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Bilingual Family Tree

Me

Alejandro (USA born and raised) – English dominant, Spanish and Portuguese secondary

Parents

Gustavo (Venezuela, USA immigrant) – Spanish Dominant, English and Portuguese very strong too

Ana (Dominican Republic, USA immigrant) – Spanish dominant, English secondary

Paternal Grandparents

Edgar (Venezuela) – Spanish monolingual

Maria (Venezuela) – Spanish monolingual

Maternal Grandparents

Modesto (Dominican Republic, worked in Dominican consulate in US) – Spanish dominant, English secondary

Eunice (Dominican Republic) – Spanish monolingual

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Achei este site muito interessante, porque tem a ver com gírias portuguesas, mas no mundo das mensagens de texto, algo que não discutimos muito em sala de aula. Quando eu começar a interagir com mais brasileiros, terei que enviar uma mensagem de texto para eles eventualmente. Assim como no inglês, os brasileiros têm uma maneira única de enviar mensagens de texto com gírias. Este site fornece uma lista exaustiva de todas as abreviações de mensagens de texto. Minha parte favorita foi onde ele mostrou quais emojis eram mais usados ​​pelos brasileiros porque eu uso muitos emojis quando estou enviando mensagens de texto.

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Did you know that Brazil is the country with the fourth-largest number of Internet users in the world? Take that huge number of people online, add to it the natural creativity and humor of Brazilians, and you get a whole new world of Portuguese slang and expressions!

Some Brazilian internet slang is more common with the younger crowds, while other slang phrases are used by people of all ages. Besides that, many expressions born online and in memes end up in the daily vocabulary of Brazilians, even if just for a few months. In this article, we'll focus more on long-lasting expressions, abbreviations, and slang words. But if you're curious enough, you can always continue keeping up-to-date with new memes and engage with Portuguese speakers online.

To make sure you're up-to-speed with all the abbreviations, codes, and expressions in the Brazilian internet scene, be sure to check this guide and come back whenever you need to. After going through this guide, you'll be able to handle your internet-based conversations and understand all the Brazilian online gírias, or "slang," like a local!
Table of Contents

1. Abbreviations Used in Portuguese Texting

2. Laughing the Brazilian Way

3. Portuguese Internet Slang Derived from English

4. Internet Slangs Popular on Social Media

5. Popular Emojis in Brazil

6. Learn More Portuguese with PortuguesePod101

1. Abbreviations Used in Portuguese Texting

Vc tá no trabalho hj? ( "Are you at work today?" )

Texting is all about speed in Brazil. Abbreviations are everywhere, since they make it much quicker to write sentences. In Portuguese, it works the same way it does in English: we make the words smaller by substituting whole syllables for just one or two letters.

1 - Basic Words

The most commonly used abbreviations in Portuguese text slang are used by people of all ages in Brazil, and can be seen everywhere online from social media comments to Whatsapp messages. Considering the huge number of Brazilians connected to the internet, chances are you'll encounter these abbreviations in your next text conversation!

Abbreviation

Stands for

Translation

Example

gnt gente
"People" / "Guys"

Tem mt gnt aqui
"There are a lot of people here."

Gnt, vamos!
"Guys, let's go!"

d+demais
"Cool" / "Awesome" / "Too much"

Que d+
"That's awesome."

Man checking wristwatch
2 - Abbreviations of Expressions

The following abbreviations are a bit more popular among younger people. These are common Brazilian Portuguese text slang expressions that are used online, on social media, and when texting!

Abbreviation

Stands for

Translation

Example/Explanation

flw falou
"Bye" / "Ok"

Até mais, flw!
"See you, bye!"

tranks tranquilo
"All good" / "No problem"

- Obrigada!
"Thanks!"

- Tranks
"No problem."

mec
-

"Cool" / "All good"

aff
-

-

This can express both shock or boredom (like a sigh).

putz
-

-

This is another interjection that can express shock or surprise.

/!\ Note /!\

You might have noticed that the different conjugations of the verb estar can appear in two ways: the original version and a shortened version.
está → tá
estou → tô
estamos → tamos
These aren't slang words per se, and they're very common in both spoken Portuguese and in text messages or social media.

2. Laughing the Brazilian Way

A guide to Brazilian Portuguese internet slang could never be complete without an in-depth look at how Brazilians laugh online. With the vast numbers of Brazilians on the internet, the particular way in which they laugh has caused plenty of confusion online. Let's unpack the top ways in which Brazilians laugh online and get you laughing along!

The award for most confusing laughter has to go to kkk-and all of its variations with an increasing number of k's, depending on how much fun you're having! And no, don't worry, this is not a racist salute in any way.

For some reason, in Brazil, the idea of laughing with a "qua-qua-qua" sound is an old one, as you can hear in this song of the iconic Brazilian singer Elis Regina.

This is an abbreviation of the word risos ("laughter").

This is another common way of laughing, derived from the traditional "hahaha."

Randomly pressing letters on the keyboard is also common!
huehuehue, hauhauhauhau, spoaskoaksak, kjkjkjkjkjkjkj, haushhaushshsuah
Can you tell Brazilians are happy people? A simple "LOL" is not enough to express all the dimensions of fun!

3. Portuguese Internet Slang Derived from English

Many commonly used internet slang words in Portuguese actually originate from English words! And we're not talking about the abbreviations that come straight from the English language and are used in the same context, like BFF, OMG, or plz. After all, in Brazil, things go a step further!

Most of the cases below are used as verbs, adding a Portuguese ending to an English word. This kind of expression is quite common, and there's always a new one being added to the Brazilian internet vocabulary! Let's take a look at the most popular ones.

Expression

Translation

Example/Explanation

zapzap
"Whatsapp"

Originally, this is what older people called Whatsapp.

Expression

Literal translation

Explanation

Example

Deus me livre mas quem me dera
"God forbid, but I wish"

This is a paradoxical expression that refers to those situations where you want something but rationally you know you shouldn't. There is a song with this name!

dar PT
"To have a total loss"

PT is short for Perda Total ("total loss"). This expression is used when someone gets very drunk.

berro
"Scream"

This expresses a strong reaction to something surprising or very funny.

- Você viu o vídeo da festa?- Berro!

- "OMG!"

socorro / scrro / scrr
"Help"

This is used when reacting to something very funny.

- Olha esse meme!- Scrr! Hahahaha

- "Look at this meme."

- "LOL!"

1. Red heart ❤️

2. Heart eyes 😍

3. Clapping hands 👏

4. Cat with heart eyes 😻

5. Please / Thank you 🙏

6. Music 🎶

7. Smiling moon, which can imply flirting 🌚

8. Peace sign ✌️

9. Eyes 👀

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

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How To Post In Perfect Portuguese on Social Media

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Did you know that Brazil is the country with the fourth-largest number of Internet users in the world? Take that huge number of people online, add to it the natural creativity and humor of Brazilians, and you get a whole new world of Portuguese slang and expressions!

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Neste artigo muito curto, ele nos ensina a dizer cerveja de maneira informal. Isso é importante porque você se encaixa mais com as pessoas ao redor, se você estiver em um bar brasileiro e diz a gíria para a cerveja. Além disso, eu estava interessado nisso porque sou um grande cara de cerveja e gostaria de saber como dizer cerveja se eu fosse ao Brasil. Eu sempre pensei que cerveja fosse 'cerveja', mas este artigo me ensinou que os brasileiros costumam dizer 'cerva' ou 'breja'. Ambas as palavras obviamente vêm de 'cerveja'.

