Saturday, August 28, 2010

Lesson 4 - Ter (to have)

Hello, Readers. I could see that the number of readers kept increasing this week, and that makes me really happy! I hope I can keep writing here forever!
Today, I'm going to teach you the verb "Ter", or in english "to have". As "Ser to be", it's an irregular verb, so pay attention to it.

Eu tenho→ I have
Você tem→ You have
Ele tem→ He has
Nós temos→ We have
Vocês têm→ You have
Eles têm→ They have

I also have to teach you the possessive pronouns today. The possessive pronouns also change in gender and number. Check out for them below:

Meu/Minha My
Seu/Sua Your, his
Nosso/Nossa Our
Seu/Sua Your, their

These possessive pronouns listed above are usually put before the possessed thing, as in english. Ex.:

Meu irmão My brother
Minha casa My house
Nossa roupa Our clothes
Nossos agasalhos Our coats
But "Dele(s)/Dela(s) His/Her" are put after the possessed thing. Ex.:

O irmão dele His brother
A casa dela Her house
As roupas deles Their clothes
Os agasalhos delas Their coats

I'm going to write some sentences using "Ter", the possessive pronouns and the vocabulary we learnt last lesson below. I want you readers to make some sentences by yourselves, too! If you want me to take a look at them, just send me them by coment or e-mail.

Eu tenho um carro vermelho. I have a red car.
Meu irmão tem uma calça grande. My brother has big pants.
Minha família tem uma casa pequena. My family has a small house.
Eu tenho uma irmã gorda. I have a fat sister.

My mail address is liubenchi.br@gmail.com! Feel free to contact me anytime.

See you! Até mais!!

Abraços!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Lesson 3 - Vocabulary and adjectives

Hello, readers! Firstly, I have to apologize for my faults in writing english. Sometimes I get confused about when using "above" and "below". I corrected my earlier posts, because there were a lot of wrongly used "above"s. (lol)
I was planning to post here only in the weekends, but as today I am absent to school and have some free time, I decided to write one more post for you. So, let's start it!

Today, as I told you before, I'm posting a list of portuguese basic vocabulary, because we'll need it to study and form sentences later. The list is below:

Adulto
adult
Agasalho
coat
Água
water
Alto
tall, high
Arroz
rice
Avô
grandpa
Avó
grandma
Baixo
low
Barato
cheap
Bonito
beautiful
Cadeira
chair, seat
Caderno
note
Calça
pants
Camiseta
t-shirt
Carne
meat
Caro
expensive
Casa
house
Céu
sky
Chato
boring
Cidade
city
Comida
food
Computador
computer
Cozinha
kitchen
Criança
child
Curto
short, brief
Desenho
drawing, draft
Dia
day
Escola
school
Estrela
star
Feijão
beans
Feio
ugly
Feliz happy
Fino thin
Garagem
garage
Gordo
fat
Gostoso
delicious, tasty
Grande
big
Grosso thick
Irmã
sister
Irmão
brother
Largo
large, wide
Legal
cool, fun
Livro
livro
Longo
long, lenghty
Mãe
mother
Magro
thin, skinny
Menina girl
Menino boy
Mesa
table
Noite
night
Olho eye
Pai
father
Pequeno
small
Quarto
room
Rádio
radio
Revista
magazine, periodical
Roupa
clothes
Rua
street
Saia
skirt
Sala
living room
Sofá
sofa
Tia
aunt
Tio
uncle
Triste sad

Now, we know some basic portuguese vocabulary, so we can continue studying and start making simple sentences using them. Did you note I put some adjectives in the list? Let's learn how to use them today!
In portuguese, unlike in english, the adjectives always come
after the nouns. Ex.:

1 -
carro grande big car
2 -
casa pequena small house
3 -
sofá largo large sofa
4 -
menino bonito beautiful kid

The adjectives are always equal in gender and number to the nouns. Ex.:

1 - casa bonit
a
2 - olho bonit
o
1 - casa
s bonitas
2 - olho
s bonitos

The plural of nouns and adjectives

One adds "s" to the nouns and adjectives whose ending is a vowel. Ex.:

