria: Hello, João! How good to see you! Where do you live now?
João: Hello, Maria! I live in Coimbra. And you?
Maria: I live in Lisbon. I like my city very much.
João: Coimbra is smaller, but it’s very beautiful.
Maria: Lisbon is big and has many tourists.
João: In Coimbra there’s the Mondego River and a famous university.
Maria: How interesting! In Lisbon there’s the Tagus River and many old neighbourhoods.
João: I like visiting Lisbon in the summer.
Maria: And I want to visit Coimbra one day!
João: Then let’s plan a visit!
A2
Inês: Hi, Pedro! Do you still live in Porto?
Pedro: Yes, I do. I really like living here, but there is a lot of traffic!
Inês: I live in a village near the sea. It’s calmer and the air is clean.
Pedro: Lucky you! Here there’s a lot of movement and noise.
Inês: But Porto has a lot of culture, right?
Pedro: Yes, there are concerts, museums and good restaurants.
Inês: I’d like to visit Porto to see friends and go to bookshops.
Pedro: And I’d like to go to your village to relax for a weekend.
Inês: Shall we swap houses one day?
Pedro: Good idea!
B1+
Catarina: Tiago, I heard you moved to Évora. How’s it going?
Tiago: Yes, I moved three months ago. I really like it — it’s a peaceful city full of history.
Catarina: It must be different from Lisbon.
Tiago: Very! Life here is calmer. People know each other and there’s time to talk.
Catarina: And work?
Tiago: I still work remotely. That helps a lot.
Catarina: And the cost of living is lower, right?
Tiago: Yes, and there’s less stress too. Sometimes I miss the energy of Lisbon, but I sleep better here.
Catarina: Sounds like a good balance. Maybe I’ll do the same one day!
Tiago: I recommend it. Living here gives you a better quality of life.