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Today's Brazilian slang word is cerva. It's just an informal word for beer.

A couple of weeks ago I posted another slang word for beer: breja. Find the video here.

I also have a video in which I show you the most Brazilian way to order a beer. It was one of my first videos, when I was still on camera! Watch it here.

If you love beer, my husband Carl wrote an article about his experience trying different beers in Brazil. Read the article: Cerveja Brasileira for Beer Lovers.

The best way to take your Portuguese to the next level is through real conversations with real people. There is only so much the books, apps, and videos can do for you.

Street Smart Brazil offers one-on-one, live, online Portuguese lessons. Enjoy your own private Brazilian Portuguese tutor and learn Portuguese from wherever you are in the world.
Book a Trial Lesson today!

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One-word Portuguese Lesson [Video]: Cerva - Brazilian Slang Words | Street Smart Brazil

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Today's Brazilian slang word is cerva. It's just an informal word for beer. A couple of weeks ago I posted another slang word for beer: breja. Find the video here. I also have a video in which I show you the most Brazilian way to order a beer.

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Os principais erros de pronúncia inglesa feitos por brasileiros

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Os principais erros de pronúncia inglesa feitos por brasileiros

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Neste vídeo, eles nos mostram nomes de empresas que são geralmente mal pronunciados pelos brasileiros em inglês. Muitos brasileiros estão acostumados a dizer esses nomes de empresas em português por toda a vida e lutam quando precisam usá-los no contexto inglês. Por exemplo, muitos brasileiros lutam com o som 'th' no final das palavras, como Bluetooth.

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Top 7 Brazilian Pronunciation Errors - Company Names

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Eu queria um vídeo que discutisse melhor se os brasileiros são latinos não. No vídeo, a garota explica que os brasileiros são latinos, mas não são hispânicos. Eles não são hispânicos porque não falam espanhol. Segundo ela, muitos brasileiros discordavam entre si, se eram latinos. Provavelmente, isso se deve ao fato de sua língua e história serem tão diferentes dos outros países da América Latina. Embora tecnicamente sejam latinos, muitos brasileiros não se consideram latinos.

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Sotaques Brasileiros de Diferentes Regiões

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Sotaques Brasileiros de Diferentes Regiões

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Este vídeo diferencia como as pessoas pensam que um sotaque soa versus como ele realmente soa. Normalmente, programas de TV e filmes de diferentes partes do Brasil podem levar os estrangeiros a pensar que todos na região falam dessa maneira, mas esse geralmente não é o caso. O vídeo tenta esclarecer isso. É muito interessante ouvir os sotaques das diferentes regiões.

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Sotaques brasileiros: como as pessoas acham que são

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Veja como são os diferentes jeitos de se falar no Brasil e como as pessoas acham que são

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Os 5 Sotaques dos Brasileiros Falando Inglês

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Os 5 Sotaques dos Brasileiros Falando Inglês

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Eu escolhi este vídeo porque conversamos muito sobre diferentes sotaques brasileiros. Eu estava procurando mais um vídeo que mostrasse como diferentes sotaques brasileiros afetavam o inglês deles, mas esse também é legal porque você pode ver as "cinco" maneiras pelas quais os brasileiros falam inglês. Por exemplo, alguns brasileiros podem palatizar algumas palavras em inglês que não devem ser palatizadas, como Tim.

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Os 5 Sotaques dos Brasileiros Falando Inglês

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Pessoas perguntam como é o sotaque brasiliero, mas na verdade tem varios sotaque brasileiros falando ingles. E anotei 5 sotaques que eu ouvi brasileros falando. 📷 ► Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/timexplica 💻 ► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timexplica 🐦 ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/tim_explica 👻 ► Snapchat: TimExplica

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Neste vídeo, uma senhora nos ensina gírias diferentes em português. Isso é importante porque os brasileiros usam isso no seu dia a dia, e isso não é algo que você sempre aprende nas aulas ou no livro. Minha gíria favorita é beleza porque pode ser usada em muitas situações diferentes.

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Usually when a person learns a language they do so in the traditional means, which causes them to sound a bit robotic and unnatural. An easy remedy to this is to learn some slang words so that you can speak more like a native. This is definitely the case for the Portuguese language, in which most Brazilians like to speak in a more casual way and so slang words are very frequently used. Check out this article by Lize on the most commonly used Portuguese slang words!

13 Portuguese Slang Words to Speak Like a True Brazilian

Hi, Lize here. I'm from Brazil and I'm part of the MosaLingua Team. Brazilians are usually very informal people. That is why slang is an important part of our vocabulary. Today, you will learn 13 Portuguese slang words that you should know if you want to speak like a Brazilian! Then, if you need more resources for learning Portuguese, check out our guide.

Listen to Portuguese Slang Pronounced by a Real Brazilian

Watch my video below or on our YouTube channel to get started.

P.S. Don't forget to subscribe while you're there! We post new videos every Tuesday.

Portuguese Slang You Need to Know

Joia

In Brazil, when we greet someone, it is quite usual to use the word "joia." "Joia" is something usually made of gold or silver, that people wear as decoration. As a Brazilian slang word, though, "joia" means "great." So, if someone says: "Hi there! What's up?" It's quite common to answer: "Tudo joia (I'm great!) E você? (How about yourself?)"

Beleza

Another popular slang word in Brazil is "beleza." "Beleza" literally means beauty. As a slang word, "beleza" means "yes" or "it's a deal." So, if someone asks: "Let's have a barbecue ( "um churrasco") this weekend?" You might answer: "Beleza! Eu levo a cerveja! (I'll bring the beer!)" And, since we've mentioned beauty, if someone calls you "gato" or "gata"... say thanks! This is the slang we use to say someone is hot/handsome.

Cara

"Cara" literally means face. As a slang term, it's a word we use to talk about a young man we don't know. So, to use "cara" (guy) and "gato" (handsome), which you've already learned how to use, we could say: "Viu o cara de azul na praia? Um gato!"

Pepino and Abacaxi

When people are talking about a problem, we sometimes use the name of two fruits: "pepino" (cucumber), as a slang word, is a synonym of problem, as well as "abacaxi" (pineapple). So, if a friend says: today, I'll have to work late... "Estou com um pepino no escritório!" that doesn't mean he's making a salad, it means he has a problem to deal with.

Bacana

And when we want to say that something is nice or that we like something, one of the most usual word is "bacana" (nice).

Mala

But when we want to say someone is annoying, one of the most common slang in Brazil is "mala" (suitcase), as in the sentence: "Meu vizinho (neighbour) é um mala! He makes noise (barulho) all night long." We could also say that this neighbor "faz barulho pra caramba." "Pra caramba means "a lot" or "too much."

Foi Mal

And if this neighbor feels bad about disturbing you so much, he might say: "foi mal!" "Foi mal" is a slang term we use to say we're sorry.

Falou

In this case, you might answer using another very typical slang word in Brazil: "Falou! " which means "OK," "I agree," or "gotcha."

Rolar

And since we've mentioned a barbecue and the beach, another very common slang in Brazil is "rolar." Literally, "rolar" is a synonym for "to spin," or "start spinning." As slang, it means "to happen." "The weekend ( fim semana) was great! Rolou praia no sábado e no domingo!" or even: " Rola um cinema (a movie) na semana que vem? "

Valeu

To end this article, I've chosen another very popular slang word in Brazil: "Valeu!" "Valeu" simply means obrigada (thanks)! Thanks for reading!

