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Indefinite Determiners

In this lesson, we’ll have a look at determinantes indefinidosindefinite determiners
Indefinite determiners are words that express an undefined quality about the noun they’re referencing, similar to “other people”, “another beer”, or “certain things” in English. In Portuguese, indefinite determiners always agree in gender and number with the noun.

Other & Another

The singular forms of “other” or “another” are outroother(masc.) and outraother(fem.)
Dá-me outro destes bolos, por favor.Give me another one of these cakes, please.
Temos de pôr aqui outra mesa.We have to place another table here.
The plural forms are outrosother(masc.) and outrasother(fem.)

Aqueles outros senhores são os nossos convidados.Those other gentlemen are our guests.
Estas estão molhadas, dá-me as outras.These are wet, give me the others.

Certain

The singular forms of “certain” are certocertain(masc.) and certacertain(fem.)
These words are also sometimes used in the same contexts as we would use the word “one” in English, in the sense of a date, object, or person that is specific, but not clearly defined.
Certo dia, Pedro Coelho partiu em viagem.One day, Peter Rabbit went on a journey.
Certa manhã, recebi uma encomenda.One morning, I received a parcel.
The plural forms of “certain” are certoscertain(masc.) and certascertain(fem.) . Here, they can also be used in the sense of “some”, as in an undefined, but particular, amount of the noun in reference.
O paciente tem certos sintomas que parecem ser de gripe.The patient shows certain symptoms which seem to suggest a flu.
Certas pessoas não se sabem comportar!Some people don’t know how to behave!
 

Comments

    • Yes, you could. I see that the translation was slightly mismatched in one of the examples – it’s already been updated 🙂

  • With ‘ o paciente tem certos sintomas’, why is ‘ certos masculine? Is it because it is referring to the male patient?
    I thought it was describing symptoms but that is feminine. Thanks

    • Good question! Sintomas is actually a masculine noun (os sintomas) — it’s one of those tricky ones that seems feminine because of the “as” ending.

    • Certos means some. Eu tenho certos sintomas. I have some symptoms. A palavra sintoma é um substantivo masculino. Há muitas palavras que acabam com a,mas mesmo assim são masculinas. Vou pôr- te alguns exemplos: O sistema, o idioma, o cinema, o dilema, o dia, o mapa, a foto. Esta última vem de fotografia, por isso a foto. Muitas palavras vêem doutras línguas ou sofreram uma transformação no tempo.

  • Could you also use uns, umas, instead of certos, certas when saying some? “Umas pessoas nao se sabem comportar”?

    • Hm, you could, but it doesn’t sound all that natural. I’d say “Algumas pessoas não se sabem comportar”, which sounds better as a sentence opener.

    • Certos means some. Eu tenho certos sintomas. I have some symptoms. A palavra sintoma é um substantivo masculino. Há muitas palavras que acabam com a,mas mesmo assim são masculinas. Vou pôr- te alguns exemplos: O sistema, o idioma, o cinema, o dilema, o dia, o mapa, a foto. Esta última vem de fotografia, por isso a foto. Muitas palavras vêem doutras línguas ou sofreram uma transformação no tempo. Umas pessoas em vez de certas pessoas não me soa muito natural. Eu tenho umas amigas que são do Brasil. Aqui, sim soa bem.

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