Carro grande → carros grandes
Olho grande → olhos grandes

One adds "es" to nouns and adjectives whose ending is "r" or "z". Ex.:

Cartaz → cartazes placards
Par → pares pairs

One takes off the "l" ending of a word and replaces it with "is" to form the plural. Ex.:

Coral → corais corals
Animal → animais animals
Anel → anéis rings
Azul → azuis blue

One replaces "il" and "el" for "eis" in words that have the acute accent on the penultimate syllable. Ex.:

Amável
→ amáveis kind, lovable, affable
Hábil → hábeis skilful, able, capable

One replaces "m" for "ns", because in portuguese, we only use the letter "m" before "p" and "b", so we have to change it to "n" before adding a "s". Ex.:

Tom → tons tones
Bom → bons good
Ruim → ruins bad

One adds "es" to words ended by "s" which have the acute accent on the last syllable. Ex.:

Gás
→ gases gases
Japonês → japoneses japanese people
Inglês → ingleses englishmen

Words which have the ending "x" don't change. Ex.:

Ônix → ônix
Tórax → tórax

One replaces "ão" by "ães", "ões" or "ãos". Ex.:

Mão → mãos hands
Pão → pães breads
Balão → balões balloons

And this is it. Grammar is a bit boring for most people, but it's very important, so pay attention to what I wrote above. I'm going to write now some simple sentences using the vocabulary I taught you today! See how the adjectives follow the nouns in gender and number.

1 - O livro é grosso.
2 - A carne é gostosa.
3 - As crianças são pequenas.
4 - A menina e o menino são gordos.
5 - Os olhos são bonitos.
6 - A cidade é grande.
7 - Os quartos são pequenos.

I want you guys to try to write some sentences, too! I would be very glad if you sent me them by coments or e-mails.
If you want to contact me, look below:

E-mail→ liubenchi.br@gmail.com
Facebook→ http://www.facebook.com/ryu.yusuke

It will be a pleasure to keep in contact with you!

Um abração a todos!

Tchau, tchau!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Lesson 2 - Basic grammar

Olá, pessoal! (Hi, guys)
Here I am, posting again! Today, I'm going to teach you about portuguese articles, nouns and demonstrative pronouns, such as their masculine and femenine gender forms. So let's start the class!

Firstly, I must teach you about portuguese articles. Do you guys remember what's an article? An article corresponds to the "the, a, an" of English. In portuguese, we have more articles than in english, and their use depends on the gender and number of the nouns. See below:

Masculine
The = O, plural Os
A = Um, plural Uns

Femenine
The = A, plural As
A = Uma, plural Umas

Then, when one says "The car", in portuguese, one says "O carro", and never "A carro", because "carro" is a masculine word. Unlike in english, in portuguese the gender of the nouns play an important role.
So pay attention below, because I'm going to write a list of nouns and their articles. By the articile and the ending of a noun, one can know wether it's a masculine or feminine word!

Carro car
O carro, um carro The car, a car

Casa
house
A casa, uma casa The house, a house

Bicicleta bike
A bicicleta, uma bicicleta The bike, a bike

Livro book
O livro, um livro The book, a book

Pretty easy, huh? The only difficulty is that one needs to learn by heart the genders of the nouns! But there's a good hint for you: nouns ended in "o" usually are male, and the ones ended in "a" are usually female! For example, "cabelo hair" and "bolsa bag". "Cabelo" is a male noun and "bolsa" is a female one! Easy, isn't it?

Below, I'm going to put for you the demonstrative pronouns in portuguese.

This = Este(a)*
That = Esse(a)**, Aquele(a)

*(a) means it has a femenine version; in this case, it would be "Esta", "Essa", "Aquela". Just replace the last letter by an "a".
**"Esse" is used when one's talking about something that is next to the listener. "Aquele" is used only when one's mentioning something that is far from both the speaker and the listener.

Below, there are more examples of the use of the demonstrative articles. Pay attention, please!