More Portuguese and Brazilian Slang

Do you know other Portuguese slang terms that you think should be on this list? Share them in the comments section. Don't forget to tell us what they mean and how they are used.

If this article was useful to you, don't forget to rate it, share it with your friends, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more language hacks. And if you want to learn more Brazilian slang, then download the free MosaLingua Learn Portuguese app!

Thanks in advance for rating this article, it will encourage the author to write more

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13 Portuguese Slang Words to Speak Like a Brazilian [VIDEO]

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Usually when a person learns a language they do so in the traditional means, which causes them to sound a bit robotic and unnatural. An easy remedy to this is to learn some slang words so that you can speak more like a native.

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Este é um pequeno vídeo que achei engraçado. Neste vídeo, um homem está entrevistando para um emprego. Na entrevista, o homem continua mudando de sotaque e o entrevistador está realmente confuso. É muito óbvio aqui o quão diferentes são os sotaques. No final, o homem não consegue o emprego e ainda está mudando de atitude.

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Nesta série de vídeos, o homem está tentando viajar para todos os países. Agora ele está em Moçambique. Segundo ele, Moçambique é uma mistura da Índia, Portugal e Brasil. Como ele, eu não sabia que Moçambique tinha uma influência portuguesa tão grande no país, então queria aprender mais sobre isso. Além disso, isso relaciona a expansão do português encontrada no capítulo 6. O homem diz que se sente como se estivesse no Brasil, em vez de um país africano.

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Neste vídeo, há uma mulher em um banco. É um vídeo curto, e eu não entendo muito do que ela diz. Ela é madeirense. O vídeo começa mostrando as taxas de câmbio. Talvez ela esteja dizendo que não entende por que a taxa de câmbio entre os euros e os escudos é tão ruim.

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Esse homem que fala português açoriano tem sido o dialeto português mais difícil de entender. Não tenho ideia do que ele está falando. Parece que ele está falando sobre pescadores e um muro que acabou de ser construído. Pelo seu discurso, percebo que há uma influência francesa no português açoriano.

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Stéfane fala português e ele é de Angola. Novamente, este é outro vídeo que tem a ver com a expansão do português na África. Este vídeo é muito interessante porque Stéfane fala português muito claramente. Eu pensei que seria muito difícil de entender, especialmente com todos os outros dialetos que ouvimos até agora. Talvez ele seja muito educado, mas isso é ainda mais fácil de entender do que o português do Brasil.

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Help us caption & translate this video! http://amara.org/v/7MVD/

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Brasil vs Portugal: o Sotaque Português Mais Sexy

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Brasil vs Portugal: o Sotaque Português Mais Sexy

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Neste vídeo, há pessoas ouvindo palestrantes do Brasil e do Brasil. Eles têm que escolher qual sotaque é mais sexy. Ao final do vídeo, todos concordam que o Brasil tem um sotaque mais sexy, porque é mais suave e rítmico. Isso é interessante porque essas pessoas, que não estão familiarizadas com os dois portugueses, já sabem que não são exatamente iguais. O vídeo tem a ver com o capítulo, porque eu queria explorar como o português moderno já está começando a divergir hoje.

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Brazil VS Portugal: Sexiest Portuguese Accent

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Neste vídeo, um homem canta em galego-português com a tradução embaixo da letra. Eu escolhi este vídeo porque queria ver como o português galego se compara no som com o português moderno, especialmente depois de ver alguns textos em sala de aula. Eu sou capaz de entender a música na maior parte, mas há algumas partes que não.

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The Sound of the Galician-Portuguese Language (Cantiga)

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Palavras em Inglês com uma Pronúncia em Português do Brasil

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Palavras em Inglês com uma Pronúncia em Português do Brasil

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Este vídeo mostra como a pronunciação brasileira afeta algumas palavras em inglês, como o facebook. Por exemplo, com 'internet', eles adicionam um som 'e' extra no final da palavra, que é um fenômeno observado na evolução da língua portuguesa. Além disso, outro fenômeno é que essa palavra é palatizada no final com o som 'ch'. Esses dois fenômenos são discutidos no capítulo 5.

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Uma Breve História de por que o Português e o Espanhol são Diferentes

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Uma Breve História de por que o Português e o Espanhol são Diferentes

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Este artigo discute as semelhanças e diferenças entre as origens do português e do espanhol. Ambas as línguas são originárias do latim. Após o colapso do Império Romano, os visigodos e mouros assumiram o controle. É aqui que a divergência entre os dois idiomas realmente começa. Eu queria entender por que o português e o espanhol eram diferentes, apesar de terem origens latinas muito semelhantes. A razão é que o português moderno foi consolidado em um reino antes da Espanha e, portanto, a padronização do português começou antes do espanhol. Isso resultou no português ser mais parecido com o latim vulgar do que no espanhol.

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"They look similar!" I can already hear you saying. "Look, just change this, and constituci ón becomes constituição. Todo is tudu and bien is bem. Lengua is lingua, and is idioma. They're just dialects of the same language."

Yes and no.

Now, no. Portuguese and Spanish are currently quite different. You can't learn one and expect to function effortlessly in the other. Portuguese sounds are quite different from Spanish ones, as are the two languages' vocabularies. And which variety of present-day Portuguese and Spanish are we talking about, specifically? There's Argentine Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, for starters, and Canary Islands Spanish and Guinean Portuguese, not to mention the regional differences between Portuguese and Spanish dialects within Portugal and Spain themselves.

But once upon a time, yes. Portuguese and Spanish were, basically, dialects of the same language. That language was Latin, the language of the Roman Empire, from which all Romance languages spring.

Hundreds of years later, how have Portuguese and Spanish grown apart, and why? And will they always be different?

Iberian siblings

Spain and Portugal presently occupy almost the entirety of the Iberian Peninsula, the spit of land that sticks out of Western Europe just below France. (Almost, but not quite: the tiny Principality of Andorra sits snug along the border of Spain and France, ensconced in the embrace of the Eastern Pyrenees.) The Iberian Peninsula is where Portuguese and Spanish were 'born' (if languages can be born) and it is also the main reason why Portuguese and Spanish are much closer to each other than to the other major Romance languages: it has allowed them to develop in relative isolation. Indeed, this is plain to see on a map: the oceans surround the western, southern and eastern edges of the Peninsula, while to the north, the Pyrenees form a natural border with France. It is for this reason also that Portuguese and Spanish are usually known as the Iberian or Iberoamerican languages.

But Portuguese and Spanish were not the first languages on the Peninsula, nor are they those first languages' descendants. They come from a very different place.

All roads lead from Rome

The story of Portuguese and Spanish, as with all Romance languages, actually begins in Italy. Or, more specifically, with the Roman Empire, which spoke Latin and spread the language across the lands that it conquered and governed.

At their height, the Romans controlled almost all the areas immediately surrounding the Mediterranean, including modern-day Italy, Croatia, the Levant (the area around modern-day Israel, Lebanon and Syria), the Maghreb (modern-day Morocco), and the Iberian peninsula (which the Romans called 'Hispania'). Latin, as the language of the Roman Empire, was thus brought into all these places, and it gradually began to supersede the use of many other languages on the Peninsula.

