The Definite/Indefinite Articles

The definite and indefinite articles have in portuguese four different forms each, because of the different combinations between gender and number: An article, either being definite or indefinite, must agree with its corresponding noun. The Definite Articles (like the english the): masculine feminine Singular o a Plural os as The Indefinite Articles (like the english a and an): masculine feminine Singular um uma Plural uns umas

Making the Plural

In Portuguese, like in English, things can be either singular (when there's only one), or plural (when there are many). Given a word in the singular, the usual way to make its plural form is to add an s. This rule can not be always directly applied, and often some modifcations on the word are necessary. The following examples will give you an idea: Singular form primo cebola lente farol papel funil jardim motor feliz Plural form primos cebolas lentes farois papeis funis jardins motores felizes English (singular) cousin onion lens lighthouse paper funnel garden motor happy

As you can see, when a word ends in a vowel, the plural is made by simply adding an s. When the word ends with the letter m, the plural is made by changing the m into ns. When the word ends with an l, see the vowel before it: if it is an i, change the l into an s, if it is another vowel , change the l into is. If the word ends with a z or r, make the plural by adding es. You will see that most portuguese words end in vowels, and that the majority of consonants that can end a word are the ones above (m, l, z, r). There are some words that in their singular forms end in n, x, or even s, but we'll deal with them as they appear. I didn't mention the plural of words ending in o, because there are many things to say about them, and I will only explain them later. These words are very common, but for now I'll just say that their plural is made by replacing the o with os, es, or es. The correct choice is the difficult part...

Masculine/feminine
As you know from lesson 1, there are two genders in portuguese: things can be masculine or feminine, including inanimate objects, and abstract concepts. Usually, feminine words end in a, and masculine words end in o. But this is just a general rule: it is in fact more complicated, and there are the inevitable exceptions. For many words it only makes sense to have one form. For instance, the word cadeira ("chair") is feminine, but it is nonsense to make a masculine form like cadeiro, not only because chairs don't have genders, but also because the gender associated with the word is arbitrary. There are in fact cases where the masculine and feminine forms mean different things. Here are some examples of masculine/feminine words: masculine form tio esperto azul quente professor pintor portugus ingls feminine form tia esperta azul quente professora pintora portuguesa inglesa English uncle/aunt smart (not expert!) blue hot teacher painter portuguese english

As you can see, when the masculine form ends in o, the feminine form ends in a. When it ends in an r, the feminine form is made by adding an a. To say that someone is from a given nationality, usually the masculine form ends in s and the feminine form in esa. In the other cases, the masculine anf feminine forms are left unchanged. Again, words ending in o will be mentioned later. Keep in mind that there are many exceptions to these rules! In some words, the masculine and feminine forms are totally different, especially in the case of large domestic animals. (The same thing happens in english.): masculine form boi cavalo rapaz feminine form vaca gua rapariga English ox/cow horse/mare boy/girl

Adjectives
In portuguese, unlike in english, adjectives must agree with the noun they are qualifying. This means that if a noun is feminine and plural, the adjective must be also in the feminine and plural form. The placing is also different: in english, adjectives come before the noun, in portuguese they usually came after the noun. (They can also come before the noun, but the meaning of the sentence is affected - this will be explained in some future lesson.) Here's an example of the use of an adjective. Novo means "new" or "young", and urso means "bear" (in their masculine forms):

O urso novo - The new bear (masculine and singular) A ursa nova - The new bear (feminine and singular) Os ursos novos - The new bears (masculine and plural) As ursas novas - The new bears (feminine and plural)

Examples
The following examples use all the grammar given so far: the conjugation of the present tense of verbs ending in ar, er, ir, the articles, and the making of masculine/feminine, singular/plural. Before you go on, be sure to have this part well understood. After the examples there are also some exercises for you to practice.

Here's some vocabulary you might need:

cantar - to sing beber - to drink comer - to eat correr - to run gua - water cano - song ma - apple mar - sea vinho - wine azul - blue belo - beautiful bonito - pretty frio - cold grande - big maluco - crazy pequeno - small quente - hot saboroso - tasty

Here are the examples:

O rapaz novo come uma ma saborosa - The young boy eats a tasty apple O homem velho canta uma cano - The old man sings a song A rapariga bonita portuguesa - The pretty girl is portuguese Os cavalos felizes correm muito - The happy horses run a lot Uma mulher bebe o vinho - A woman drinks the wine O mar azul belo - The blue sea is beautiful Vs sois malucos - You are crazy

Exercises
Translate the following sentences from Portuguese to English, and from English to Portuguese. (You can see the answers here.)

