Onde The adverb indicates a location. Examples: Onde can be used to replace expressions such as: Aonde is a contraction between the adverb and the preposition . It’s most commonly used with
Aonde vs Onde
Simple and Compound Adjectives
Adjectives are words that describe or qualify nouns. They can be if they’re just one word, or if formed by two or more elements, usually (but not always) connected by a hyphen (-). Simple Portuguese Adjectives Compound Portuguese Adjectives More compound adjectives:
Polite Expressions
Just like its people, the Portuguese language is very courteous. Below are just some of the many polite phrases used to express basic, everyday courtesy in Portuguese. A little kindness goes a long way, especially when you’re struggling to communicate in a new language! This guide covers the most important phrases, but there are also […]
Forming Negative Phrases
There are a few different ways to say no, to make a sentence negative, or to refer to a quantity that is zero. Here are some of the important words to know: Not The simplest way to make a sentence negative in Portuguese is just to place the word before the verb. This is the […]
Saying Goodbye in European Portuguese
Let’s learn how to say goodbye in Portuguese! There are many options, depending on who you are talking to, the time of day, or how long it will be until you see them again. Take a look at the infographic below for a quick guide:
The Conditional
If you had to say which mood is used in the bolded part of this sentence, what would be your guess? Well, you may have guessed just from reading the title that this is an example of the conditional mood, used to talk about hypothetical situations that are conditional or dependent on something else. In […]
The Imperative
When someone yells or a doctor says , there’s one thing they’re doing in common: using the mood! There are 2 types of imperatives in Portuguese: the affirmative and the negative, shown below respectively. In these examples, the speaker is talking to multiple people, i.e. using the vocês (you – plural) form. Regular Verbs in […]
Plurals in Portuguese
A challenging part of learning Portuguese is realizing that many words need to be adjusted to agree with the gender and number of the people or objects we are talking about. Let’s see a quick overview of which types of words change, and which ones stay the same to help us understand the rules for […]
Dining Out In Portugal
Whether you’re just visiting or planning to live in Portugal, learning some food vocabulary is going to be pretty important! 😆 As part of our Cooking and Eating unit, this guide should give you a good introduction to dining out in Portugal, or, in other words: Breakfast & Coffee There are and , which are […]
Essential Portuguese Conjunctions
There are 3 essential conjunctions that you’ll need when you want to start connecting your thoughts and forming more complex sentences in Portuguese: These 3 are called , because they combine multiple independent phrases into one. You’ll learn much more about conjunctions in later units, but for now, we’ll focus on these 3 essentials. 1) “E” […]
Good/Bad vs. Well/Badly
What’s the difference between mau and mal? What about bom and bem? These pairs of Portuguese words are very similar in meaning, but they’re not interchangeable. It comes down to understanding the difference between adjectives and adverbs and how they are used in Portuguese. Adjectives Good and bad are adjectives, which modify nouns (people / places […]
Present Continuous in Portuguese
This Learning Note will cover the present continuous in Portuguese. When we talk about actions that are happening right at the time of speaking, we use the present continuous, also known as the present progressive. Let’s start by taking a look at how this works in English. Present continuous in the first person: I am […]
Regular -ER/-IR Verbs in the Simple Past
-ER Verbs in the Simple Past Regular verbs in the -ER group include and . Let’s see how they would be conjugated in the :
Regular -AR Verbs in the Simple Past
The English simple past tense (e.g. “I went”, “We ate”, “You finished”) corresponds to the Portuguese . As with the present tense, conjugating regular Portuguese verbs in this tense is easier once you learn the patterns for each verb group. Examples of some regular verbs in the -AR group include , , and . Let’s […]
Talking About the Future in Portuguese
Below we will discuss the three main methods to talk about the future in Portuguese: 1. Using Ir + Infinitive Similar to the English construction, to discuss the future, Portuguese uses the verb , followed by a verb in its infinitive form. First let’s see the present tense conjugation for the verb ir, since this […]
The Verb “Pôr”: In a Group of Its Own?
The verb pôr is an unusual Portuguese verb. You may be surprised to learn that all verbs ending in -OR are actually part of the same group as verbs that end in –ER. 🤔 These “-por” verbs are considered part of the -ER group because of their Latin origins: pôr used to be written as […]
Talking about Quantity
These are three of the simplest, most common words used to talk about quantity in Portuguese: Countable Nouns When talking about countable quantities (which usually end in “-s” in English as well as Portuguese), muito, pouco and algum all change according to gender and number: Uncountable Nouns With uncountable nouns (such as virtues, qualities, or time, […]
Regular -ER Verbs in the Present Tense
As mentioned, Portuguese verbs are split into three groups: -ar verbs -er verbs -ir verbs Now we’ll deal with the 2nd group: -ER verbs! Regular -ER Verb Endings Below are some examples of regular -ER verbs in the present tense. Notice the endings (-o, -es, -e, -emos, -em) which are added after each verb’s stem […]
Regular -AR Verbs in the Present Tense
In Portuguese, verbs are split into three groups: -ar verbs -er verbs -ir verbs In this article, we’ll cover the first group: -AR Verbs! Common regular verbs ending in -AR include , and When the conjugation is regular, the endings of conjugated -AR verbs follow the same pattern. Below, we’ll use the Portuguese regular verb […]
Introduction to Portuguese Adjectives
are words that describe a noun, assigning it a quality, state, appearance, or other property. (Adverbs are also used to describe, but instead of nouns, they modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.) In Portuguese, using adjectives requires that you consider the gender and number of the word being modified, as well as the word order […]
When to Use Dele/Dela vs. Seu/Sua
Dele vs seu? When forming 3rd person possessives in European Portuguese, how do we decide when to use dele, dela, deles, delas vs. seu, sua, seus, suas? Possessives formed with de are less ambiguous: they agree strictly with the subject, not with the object. In contrast, seu and its derivatives agree with the object, so […]
3rd Person Possessives: De + Pronoun
The Ambiguity of Seu, Sua, Seus, and Suas To review, the Portuguese possessive pronouns/determiners for the third-person forms are the following: Subject Possessive Pronoun/Determiner English Equivalent Ele, Ela, Você His, Her/Hers, Your/Yours(formal) Eles, Elas Their, Theirs As you can see, , , , , and all share the same exact possessive determiners! Since the determiners agree with […]
Introduction to Possessives
Possessive Determiners vs. Possessive Pronouns In this unit, we’re going to learn about possessive determiners and possessive pronouns in Portuguese, which both serve the function of expressing possession or ownership of something. In English, these are words like my, your, his, her, their, and our (possessive determiners) and mine, yours, his, hers, theirs, and ours […]
1st and 2nd Person Possessives
Mine, Yours, and Ours Let’s take a closer look at this first group of possessives: meu, teu, nosso and vosso, plus their feminine and plural forms. Subject Possessive Pronoun/Determiner (for masculine nouns) Possessive Pronoun/Determiner (for feminine nouns) Eu Tu Nós Vós, Vocês Gender and Number Agreement Remember that the pronoun/determiner has to agree in gender […]