Aquitanian, Tartessian, Lusitanian, Celtiberian: these are some of the languages believed to have existed on the peninsula before the arrival of the Romans in 218 BCE. All have now been lost to history (except perhaps Aquitanian, which may have survived in its possible daughter language, Basque, and which you can read about here) because Latin superseded them all in the new Roman province of Hispania. At this time, there was no Spain or Portugal to speak of; there was only Hispania, initially divided into two sections, Hispania Ulterior and Citerior, which became three from 27 BCE: Lusitania (the south-west), Baetica (the south), and Tarraconensis (the rest); and then five from 284 CE, with swathes of Tarraconensis becoming the new provinces of Galicia (the north-west) and Cartaginense (the south-east).

Thus, for the next 600 years, Latin continued to reign supreme on the Iberian Peninsula, as it did in most of the other areas of the Roman Empire.

Latin, however, was itself changing. Just as there are formal and informal versions of Arabic and Tamil today, spoken in different contexts, so too were there different varieties of Latin emerging in the Empire. There was a standardised, 'higher' version of Latin, which we call Classical Latin, spoken in more formal contexts like matters of administration and, later, in churches; and then there was the more informal Latin that everyday people spoke, which gradually came to be called colloquial or Vulgar Latin.

Vulgar Latin developed differently in different parts of the Empire. Not all the reasons for the differences are known, but one main factor could be that different parts of the Empire had different indigenous languages that came into contact with Latin, and thus different parts of the Empire had different loanwords (and eventually vocabularies) in their versions of Vulgar Latin. For example, the Vulgar Latin spoken in Spain and Portugal might have included loanwords from Celtiberian, whereas the Vulgar Latin spoken in France might have loanwords from other indigenous languages instead such as Gaulish.

Of course, Vulgar Latin was frowned upon by authorities and those from the higher echelons of society, and Classical Latin remained their language of choice; they maintained it as a unifying language that was used for administration in all parts of the Roman Empire. Thus, as long as the Empire stayed intact, so too did Latin.

Gothic and Arabic

Like all great empires, however, the Roman Empire was destined to fall. As its influence and control over the territories on its periphery began to weaken significantly, territories like Hispania began in the 5 th century CE to experience several waves of invasions by Germanic peoples like the Vandals, the Alans, and the Visigoths. Eventually, Hispania came under control of this last group, the Visigoths, who were invited to rule the province for Rome by Emperor Honorius in 415 CE, and who gradually took complete control of it, especially after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE.

The new kings were native speakers of Gothic, a distant but now extinct relative of today's German and English. Gothic never really caught on in Hispania, and remained the language of the upper classes, while the majority of the population continued to use Vulgar Latin for everyday communication and interaction. However, with Classical Latin no longer readily available for 'reference' as the standard to aspire to, Vulgar Latin in Hispania likely began to change further, incorporating several new features from Gothic.

Then, beginning in 711 CE, Visigothic Hispania was almost entirely conquered by the Moors of the Umayyad Caliphate, becoming the new Muslim kingdom of Al-Andalus. In a series of swift, lightning-fast conquests, the Umayyads took almost the entire Iberian Peninsula, and replaced Gothic with Arabic as the language of the elite.

However, the Vulgar Latin dialects continued to survive in large part because most of the population remained Christian despite now being subject to heavy Arabic influence. For this reason, the Vulgar Latin of this time is known as Mozarabic. As had been the case under the Visigoth kings, Mozarabic was spoken by a large majority of the population, while Arabic was only used by the upper echelons of society.

Whence Portuguese and Spanish, then? At last, with the Muslim conquest of Spain, they were beginning to appear.

Beloved Homeland

In the northwest corner of Spain, the tiny kingdom of Asturias successfully resisted the Moors, and was able to recover and grow in strength throughout the 9 th and 10 th centuries CE. This one remaining Christian bulwark on the peninsula thus served as the nucleus of the movement known as the Reconquista or the Christian reconquering of Spain, and also as the nucleus from which Portuguese and Spanish as we know them today were eventually born.

At its inception, Asturias was composed of the modern-day regions of Asturias and Galicia, which were never fully under the control of the Moors. Indeed, Galicia especially had remained fiercely distinctive since the 4 th century. In 409 CE, slightly earlier than the rest of the peninsula, it had become a separate Roman vassal state under the Suebi, a separate Germanic race from the Visigoths, and remained an independent Suebi kingdom until 585 CE, when Visigoth King Leovigild absorbed it into the rest of Visigoth Hispania. Galician dialects of Vulgar Latin were thus already rather more divergent compared to Vulgar Latin and Mozarabic dialects on the rest of the peninsula, and even compared to their Asturian brethren.

Enter a Galician nobleman named Vimara Peres, who at the end of the 9 th century CE, led an Asturian force to conquer a sizeable chunk of Andalusian territory between the Minho and Douro rivers. Asturian King Alfonso III awarded the entire region to Peres as a County, and Peres resettled the area with Galician colonists. He also named it after the largest port city in the region, Portus Cale -taken today as the origin of the name Portugal. From this point on, Portugal began to develop its own regional identity, and indeed, its own distinct Vulgar Latin dialects, separate from the Asturian ones.

Portuguese and Spanish

Eventually, Asturias splintered into several successor states as various kings and heirs fought for control over the area. Two of these successor states were the Kingdom of Leon, and the County of Portugal, the latter of which declared its independence as a separate Kingdom from Leon in 1143 under King Afonso Henrique, and by which time had expanded to fill out most of the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Portuguese was also by this time a markedly different dialect from the other Vulgar Latin daughter dialects, and Portugal's separation from Leon ensured that this would continue to be so.

Meanwhile, Leon, later the Kingdom of Leon and Castile, gradually began to assert itself as the dominant force in the central area of the Peninsula. It eventually defeated the Moorish kingdoms, and expanded to control the territory of modern-day Spain by the end of the 15 th century CE. The Vulgar Latin daughter dialect that eventually became the language that we know today as Spanish was the Castilian dialect that originated with Leon and Castile, and which became standardised in written form in the 13 th century around the city of Toledo through the work of the Toledo School of Translators. Under the official patronage of King Alfonso X, this group worked to translate a large body of various Arabic and Hebrew texts into Latin and, for the first time, Castilian, giving Castilian a sizeable body of "official" written language, and in doing so laying the foundations for Castilian's eventual dominance over the other daughter dialects of Vulgar Latin.

Differences today

Today, both Standard Castilian Spanish and Standard Continental Portuguese reflect this rich tapestry of linguistic and cultural history, with a sizeable number of loanwords from Arabic, Gothic and (in the case of Spanish) Basque. Both languages retain similar grammatical features and syntax, and also share many cognates, or root word forms, as a result of their common descent from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the peninsula.

However, Portuguese and Spanish differ mainly because of their different origins during the period following the Muslim conquest of Iberia and the advent of the Reconquista. Modern-day Portugal was conquered and consolidated as a stable kingdom much earlier than Spain, and thus the process of the standardisation of Portuguese began earlier than that of Spanish, resulting in Portuguese retaining more recognisable features of Vulgar Latin than Spanish, whose original core dialects evolved and became standardised much later. Geography, both natural and political, has also played a part-had Portugal not remained an independent kingdom and state, it is conceivable that Portuguese might have deteriorated, much as the other Vulgar Latin dialects have today. (The reverse with Castilian Spanish is possible too, though much more unlikely, due to the relative size of the two polities).

Other Vulgar Latin dialects?

What happened to those, I hear you ask? After all, there were other successor states to Asturias, like Aragon, and Navarre. Surely they had their own unique dialects. And what happened to Leonese and Galician?