O gato pequeno bebe a gua quente Um urso feliz come a ma A vaca maluca bebe o mar Ns cantamos muito The old cat is english The cold water is good The portuguese women drink the tasty wine He is small

Some Prepositions
In classical Latin, the role of each member in the sentence was given by special case endings. In the evolution of Latin, these endings were replaced by prepositions, and that's what we use in Portuguese. For English speakers, this is not very different from what they are used to, eventhough there isn't a one-to-one correspondence between english prepositions and their portuguese counterparts. The following tables gives you a listing of some common prepositions, the ones we'll use for now: English to from, of in Portuguese a de em

Please keep in mind that these are just general translations. In many situations the prepositions used in Portuguese differ from those used in English. Anyone who has ever learned a foreign language knows that prepositions are one of the most difficult aspects to master... Perhaps you have noticed that the preposition a(to) has the same form as the definite article for the feminine singular. This is just a coincidence, because gramatically they are very different. Be careful not to mistake them! (Just as in English one doesn't mistake to, too, and two eventhough they sound the same)

Contractions
In Portuguese, you will rarely see those prepositions above alone in a sentence. The use of contractions is very common, and the usage of some of the non-contracted forms doesn't even sound well. In the table below you'll find the contractions of the prepositions with the articles. (there are other elements that contract, but for now we'll stick to these) Prepositions a de em Definite Articles o a ao do da no na Indefinite Articles um uma a um a uma de um (dum) de uma (duma) num numa

As you can see, some of the constructions are not contracted, some can be contracted (user's choice), and others are always contracted. I didn't indicate the plural forms because they follow the general rules shown in the previous lesson. The construction "to the" (feminine singular), in Portuguese is said a a, which is always contracted to . The only use for the grave accent in Portuguese is to indicate a contraction, like in this case.

Examples
Once again, the following examples use all the grammar given so far: the conjugation of the present tense of verbs ending in ar, er, ir, the articles, the making of masculine/feminine, singular/plural, and at last the prepositions. We'll introduce some new vocabulary, and we'll also need two new verbs: Ir (to go) and Vir (to come). Unfortunately, they are both irregular, and so you have to memorise them. (The same thing happens in all languages: the most common verbs, which people use daily, are usually irregular...) Ir (to go) Eu vou Tu vais Ele/ela/voc vai Ns vamos Vs ides Eles/elas/vocs vo Vir (to come) Eu venho Tu vens Ele/ela/voc vem Ns vimos Vs vindes Eles/elas/vocs vm

Here's some vocabulary you might need:

praia - beach circo - circus teatro - theater montanha - mountain floresta - forest lago - lake

And also the colours:

azul - blue verde - green vermelho - red amarelo - yellow

branco - white preto - black castanho - brown cinzento - gray roxo - purple cor-de-rosa (rosa) - pink cor-de-laranja (laranja) - orange

Here are the examples:

O rapaz vem da praia - The boy comes from the beach Eles vo ao teatro - They go to the theatre Ele come as maas vermelhas num circo - He eats the red apples in a circus Eu venho de uma praia amarela - I come from a yellow beach Vs ides ao lago - You go to the lake O urso velho vive na montanha branca - The old bear lives in the white mountain In some of the sentences above, an english speaker would use the present continous instead of the simple present. In Portuguese there is also a construction equivalent to the present continous, but for now we'll use only the simple present. Don't forget that the colours, being adjectives, must agree with the noun!

Exercises
Translate the following sentences from Portuguese to English, and from English to Portuguese. (You can see the answers here.) Um gato feliz bebe a gua azul no lago O boi castanho da montanha come na praia Ns vamos ao lago A woman from Portugal sings in the theatre The big bear lives in a cold forest The brown horse goes to the beach

Making questions
So far we've only seen affirmative sentences, used to express the knowledge of something, like "Today it is raining". Also very important is to ask questions, and if you are following these lessons because you intend to visit a portuguese-speaking country on holiday, it is extremely important to be able to ask the basic questions, like "Where is the bathroom?", or "What time is it?".

Yes/no questions
Yes/no questions are very easy in Portuguese. Unlike English, there is no need to rearrange the words in the sentence, or to use an auxiliary verb. A yes/no question is different from affirmative sentences only because there is a question mark ("?") at the end of the written sentence, and an

entonation difference when spoken. Just see the following example: English The bear is brown. Is the bear brown? The woman eats the apple. Does the woman eat the apple?

Portuguese O urso castanho. O urso castanho? A mulher come a ma. A mulher come a ma?