Carro
Este carro, esse carro, aquele carro
Tis car, that car, that car

Casa
Esta casa, essa casa, aquela casa
This house, that house, that house

Bicicleta
Esta bicicleta, essa bicicleta, aquela bicicleta
This bike, that bike, that bike

Livro
Este livro, esse livro, aquele livro
This book, that book, that book

Well, this is all for today! I'm going to post more soon, and I hope you're liking my blog! Next time, I'm going to post a big vocabulary list, so prepare yourselves.

Um abraço, até mais!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Lesson 1 - Self introduction and greetings

Hello everybody! Today, I'm going to teach you how to introduce yourselves in portuguese. It's quite easy and simple to introduce oneself, since brazilian people are not so formal!
But there's a good hint for you all: always smile when you meet somebody! Brazilians love high-spirited people! So let's start the
class!

Firstly, I'm going to teach you how tho say the personal pronoms in portuguese. Do you remember them in english?
I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they! The only difference is that we don't have an "it" in portuguese! I'm going to write the portuguese ones and their translations below.

Eu→ I
Você→ You
Ele→ He
Ela→ She
Nós→ We
Vocês→ You
Eles→ They

People in some parts of Brazil still use the old "Tu" and "Vós", but it's quite rare nowadays! Portuguese people still use them indeed, but I'm teaching you the brazilian way, so I'll always use "Você" and "Vocês" here!

Now, let's learn the portuguese verb
to be. Without it, we cannot progress to a self introduction!
Portuguese verbs are a little more difficult than english ones, because all of them change depending on about who one is talking about. The verb to be is not an exception, and like in english, it's an irregular verb; in other words, it doesn't follow any rule! See below.

Eu sou→I am
Você é→You are
Ele(a) é→He/she is
Nós somos→We are
Vocês são→You are
Eles são→They are

There's no way to remember it except learning it by heart. But as it's the most used verb, I assure you you'll learn it easily!

So let's learn some greetings! They're absolutely necessary in everyday life!

Bom dia→ Good morning
Boa tarde→ Good afternoon
Boa noite→ Good evening or Good night
Oi
or Olá→ Hi, Hello

Tudo bem?→ How are you doing?
(literally translating, "Is everything alright?")
Como vai?→ How are you doing?
(literally translating, "How is it going?")
Beleza?→ What's up?
(It's quite colloquial. Don't say it to people you don't know)
Estou bem→ I'm fine.
Tudo (bem)→ I'm fine
(literally speaking, "Everything's ok". One can say only "Tudo" to answer the "Tudo bem?" question)
Sim, obrigado→ Yes, thanks
(answering to "Tudo bem?")
E você?→ And you?
Qual é o seu nome?→ What is your name?
Meu nome é...→ My name is...
Muito prazer→ Nice to meet you!
Prazer em conhecê-lo→ Nice to meet you.
(literally saying, prazer = pleasure)
Prazer→ Nice to meet you
(it's more informal)
O prazer é todo meu→ Nice to meet you, too!
(Literally translating, "the pleasure is all mine")
Tchau→ Goodbye
Obrigado→ Thank you


Now you can introduce yourself to a brazilian! I'm going to introduce myself next.

I could say:
Olá, Tudo bem? Meu nome é Rubens. Muito prazer!

Or I could also say:
Boa tarde, como vai? Eu sou Rubens. Prazer em conhecê-lo!

As you can see, portuguese is a very
free language! If one learns it properly, one can express his feelings by many ways! I hope you readers can learn it well, and I swear I'll do my best to support you as much as it's possible to!

Today, we're gonna stop here. I hope I can help many people writing this blog and I'm sorry about my bad english. I promise I'll study more!


So, see you guys!

Tchau, tchau!

Introduction

Hello, my name is Rubens and I'm going to start this blog to spread my native language, Portuguese, for english speakers who want to learn it, or for people who are just curious about it.
As you can see, my English is not that good, and I hope I can improve it by writing this blog and having contact with anyone who reads it.
It'll be a pleasure for me to solve your doubts about my language and even about my country as long as I can. So feel free to ask me aanything and to tell me your opinion about my work!
I'm doing this as a hobby, but if I have the opportunity to turn this into a more serious work, be sure I'm going to!

I hope we can develop our linguistic abilities and make progress together from now on!


Rubens Miranda