The answer is that with the process of standardisation, other dialects that have not been chosen as the standard often become marginalised and are left to simply fade away. In many cases, this is exactly what happened with the other dialects up until recent times: Aragonese, Leonese, and Navarrese are all still spoken, but by relatively few people, as Castilian Spanish became the sole language of use in almost all domains of public life after the 15 th century. Nonetheless, Galicia has managed to maintain its strong distinctive regional identity, and Galician has survived quite well into the present day as a strong marker of that identity. Galician and Portuguese continue to be rather more mutually intelligible than Portuguese and Spanish as a result of Portuguese's evolution from the Galician Vulgar Latin dialects; indeed, most linguists agree that Galician and Portuguese form a sort of continuum of intelligibility. Two other languages that have experienced a resurgence on the peninsula are Catalan, which after almost near-extinction has reemerged as one of the primary drivers of the Catalan independence movement, and Basque, very probably the last survivor of the languages originally spoken on the peninsula before the coming of the Romans.

The New World

Now that you know how Portuguese and Spanish came to be, the question is, where are they going?

In the 14 th and 15 th centuries, Portuguese and Spanish explorers were an integral part of the European Age of Exploration, which saw the colonisation and domination of Africa, the Americas, and much of Asia by European colonists. Portuguese and Spanish came to override indigenous languages in much the same way Latin did, and with almost identical end results: Spanish is now the dominant language in most of Central and South America at the expense of many native languages, while Brazilian Portuguese has far outstripped Continental Portuguese in terms of number of speakers and influence. Both languages have also left their mark on daughter languages as far flung as Tagalog in the Philippines, Kristang in Malaysia, and Guinean Creole in Guinea-Bissau.

With the collapse of the Portuguese and Spanish overseas empires in the 18 th and 19 th centuries, all these varieties and offshoots of Portuguese and Spanish have been largely left to develop on their own, much as the various dialects of Vulgar Latin were left to their own devices after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. And already we are seeing marked differences: Brazilian Portuguese speakers, for example, often pronounce initial 'd' sounds with a sound rather like the English 'j', an innovation unknown to Continental Portuguese, while Argentinian Spanish speakers are famous for their almost lyrical intonation patterns, a feature not found in Castilian Spanish. Chilean Spanish is full of loans from Quechua, while informal Angolan Portuguese is filled with loans from Kimbundu.

It seems possible that both languages might go the way of their once dominant Roman parent. Already we sometimes speak not of Portuguese and Spanish, but Portugueses and Spanishes; in a hundred years, perhaps we might even speak of an Iberian language family. As the Spanish saying goes, no hay dos sin tres -never two without three.

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Iberia's children: A short history of why Portuguese and Spanish are different | Unravel Magazine

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Once upon a time, Portuguese and Spanish were, basically, dialects of the same language: Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. Hundreds of years later, how have Portuguese and Spanish grown apart, and why? And will they always be different?

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Este artigo apresenta conjunções. Conjunções são palavras que conectam frases. Em seguida, diferencia as conjunções simples, conjunções coordenadas e conjunções subordinadas. Conjunções simples geralmente contêm uma palavra conectada. Conjunções coordenadoras conectam duas sentenças de igual importância. Por fim, as conjunções subordinadas vinculam uma cláusula dependente a uma cláusula independente.

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Introduction to Conjunctions | Practice Portuguese

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are words that connect other words, phrases, or sentence clauses to each other. Unlike adjectives, conjunctions do not change form according to a subject's gender or quantity. They always stay the same (i.e. they are invariable). Simple Conjunctions vs. Conjunction Phrases Depending on how many words it contains, a conjunction may be: Simple if it ...

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A ordem das palavras em português é substantivo, verbo, e Objeto. Existem cinco aspectos principais ao considerar a ordem das palavras que podem ser encontradas neste site. Por exemplo, se você deseja fazer uma pergunta em português, a ordem das palavras em português é exatamente a mesma de quando você faz uma declaração. Tudo o que você precisa fazer é aumentar a entonação no final para fazer parecer uma pergunta.

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Portuguese Word order.

Easy ways to remember.

Boas!
Today we are going to learn about how the Portuguese word order works.
We are also going to learn how you can put words together in order to build sentences and express your thoughts.

As you know, when you speak, you use sounds.

These sounds can be graphically represented by written words.

These words will build sentences.

These sentences have to be placed in a specific order to express your ideas and thoughts.

And this order shows the way you want others to understand you.

The spectacular capacity of your brain allows you to express your thoughts by mouth noises which, when uttered in a particular order, allow you to communicate.

This applies to all spoken languages and obviously Portuguese is no exception.

My point with all of this is to make you think about the way you speak in your own language first.

Then you may realise that when you speak, you convert your thoughts into words which together and in a specific order, allow you to say what you want to say, and want others to understand.

But, if you are thinking that getting used to the correct way of putting words together and making sentences in Portuguese is not an easy task, I have good news for you.

OK, if you read any text in Portuguese or if you listen to a native Portuguese speaker talking, you may notice that sometimes the word order in Portuguese is different than the word order in English. And that's true sometimes.

You may also realise, for instance, that, whereas you say in English "Maria has a beautiful car", a Portuguese native speaker would literally say "Maria has a car beautiful".

I know, I know, this is not always the case. But remember there is a reason for everything.

The good news is that, generally speaking, the structure of a sentence in Portuguese is not much different than the one in English.

You only have to pay attention to specific cases and, at the beginner, pay attention to the kind of sentence you want to use.

The Portuguese word order is Subject (S) > Verb (V)> Object (O).

Then, you just have to link the different small sentences together with clauses to construct your story.

Basically, in order for you to get a good Portuguese word order, you just have to take into account five aspects:

1. If your sentence is a statement.

2. If your sentence is a statement-question
(a statement with a question mark at the end).

3. If your sentence is a direct question
(with a question word at the beginning and a question mark at the end).

4. If your sentence is negative
(with a negative word in it, like "não").

5. If your sentence includes a description of something
(with an adjective).

Can't quite get what I'm saying here? No worries. Let me explain one by one with some examples:

1. If a sentence is a statement.

If your sentence is a statement, you are expressing a fact. Normally you are talking about a specific event. Let's analyse the following sentences in pairs - first the Portuguese and then the English, sentence by sentence. Please compare and contrast the Portuguese word order and the English carefully.

You see, only with these type of sentences you could easily tell a story to somebody, by placing one simple sentence after another using the correct Portuguese word order.

Another interesting thing is, as you can also see, you can use the same Portuguese word order in the present, past and future tenses.

Please be aware that, when speaking in Portuguese, the subject (eu, tu, você, nós, eles, etc.) is often hidden.

This means that the verb itself indicates the subject of that sentence: e.g. " Vamos estudar hoje e amanhã." to say " We are going to study today and tomorrow."

You can also place the adverbs "today" ' "hoje" and "tomorrow" "amanhã" either at the beginning or at the end of your sentence.

Did you get this? Great! Let's jump to the next case.

2. If a sentence is an statement-question
(a statement with a question mark at the end).

If you want to ask a question in Portuguese, the Portuguese word order is exactly the same as when you make a statement. All you have to do is to raise the intonation at the end to make it sound as a question.

Please note however that whereas in English you need to use a verb at the beginning when you ask a question, in Portuguese you don't.

