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À Procura de um Apartamento

Searching For An Apartment

Violeta sets up an appointment to see a 2-bedroom home for rent.

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  • 00:00:02Agente imobiliário: Estou?
  • 00:00:04Violeta: Estou sim, boa tarde.
  • 00:00:06Estou a ligar porque vi o seu anúncio online, do apartamento na Rua Falsa.
  • 00:00:11Agente: Ah, sim. Já está alugado, lamento.
  • 00:00:15Violeta: Oh, já está alugado?
  • 00:00:17Agente: Sim, foi alugado ontem.
  • 00:00:19Violeta: Que pena.
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agarrarto grip, grab O agente imobiliárioThe real estate agent AlugadoRented amanhãtomorrow o anúncioannouncement bairroneighbourhood, district a canetapen caroexpensivesing.,masc. a casahouse, home disponívelavailable encontrarto find, meet, come across estaçãostation fiadorguarantor already, yet, right now, ever ligarto call on the phone, connect, turn on a moradaaddress ontemyesterday outrasother (fem.) pertoclose, near QuartoRoom, bedroom a rendarent, income a zonaarea, zone
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Estou?Hello? in the context of answering the phone Que penaToo bad, What a shame Pode ser?Is that okay? Literal - Can it be? T2Shorthand for a 2-bedroom home Estou à procura deI'm looking for, I am in search of A cerca deAt about Que bomThat's good, How nice ProntoReady, Okay, All right, That's it Com licençaExcuse me (common way to end a phone call)
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Aprender uma Nova Língua
O Delicioso Pastel de Nata
Passeio De Domingo
O Diário da Beatriz
Gostos Semelhantes
Um Passeio Estragado
Queres Vir Cá Jantar?
Uma Série de Perguntas
Dois Pais à Conversa
Uma Ida à Boutique

Comments

  • Bit of a daft question really but just out of curiousity… is there a typical way that portuguese people give out their mobile numbers. I noticed here it was 2 digits, 3 digits, 2 digits, 2 digits. Is this a typical pattern or does it just depend on personal preference. I tend to do 3 digits, 3 digits, 3 digits…. would this be thought of as odd?

    • I love these random questions! We usually go 2-3-2-2, but some people also do it your way, 3-3-3 (or 2-2-2-3, which I personally find very unsettling, haha). I think most people wouldn’t think twice about it, so don’t worry 🙂

  • Many thanks, Joseph… it is just one of those niggling little things that whenever you go to use it, you wish you had found out what is the usual practice. When I first arrived in Portugal I could only managed to say it one digit at a time so I guess I’ve made progress though I recall one time I gave out my NIF number instead of my phone number. That did get a strange look!
    Thanks again.

    • Good question! This is very common to hear in Portugal when ending a phone call or before closing the door as someone is leaving your home. It’s basically just a polite way to end the conversation and excuse yourself as you hang up / shut the door.

    • Olá, Roger. It depends on the sentence. In the line “De quantos quartos precisa?”, the preposition de is there because of the verb precisar, which asks for it. Sentences can be formed in a number of ways, so this has to be assessed on a case-by-case basis 🙂

    • Good question — it’s confusing because prepositions are used differently in Portuguese and English, but if you were to translate this more literally, it would be something like “in the search of an apartment”. So it’s the preposition a + the definite article a and when those combine, it forms à.

  • Obrigada pela lição! Thanks very much also to those who asked (and those who answered) the questions above. I understand that T2 means 2 BR in English, and T3 means 3 BR… but since bedroom is “quarto,” what does the “T” stand for?

    • Obrigado pelo comentário! The T seems to derive from the Portuguese word tipologia (type). You might also see a V on some listings – that derives from the Portuguese word vivenda (detached house). This V emerged over time as a quick way to differentiate between apartments and detached houses, but it doesn’t have to be used.

  • Hello! Can you explain why do we use “Estou à procura” not “estou à procurar”? As I know expression “estar a…” (present continuous) comes with infinitive. Can we use both forms? Obrigada!

    • Olá! Yes, you can use “Estou a procurar” (no accent on the A) as an alternative to “Estou à procura”, but it would be a somewhat less idiomatic option 🙂 The only difference between them is that ‘procurar’ is a verb, while procura is a ‘noun’.

      Here’s a clearer way to see it, with the literal translation of each:
      – Estou a procurar uma casa = I am looking for a house
      – Estou à procura de uma casa = I am in search of a house

  • Olá, pode explicar por que razão é “Tem outras casas nessa zona?” e não é “Tem outras casas naquela zona?”. Obrigado.

    • Olá 🙂 Neste contexto, o uso de ‘nessa’ não implica uma proximidade física do agente à zona em questão, mas pode eventualmente sugerir uma proximidade abstrata, porque o agente é a pessoa que tem as informações relevantes sobre a zona. Este é um uso mais livre de ‘nessa’ — também seria totalmente aceitável utilizar ‘naquela’, de acordo com a lógica padrão.

      Também há a influência de uma proximidade temporal neste contexto, porque a zona tinha sido mencionada pouco tempo antes. Por exemplo, se a pessoa depois pedisse informações sobre uma outra zona mencionada há muito mais tempo, ela usaria ‘naquela’ para se referir a essa outra zona, por ser uma referência temporalmente distante:
      – Tem outras casas nessa zona? Ou naquela zona de que falámos na semana passada? (Do you have other homes in that area? Or in that other area we talked about last week?)

  • Olá!
    Porque é que se diz “agarrar numa caneta”? O verbo “agarrar” sempre vai com a preposição “em”? Há uma lista dos verbos que vão com “em”? Sendo falante de espanhol e inglês, parece-me esquisito!

    • Sim, o verbo “agarrar” pede a preposição “em” (não de forma obrigatória, mas é um padrão comum entre a média dos falantes de português europeu). Infelizmente, não temos neste momento uma lista exaustiva das diferentes preposições pedidas por diferentes verbos – além de poder ser uma lista longa, há casos em que não é linear, por depender da construção frásica ou do sentido da frase. Mas é um tema que vamos considerar cobrir de maneira mais estruturada no futuro 🙂

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