I think you should really enjoy this feature. It's one of the few things where Portuguese is simpler than English... Like I've said before, word order is much more flexible in Portuguese than in English. That means that one can express finer shades of meaning by changing the order of words in a sentence. On the other hand, people that are learning the language might have some trouble interpreting some sentences. This is just a warning, because eventhough the sentences above are grammatically correct, they are the only alternative. So don't be surprised if you encounter strange looking sentences. (In examples like these, even in English could the sentence be reshaped)

Questions with an interrogative word

Making just yes/no questions is not very useful. They usually imply that one already has some knowledge of something, which is not always the case. We'll see now how to make general questions, but first, here is the correspondence between some very useful words in English and Portuguese: English Portuguese What O que, O qu Who Quem Why Porqu When Quando Where Onde How Como, Quo How much Quanto Which Qual Usually, De onde (from where) is contracted to Donde, and A onde (to where) is contracted to Aonde. There is also the form Adonde equivalent to Onde, very common in the spoken language, but rare in written form. Unlike yes/no questions, in these the subject-verb order is usually reversed. This is not very apparent in Portuguese, because one rarely includes the subject in a sentence. Here are some examples: Onde ests? - Where are you? (singular and informal) Quem sois vs? - Who are you? (plural and informal) Quem so vocs? - Who are you? (plural and formal) O que isto? - What is this? Don't forget what was said on the first lesson about forms of treatment. For Brasilians and many Portuguese, vocs is the only treatment used in the plural, being vs very rare and considered archaic.

Some vocabulary about places and things

Here is a list of some common vocabulary about places and things. This is especially useful for turists. You'll also need it for the examples and exercises. (some of this vocabulary was already part of previous lessons)

Na cidade - In the City

rua - street estrada - road auto-estrada - highway avenida - avenue esquina - corner edifcio, Prdio - building casa - house (o) parque - park (a) estao - station paragem - stop carro - car (o) txi - taxi comboio (also trem in Brazil) - train autocarro (also nibus in Brazil) - bus

No campo - In the Country

rio - river ribeiro - stream lago - lake colina - hill (o) monte - big hill (or small mountain...) montanha - mountain (a) rvore - tree floresta - forest (o) animal - animal pssaro - bird (o) peixe - fish This is just a small list to give us something to start with. If you think there is some other thing that should be included, please tell me so. In some words there is an (o) (masculine) or (a) (feminine), indicating the gender of the word. All the others follow the rules seen in a previous lesson.

Examples
Here are examples of afirmative/interrogative sentences that use some of the vocabulary we've seen in this lesson. If you have difficulties with anything, take a look at the previous lessons. There's also some extra vocabulary you'll need:

nadar - to swim chegar - to arrive (also "to reach" or "to be enough") voar - to fly peixe - fish e - and ou - or mas - but O pequeno animal corre na montanha? - Does the small animal run in the mountain? Sim, ele corre na montanha. - Yes, it (he) runs in the mountain. O pssaro azul nada no lago? - Does the blue bird swim in the lake? No, ele voa. - No, it (he) flies. Onde nadam os peixes? - Where do the fish swim? Os peixes nadam no mar. - The fish swim in the sea. Quem canta no teatro? - Who sings in the theatre? Donde vm eles? - Where do they come from? Quando chegais cidade? - When do you arrive in (to) the city? Very often, especially in the spoken language, portuguese speakers add a few words to a question to give it more strengh. One would rarely hear a sentence like "Quando chegais cidade?". One usually adds " que" ("is it that") after the interrogative particle. So, the sentence above would be: "Quando que chegais cidade?", which roughly means "When is it that you arrive in the city?". These somewhat redundant words are common in most questions, but aren't usually translated literally to English.

Exercises
And here are the exercises. They include everything we've seen so far, including how to make questions. Now, translate from Portuguese to English, and vice-versa. (The answers are here.) Quem so eles? Onde que nadam os peixes? Eles nadam nos lagos, nos rios, e no mar. O urso come peixes? Where is she from? Does the big cat fly in the mountains? No, but it (he) runs in the streets When does the train arrive?

The possessive pronouns and adjectives

The possessive pronouns are fairly easy in Portuguese. In languages like English, and even in the closely related Spanish, there is a difference between the adjective and the pronoun form, but no so in Portuguese. For English speakers, the only thing to be aware is the usual dichotomy between masculine/feminine and singular/plural forms, but for those who have reached this far in the lessons, that shouldn't be a problem. The following table lists all the possessives: (Remember that both pronouns and adjectives have the same form)