So, if it helps, when you are transferring your thoughts from English into Portuguese try to imagine that you could ask questions in English without the words "do", or "are" or "will", etc. at the beginning of a question:

e.g. in English you would say " Are you (gentlemen) going to schedule a meeting for tomorrow?", but in Portuguese you would say "Os senhores vão marcar a reunião para amanhã?". You start your question with the verb straight away.

In order for you to understand the correct Portuguese word order, let's observe the same phrases as above as examples:

When asking a question out loud, please don't forget to raise the intonation at the end.

OK, did you understand this second rule of the Portuguese word order? Did you get it? Good! Let-s see number three.

3. If a sentence is a direct question
(with a question word at the beginning and a question mark at the end).

In this case, in order for you to get a good Portuguese word order, all you need is a question word at the beginning of your sentence and then a statement.

Let's, once again look at the following examples. Please read them carefully one by one and pay attention to the Portuguese word order.

You see, the Portuguese word order when you ask a question is not very different from the previous explanations.

You basically keep the normal structure that a statement has adding a question word at the beginning, and obviously raising the intonation at the end, when you are speaking.

Bang! Easy! Let-s go for number four.

4. If a sentence is negative
(with the word "não" in it).

If the sentence you want to build is a negative sentence, and I mean a statement a deny (e.g. "I don't like salmon" - "Eu não gosto de salmão"), you need to place the negative word before the verb in order to get a correct Portuguese word order.

Negative words are often " não" (no, don't), " nunca" (never), " nem" (nor).

Nevertheless remember: The word order in Portuguese is still the same:

Subject. (S) > Verb (V)> Object (O).

Let's analyse some more examples of the Portuguese word order:

Do you have everything under control so far? If yes, move on to Portuguese word order rule number five.

5. If a sentence is descriptive
(with an adjective).

Here there is a radical change if you compare both, the Portuguese word order and the English one.

The descriptive word (in other words, the adjective) needs to be placed after the noun all the time.

As I mentioned above whereas in English you place the adjective before the noun, e.g. "Maria has a beautiful car", in Portuguese you need to place the adjective after the noun like "Maria has a car beautiful".

I know! It doesn't sound right when you think in English, but in the Portuguese word order it makes all sense. Believe me!

Also, when it comes to using adjectives (or describing words) in a sentence, you may use more than one.

But let's illustrate this explanation of the Portuguese word order with some examples:

Did you notice that the adjective 1 was placed the other way round compared to English?

Well, this is not big deal either, is it? If you understand this structure, let's jump to the next step to fully understand the Portuguese word order.

Practice all the structures now!

Yes, this is your next step! Don't let yourself be satisfied just by reading this page. Do some practice now.

Try to make up a story with small sentences. Put them together in the negative, asking direct and indirect questions, using adjectives, and so on. Use the correct Portuguese word order now.

Just write sentences down in Portuguese and read them out loud.

You will see that your Portuguese will improve quickly!

If you need to consult the different types of words, click here .

Go Back From Portuguese Word Order To Grammar.

Go Back To Home Page.

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Boas! Today we are going to learn about how the Portuguese word order works. We are also going to learn how you can put words together in order to build sentences and express your thoughts. As you know, when you speak, you use sounds. These sounds can be graphically represented by written words.

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Este é um resumo das discussões acadêmicas sobre o tema de objetos nulos. O artigo afirma que esses objetos nulos devem se referir a um pronome. Caso contrário, não faria sentido que o objeto nulo não se referisse a nada. Geralmente em português, o gênero e a pluralidade do objeto nulo podem ser identificados. Se não puder ser identificado, será considerado como terceira pessoa e neutro.

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An analysis of null object constructions in colloquial Brazilian Portuguese is brought to bear on the theory of empty categories. Focusing on their properties in adjunct clauses, it is argued that at least some null objects must be analyzed as pro's, even though they are not morphologically identified.

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Por que o subjuntivo é importante? Como você conjuga o subjuntivo?

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Por que o subjuntivo é importante? Como você conjuga o subjuntivo?

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O artigo começa explicando por que o subjuntivo é útil para os alunos de inglês aprenderem. Como o inglês não possui o subjuntivo, muitos alunos temem o tempo. Na realidade, não é tão difícil e ajuda às construções de frases. Embora os brasileiros não usem o subjuntivo o tempo todo, ainda é importante saber como usá-lo ao declarar incerteza. O artigo continua ensinando a conjugar as diferentes formas do subjuntivo.

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Let's talk about the elephant in the room.
There's a Portuguese grammar aspect that learners dread studying.

They avoid it whenever they can, either constructing sentences that circumvent its use or just ignoring it altogether.

It's the subjunctive mood, and it strikes fear into the hearts of many learners of Brazilian Portuguese.

In fact, Brazilians themselves have a fraught relationship with it and sometimes shy away from employing it in situations where it "should" be required.
So why should non-natives bother?
Well, all native speakers do use the subjunctive in some situations, so if you want to sound good in the language, it's important to learn it. Plus, it serves a genuine communicative purpose: It's a marker for unreality.

This post will show you how to tame the Portuguese subjunctive mood and turn the monster into nothing more than a kitten.

How to Learn the Portuguese Subjunctive

The Brazilian Portuguese subjunctive mood is an intermediate to advanced subject which should be approached after you've learned the indicative tenses. It's vast enough that it should be learned bit by bit, not all at once.

In this post, however, I'll throw the whole monster together into an overview that I hope you can refer back to as you're learning. Consuming an article like this can also allow you to at least recognize the various subjunctive tenses when you see them in print or hear them in your learning apps and audio or video learning materials.

And that's right, notice I said tenses-plural! There are three major tenses under the umbrella of the subjunctive mood: the present, imperfect (past) and future subjunctive. We'll cover each, but first, let's get a handle on what they're all for.

I focus here on the subjunctive as used in Brazil in Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states, which is the standard for many learning materials and the goal for many learners.

If you're focusing on Portuguese from other states or from Cabo Verde, Mozambique, Portugal or elsewhere, the use will be different and you may also need to learn tu forms. The overall ideas, however, remain the same.

The Main Purpose of the Portuguese Subjunctive Mood

Unreality and emotion permeate the uses of the subjunctive. In contrast, the indicative mood (or "normal" past, present and future tenses that you've probably already learned) is about events in real life, those that are actually happening.

As I mentioned, the subjunctive is sometimes scary even for native speakers, but let's face those fears and look at how fear itself triggers the subjunctive.

Há receio que tudo mundo fale errado. - There are fears that everyone speaks with mistakes.

That word fale is in the subjunctive mood because the "speaking" isn't our main preoccupation; the main clause is há receio, or the having of fears. If we made a simple statement of fact, we'd instead use the present indicative:

Tudo mundo fala errado. - Everybody speaks with mistakes.

In addition to projecting emotions in the main clause about something happening in the subordinate clause, the subjunctive is used for everything unreal. I'm traveling in Brazil as I write this and enjoying an entirely hypothetical love life, so I have plenty of opportunity to plaintively employ the subjunctive.

Quero que ela vá comigo ao Pará. - I want her to go with me to Pará.

Preciso de um xodó que goste de viajar. - I need a darling who likes travelling.

Duvido que esta gostosa me ame. - I doubt that this hottie loves me.

Will my would-be, super-hot darling actually join me for a dance in the Brazilian state with the world's most fascinating music? Who knows! I'm dealing with my fantasy life, so I unfortunately must use the subjunctive. (If things were going better, I'd perhaps be writing an article about the indicative.)

