Answering questions quickly!

Olá! Thinking this week about developing fluency…

We often want to speak Portuguese in a conversation, and be able to respond to what people ask us.

Very often the thought process is like this:

1) What did they say? translate to Mother tongue
2) What do I want to say? think of answer in Mother tongue
3) How do I say that in Portuguese? by this time I have completely forgotten what they question I was asked was, and maybe the conversation has moved on!!

This can be TOO SLOW… how to speed it up?

Listen to the question, and decide what type of question it is and accordingly use that information to get speaking FASTER

• Is it a question about somebody else? He/She/They. »» Repeat the verb in the same way in your answer.
  E.g: - O teu irmão mora na Escócia? - Não, mora na Irlanda / - Onde estão os seus documentos? - Estão aqui

• Is it a question about YOU (just you, 1 person)? »» Change to ‘I’ verb form, ‘o’ ending present, ‘ei/i’ end past

  E.g. - Voltaste para casa ontem? - Não, voltei no domingo / - A senhora quer sentar aqui? - Quero

• Is it a question about YOUS (you and someone else) »» Change to ‘-mos’ on the end of the verb

  E.g. - Os senhores visitaram Sintra? - Visitámos / - Vocês querem ir à praia? - Queremos

Obviously, there are a few irregular verbs to deal with that are slightly different, but this can help you to speed things up overall and get speaking more confidently and faster :)