The possessives

Person Eu Tu Ele/Ela/Voc Ns Vs Eles/Elas/Voc s

Masculine Singular meu teu seu nosso vosso seu

Feminine Singular minha tua sua nossa vossa sua

Masculine Plural meus teus seus nossos vossos seus

Feminine Plural minhas tuas suas nossas vossas suas

The plural forms are only included for the sake of completeness, as they are very regular: take the singular form, and just add an s. Perhaps you have noticed that Ele/Ela/Voc have the same form. One important thing to remember is that the gender and number of the form depends on the object being possessed, not on the possessor. In English, the forms his/her vary according to the gender of the possessor, but in Portuguese they are equal, varying only according to the gender and number of the object. In Portugal, the possessives usually have the defined article before them, while in Brazil this is not common. But both forms are correct, and you can hear them both in any of the countries. So, the sentence "My car is green" could be translated as "O meu carro verde" (more common in Portugal), or as "Meu carro verde" (more common in Brazil). As I am Portuguese, I will use the form that is more common in Portugal, but don't forget that they are both correct! Perhaps you have noticed that being the 3rd person forms equal regardless if there is just one or more owners, or if the owner is masculine or feminine, this might lead to ambiguities. Pay attention on the following sentence: "Pedro e Ins cantam a sua cano" Which of the following translations is correct? 1 - Pedro and Ins sing his song 2 - Pedro and Ins sing her song 3 - Pedro and Ins sing their song 4 - Pedro and Ins sing your song (a formal "your") Well, any of the above forms could be correct. There is not enough information to decide which, and for this reason, portuguese speakers rarely use these forms. Instead, the contraction of the preposition "de" with the pronouns ele/ela/eles/elas is usually used. These forms are listed in the table bellow: Contraction de + ele = dele de + ela = dela de + eles = deles de + elas = delas Meaning his her their (masculine or mixed gender) their (feminine)

Each of the four sentences above can be now translated as follows:

1 - Pedro and Ins sing his song - Pedro e Ins cantam a cano dele 2 - Pedro and Ins sing her song - Pedro e Ins cantam a cano dela 3 - Pedro and Ins sing their song - Pedro e Ins cantam a cano deles 4 - Pedro and Ins sing your song (formal) - Pedro e Ins cantam a sua cano The choice of which form to use depends on the context. If there is a chance of ambiguity, then use the form that doesn't lead to it. In most day-to-day conversations, the dele/dela/deles/delas are usually used, but in written texts or in a more formal conversation, the forms seu/sua/seus/suas forms are preferred.

The demonstrative pronouns and adjectives

The following table lists some demonstrative adjectives and pronouns in English and their Portuguese counterparts. Notice that the demonstrative tal changes only according to number, being invariant to gender. The other forms are regular, and follow the usual rules for forming the feminine and plural. (some of the forms, like the plural of another, don't make much sense in English, but are still valid in Portuguese) Masculine Feminine Masculine Feminine English Invariable Singular Singular Plural Plural this este esta estes estas isto that esse essa esses essas isso that aquele aquela aqueles aquelas aquilo (yonder) such tal tal tais tais the same o mesmo a mesma os mesmos as mesmas another outro outra outros outras the other o outro a outra os outros as outras the one o a os as o Special attention must be given to esse, aquele. They both mean that in English, but are used in different situations. The demonstrative esse is used to designate an object that is close to the receiver, while aquele is used for an object that is far from both the speaker and the receiver. (More or less like the archaic English yonder.) Please also notice that in Brazil it is common that a speaker will refer to an object close to him with the esse forms, and not este as one might expect.

Examples
The following examples cover both the possessives and the demonstratives. Some new vocabulary will be introduced, so take a good luck at the translation if you have any doubts. In Portuguese, the personal pronouns that function as subject (eu, tu, ele...) are not usually used in a sentence because of their redundancy. I have included them in previous lessons because foreigners feel more at ease using them, but from now on I'll slowly begin building sentences without them. This means you should have a good knowledge of the verb forms in order to continue...

Este carro meu - This car is mine So aquelas as vossas flores? - Are those your flowers? Ela come a sobremesa dele - She eats his desert Esta a minha escola - This is my school Aquele no o mesmo pssaro - That (yonder) is not the same bird Essa rapariga minha prima - That girl is my cousin (That girl is a cousin of mine) Essa rapariga a minha prima - That girl is my cousin (*) No compreendo tal atitude - I don't understand such attitude Queres comer outra ma? - Do you want to eat another apple? Isto incrvel! - This is incredible! Essa uma boa ideia! - That is a good idea! (*) By putting the defined article a before the possessive pronoun, the meaning of this sentence changes slightly. The cousin is "defined", meaning that it's not a random cousin, but a cousin that was mentioned earlier in the conversation.

Exercises
And here are the exercises. They include everything we've seen so far, and you will need vocabulary seen in previous lessons (and also the portuguese word for Always, which is Sempre). Now, translate from Portuguese to English, and vice-versa. (The answers are here.) Esse peixe nada no meu lago. Aquele co teu? Vamos ao cinema no teu carro? A mesma jovem rapariga canta outra bela cano. Those (yonder) old cats eat our fish. Fifteen brown horses run in my fields. You always have the same ideas! How does your bird sing?