The above examples are fairly typical of subjunctive use in that the verbs conjugated in the subjunctive mood (vá, goste, ame - come, like, love) are placed in the second, "subordinate" clause. The verbs that talk about reality (quero, preciso, duvido - my wanting, needing and doubting) are in the main clause, the one that sets up the unreality.

It's also possible, however, to have the unreality be implied from context and thus cause the subjunctive to barge forward into the main clause.

Talvez pense em mim. - Maybe she's thinking of me.

Que você tenha sorte! - May you be lucky! / I hope you're lucky!

When learning the subjunctive, pay particular attention to the words that trigger its use. In the above examples, we saw triggers like talvez and duvido que. When we see those words, we can thus be sure that their use elsewhere will also trigger the subjunctive.

The Conjugation and Use of the Present Subjunctive

The present subjunctive seems a bit like opposite-land in terms of the verb endings that are used to create it. The -ar verbs get the indicative present tense -er endings, while -ir and -er verbs get the -ar endings. This holds true for all subjects except eu (I), which is identical in the subjunctive to the você form.

Here's what all that looks like.

Here are some examples of these regular verbs in action.

Surpreende ela que eu fale português. - It surprises her that I speak Portuguese.

Não é que eu nunca beba, mas hoje não estou afim. - It's not that I never drink, but today I don't feel like it.

Espero que eles abram a loja as 9:00. - I hope that they open the store at 9:00.

Ready for a good news/bad news wallop?

First, the bad: There are tons of irregular verbs in the present subjunctive that you'll need to learn. In fact, generally, verbs that are irregular in the present indicative will also be irregular in the present subjunctive.

But here's the good news: There's a fairly straightforward way to make the stems of many of these verbs. Once you do that, then the conjugation endings are usually the same as with the -er verbs above.

The stem for such irregular verbs is based on the eu form of the present indicative. Here's the process in action for the verb fazer (to do, to make).

1. fazer - our heroic verb in its base form

2. eu faço - first-person singular present indicative

3. - the stem with the -o ending removed

4. eu, ele, ela, você faça / nós façamos / eles, elas, vocês façam - the stem with the present subjunctive endings added

If you've made it this far, you deserve a special treat. The lovely Elza Soares and Chico Buarque grab the verb fazer in its present subjunctive nós form and produce the most gorgeous rendition of this conjugation that's ever been uttered.

When the lyrics say fazem in the indicative, they're talking about some (vaguely romantic) "doing it" happening in the real world.

And in fact, the one-word nós subjunctive form of any verb is a great way to suggest things doing things together, like the English "let's [verb]."

If you love the idea of learning grammar concepts with songs, movie trailers and other real-world videos, you'll enjoy using FluentU to reinforce this subjunctive lesson. A Portuguese learning program is currently in development, so stay tuned for an immersive, authentic way to learn Portuguese, coming soon!

Here are a few other verbs that follow a similar pattern of irregular present subjunctive conjugations that are based on their indicative eu forms. The conjugation sequence is thus similar to fazer:

And so on, for quite a few verbs. But it wouldn't be any fun if there weren't some verbs that also break all patterns and just go wild in the present subjunctive. Here are a few of those:

Ser (to be):

Ir (to go):

Saber (to know):

And here are examples of some of these in use:

Tomara que ele tenha mais sorte essa vez. - Let's hope that he has more luck this time.

Vejamos o que podemos fazer. - Let's see what we can do.

seja como for - be that as it may

That last one's a fixed expression making use of the present subjunctive seja as well as the future subjunctive for of the same verb ser, which we'll see in detail a bit later. But first, let's dig into the past.

The Conjugation and Use of the Imperfect (Past) Subjunctive

The imperfect subjunctive is our way of talking about the unreal past, and it's formed by adding some very slithering endings. The regular conjugations are as follows:
vocês, eles, elas falassem vocês, eles, elas bebessem
Verbs ending in -ir, like abrir (to open):
vocês, eles, elas abrissem
There are irregular imperfect subjunctive verbs too, which tend to have the same endings as the regular verbs but use the same (also irregular) stem as their preterite tense eles form. As before, the process for putting together these pieces can be shown with fazer:

1. fazer - our darling verb's infinitive form

2. eles fizeram - the third-person preterite

3. fize- - the stem that we want

4. eu, você, ele, ela fizesse / nós fizéssemos / vocês, eles, elas fizessem - past subjunctive conjugations

Here are some other common irregular imperfect subjunctive conjugations that follow this pattern:

Yes, those last two verbs there share the exact same imperfect subjunctive forms.

The past subjunctive works in much the same way as its present counterpart, for talking about emotions or unreality. The main clause can be in either the present or past tense, depending on your intention.

Não acredito que fosse uma boa ideia. - I don't believe that it was a good idea.

Não acreditei que fosse uma boa ideia. - I didn't believe that it was a good idea.

Talvez eles fossem a São Paulo para dançar samba rock. - Maybe they went to São Paulo to dance samba rock.

Ela dançou de maneira que eu notasse ela. - She danced so that I'd notice her.

The imperfect subjunctive tense is also used in ways that don't actually have a past meaning. A typical pattern for another use is:

Se (if) + imperfect subjunctive clause + imperfect indicative (speech) or conditional (formal writing) clause

For example, in speech we might say:

Se eu tivesse mais tempo, visitava Paraty. - If I had more time, I'd visit Paraty.

Se a gente voasse, chegava mais cedo. - If we flew, we'd get there sooner.

Note that in these phrases the imperfect would perhaps be exchanged for the conditional in formal writing (visitaria, chegaria).

Some Portuguese teachers will insist that the conditional is "correct" here, but you're quite likely to hear Brazilians using the imperfect instead and need to at least be able to understand it (and likely use it yourself, once far from the ears of pedant teachers).

Over the past? Let's check out our hypothetical futures.

The Conjugation and Use of the Future Subjunctive

Portuguese is different from its popular close cousins like Catalan, Italian, Spanish and French in having a subjunctive future tense. But it makes sense that you'd want one, right? What could be more hypothetical than the future? Bully for you, Portuguese.

The forms for regular future subjunctive verbs are as follows.
vocês, eles, elas falarem vocês, eles, elas beberem vocês, eles, elas abrirem
The future subjunctive may look a lot to you like the personal infinitive (another tense that Portuguese has and many Romance languages lack). And these two tenses are in fact identical-but only for regular verbs.

For irregular verbs, the stem of the third-person plural preterite form is used as the stem of the verb for creating the future subjunctive (similarly to what we saw in the last section for the imperfect subjunctive).

So that process for the verb fazer looks like this:

1. fazer - our superstar verb

2. eles fizeram - third-person preterite

3. fizer- - the stem that we want

4. eu, você, ele, ela fizer / nós fizermos / vocês, eles, elas fizerem - future subjunctive conjugations

Contrast those with the personal infinitive forms of this same verb, which simply use the infinitive as the stem:
vocês, eles, elas fazerem
So here's the infinitive form correctly used in context:

Vale a pena fazermos tudo isso? - Is it worth it for us to do all of this?

And here's the future subjunctive with the same verb:

Quando fizermos tudo isso, estaremos em Recife. - When we do all of this, we'll be in Recife.

The personal infinitive forms are easier than the future subjunctive, so some Brazilians do "incorrectly" replace the future subjunctive with the personal infinitive in speech, depending sometimes on context.

But overall, Brazilians generally do use the correct form of the future subjunctive in speech, so it really is worth it for learners to do so too, taking on the whole above process from the preterite third-person plural stem.

Quando isn't the only word that can suggest our hypothetical futures. Let's look at some more triggers for the future subjunctive:

Logo que Paula Lima me conhecer, vai querer se casar comigo. - As soon as Paula Lima meets me, she'll want to marry me.

Sempre que elas começarem a dançar, o público vai gritar. - Whenever they start to dance, the audience will scream.

Qualquer coisa que ela quiser, vou dar. - Anything that she wants, I'll give her.

In some cases, either the personal infinitive or the future subjunctive gets used in speech. The subjunctive here tends to sound more formal and hypothetical and the personal infinitive is more popular in spoken Portuguese.

Future subjunctive: Se ele vier, vamos festejar. - If he comes, we'll party.

Spoken, lazier version of the same: Se ele vir, vamos festejar.

With the word para (for), you should really use the personal infinitive and not the future subjunctive:

Para vir essa noite, ele precisa de um carro. - To come tonight, he needs a car.

Danço só para ela me ver. - I dance just for her to see me.

That's enough of an overview for now, but we certainly haven't covered every possible use and permutation of the subjunctive. For more, check out the textbooks "A Grammar of Spoken Brazilian Portuguese" (a learning guide focused on the spoken language) and "Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar" (more of a reference work).

As always, it's useful to practice the tenses as you learn them with native speakers, and you can do so online.

You might take your cues for what sentences to form from songs, which provide a great way to experience and practice the subjunctive tenses-since these tenses suggest unreality, they're perfect for the apparently lovelorn dudes that pen most Brazilian pop music.

The forró classic "Só Quero Um Xodó" ("I Just Want a Darling") is a good example. In the lyrics, the singer wants a sweetheart "que acabe o meu sofrer" ("who ends my suffering") and "que alegre o meu viver ("who makes my life happy").

If you recognize the present subjunctive endings on the words acabe and alegre, you know that this is an imagined xodó (darling, sweetheart), not a real one.

Now, can you employ the subjunctive in a similar way? What would your imagined creampuffs or hunky-doos be like, and what would they do? Can you also use the future and past subjunctives to talk about what past xodós should have been like, or what future ones will be like, once you manage to snag them?

And if you already have a perfect life with your perfect xodó(s), you don't need the fantasy release of the subjunctive mood. But with this guide, you can dream about other things!
Mose Hayward is traveling, alone, with the best backpack for Brazil.
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Stop Avoiding the Portuguese Subjunctive and Learn to Love It with This Guide

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Let's talk about the elephant in the room. There's a Portuguese grammar aspect that learners dread studying. They avoid it whenever they can, either constructing sentences that circumvent its use or just ignoring it altogether. It's the subjunctive mood, and it strikes fear into the hearts

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Conjugações Verbais de Diferentes Idiomas

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Conjugações Verbais de Diferentes Idiomas

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Neste artigo, os verbos -AR são comparados nos idiomas de romance. Isso se refere ao capítulo 3, porque o capítulo fala sobre a conjugação de diferentes verbos. Especificamente, observei as diferenças entre as conjugações em espanhol e português. Eu pensei que era muito interessante que as duas conjugações fossem muito semelhantes. Eles eram os mais diferentes na forma imperfeita do subjuntivo.

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return to list of verbs

Click a button to hide or show that language: English French Italian Catalan Spanish Portuguese

Click in the first row and drag left or right to change the order of the columns.

English

French

Italian

Catalan

Spanish

Portuguese

-er verbs -are verbs -ar verbs-ar verbs -ar verbs

Gerund: loving
Present Participle: loving
en aimant
aimant amando
amante amant amando amando

The periphrastic past in Catalan is an alternative to the preterite. It is formed by using anar as an auxiliary verb followed by the infinitive.

vaig amar

vas amar

va amar

vam amar

vau amar

van amar

There is an alternative form of the imperfect subjunctive in Spanish, which is more similar to Portuguese. Simply replace -ra- with -se- for all conjugations:

amara / amase

amaras / amases

amara / amase

amáramos / amásemos

amarais / amaseis

amaran / amasen

The future subjunctive is only used in formal or literary Spanish, but it is easy to conjugate since it is nearly identical to the imperfect subjunctive forms. The future subjunctive in Portuguese is very common and the same endings are used for the personal infinitive. For regular verbs, the personal infinitive in Portuguese is identical to the future subjunctive.

There is an alternative form of the past perfect in Portuguese which only uses one word rather than an auxiliary verb + past participle. These conjugations are quite similar to the imperfect subjunctive conjugations using -ra- in Spanish. However, this simple form is only used in formal or literary Portuguese. (Note that the imperfect subjunctive in Spanish using -ra- can also be used in formal or literary language as an alternative to the compound past perfect.)

amara

amaras

amara

amáramos

amáreis

amaram

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Romance Languages Comparative Verb Conjugations: -er / -are / -ar / -ar / -ar

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return to list of verbs Click a button to hide or show that language: English French Italian Catalan Spanish Portuguese Click in the first row and drag left or right to change the order of the columns.

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O vídeo tem a ver com o capítulo, porque descreve como duas palavras diferentes podem ser combinadas para criar uma frase totalmente nova. Como aviso, este vídeo pode ser um pouco vulgar. Neste vídeo, diferentes pessoas são presenteadas com gírias brasileiras. É interessante ver como duas palavras diferentes podem ter um significado totalmente novo. Um dos exemplos usados ​​é "mulher camarão". Refere-se basicamente a uma mulher com um corpo bonito e um rosto feio.

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Essential Vocab: Brazilian (Portuguese) Slang

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Como Usar o Verbo Gostar Corretamente em Português

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O verbo "gostar" é provavelmente o verbo mais utilizado em português. Também é um dos verbos mal utilizados pelas pessoas que tentam aprender o idioma. Embora tenha uma conjugação muito simples, muitas pessoas não estão acostumadas a usar uma preposição após ela. Isso é especialmente um problema para os falantes de espanhol que estão aprendendo a falar português. Isso tem a ver com o capítulo, porque trata das conjugações e da preposição de "de" depois de "gostar".

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As 10 Principais Palavras Confusas de Gênero em Português

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Neste vídeo, aprendemos sobre as 10 palavras de gênero mais confusas. Isso tem a ver com o capítulo, porque o capítulo 3 analisa a classificação de gênero de muitas palavras diferentes. Eu realmente gostei deste vídeo porque continuo bagunçando algunos artigos. Eu não sabia que o Canadá está escrito "O Canadá".

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No capítulo 2, há uma seção que compara a fonética portuguesa à ponética inglesa. As diferenças devem dificultar o aprendizado do português para quem fala inglês. Como resultado, encontrei um vídeo em que pessoas de diferentes países dizem palavras em português. É muito engraçado ver essas pessoas tentando dizer palavras em português. Por exemplo, as pessoas tentam dizer "amanhã" e, para muitas delas, é difícil porque não estão acostumadas à nasalização.

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Can You Pronounce These 7 Portuguese Words?

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Neste vídeo, três muppets explicam a diferença entre o português brasileiro e o português europeu. O vídeo explica que o mesmo idioma evoluiu de maneiras diferentes. O Brasil é mais diverso que Portugal. Isso levou a diferenças de ortografia e gramática. Por exemplo, a maneira como você diz ‘ice cream’ nos dois idiomas é diferente. No português europeu, ‘ice cream’ é gelado, enquanto no português brasileiro, é sorvete. Além disso, os brasileiros geralmente lutam mais para entender o português europeu.

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