1
00:00:03,206 –> 00:00:06,056
Mauro: Olá, Helena. Preciso de ajuda.
{{Mauro: Hello, Helena. I need help.}}
2
00:00:06,666 –> 00:00:09,356
Helena: Olá. O que é que se passa?
{{Helena: Hello. What’s going on?}}
3
00:00:09,736 –> 00:00:12,566
Mauro: Escrevi uma carta romântica à minha mulher.
{{Mauro: I wrote a romantic letter to my wife.}}
4
00:00:13,096 –> 00:00:16,076
Helena: Não percebi. Qual é o problema?
{{Helena: I don’t understand. What’s the problem?}}
5
00:00:16,456 –> 00:00:19,156
Mauro: O problema é que troquei a morada.
{{Mauro: The problem is that I mixed up the address.}}
6
00:00:19,666 –> 00:00:26,176
Pensei que estava a mandar a carta à minha mulher, mas afinal mandei para a minha mãe. Percebeste agora?
{{I thought I was sending the letter to my wife, but it turns out I sent it to my mother. Do you understand now?}}
7
00:00:26,656 –> 00:00:31,596
Helena: Ah, estou a ver. Achei que fosse ser algo mais sério…
{{Helena: Ah, I see. I thought it was something more serious…}}
8
00:00:32,016 –> 00:00:36,706
Mauro: É muito sério! As coisas que falei na carta são privadas.
{{Mauro: It is very serious! The things I said in the letter are private.}}
9
00:00:37,366 –> 00:00:42,066
Tentei cancelar o envio, mas não funcionou. Os funcionários recusaram.
{{I tried to cancel the mailing, but it didn’t work. The employees refused.}}
10
00:00:42,466 –> 00:00:49,526
Helena: Ui… Não imaginei que fosse algo desse género. Avisaste a tua mãe para não abrir?
{{Helena: Oh… I didn’t think it was something like that. Did you warn your mother not to open it?}}
11
00:00:50,186 –> 00:00:54,346
Já todos escrevemos coisas privadas aos nossos companheiros.
{{We have all written private things to our partners.}}
12
00:00:54,826 –> 00:01:00,526
Mauro: A minha mãe de certeza que já abriu a carta. Ela e o meu pai são muito cuscos.
{{Mauro: My mother surely opened the letter. She and my father are very nosy.}}
13
00:01:01,126 –> 00:01:04,206
Uma vez até abriram as cartas dos vizinhos.
{{Once they even opened the neighbours’ mail.}}
14
00:01:04,476 –> 00:01:09,776
Helena: Eu e o meu marido também já recebemos cartas por engano, mas nunca as abrimos.
{{Helena: My husband and I have also received letters by mistake, but we never opened them.}}
15
00:01:10,476 –> 00:01:14,436
Uma vez também abriram uma carta minha e não gostei nada.
{{One time someone also opened a letter of mine and I didn’t like it at all.}}
16
00:01:14,806 –> 00:01:16,846
Mauro: Claro que não gostaste. Quem o fez quebrou a tua confiança.
{{Mauro: Of course you didn’t like it. Whoever did it broke your confidence.}}
17
00:01:18,716 –> 00:01:24,666
Helena: Pois quebraram. Desde então, aprendi que não se deve confiar em toda a gente.
{{Helena: Indeed they did. Since then, I have learned that not everyone should be trusted.}}
18
00:01:25,076 –> 00:01:30,436
Mauro: Ainda bem que aprendeste isso cedo. Claramente, os meus pais nunca aprenderam.
{{Mauro: I’m glad you learned that early. Clearly, my parents never did.}}
19
00:01:30,766 –> 00:01:39,116
Helena: A geração deles viveu numa altura diferente. Os nossos pais viveram num tempo em que não havia privacidade.
{{Helena: Their generation lived in a different time. Our parents lived in a time when there was no privacy.}}
20
00:01:39,686 –> 00:01:44,116
Nós aprendemos muito cedo a respeitar a privacidade dos outros.
{{We learned very early on to respect the privacy of others.}}
21
00:01:44,546 –> 00:01:51,416
Mauro: Olha, os meus pais tentaram telefonar-me. Perdi a chamada. Um segundo, vou ligar de volta.
{{Mauro: Look, my parents tried to call me. I missed the call. One second, I’m going to call them back.}}
22
00:01:51,416 –> 00:01:52,476
…
{{…}}
23
00:01:52,476 –> 00:01:55,846
Helena: Então, gostaram do que leram na carta?
{{Helena: So, did they like what they read in the letter?}}
24
00:01:56,216 –> 00:02:01,376
Mauro: Não, de todo. Mas eu gostei de saber que eles estão arrependidos.
{{Mauro: No, not at all. But I liked knowing that they are sorry.}}
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Achei que fosse ser algo mais sério
I thought that achar only took the subjunctive when in the negative.
So why is achei not followed by a an indicative/conditional ie Achei que era/seria algo mais sério? or perhaps achei que ia ser?
Olá, Peter. No, this is also a perfectly fine construction. In fact, any of the options you gave are also fine, so you have plenty of options here and no practical difference between any of them. In terms of meaning, achei que fosse ser = achei que ia ser = achei que seria = achei que era.
Difícil
“Pensei que estava a mandar a carta à minha mulher, mas afinal mandei para a minha mãe.”
Why is ‘à’ used in the first half of the sentence, while ‘para a’ is used in the second part of the sentence?
Thanks in advance!
In European Portuguese, generally speaking, we tend to prefer “mandar a” when talking about people, and “mandar para” when talking about places (e.g. “mandar à minha mulher” vs. “mandar para Portugal”). But this isn’t always strictly followed and you’ll hear a number of people using them somewhat interchangeably. If it helps, you can imagine that “mandar para a minha mãe” is actually “mandar para a (casa da) minha mãe” 🙂
I have not studied the subjunctive yet but to me there seems to be no difference in the following constructs:
Helena: Ah, estou a ver. Achei que fosse ser algo …… and a bit later
Ui.. Não imaginei que fosse algo desse género … Why is ser needed in the first clause?
A closer translation of “Achei que fosse ser” would be “I thought it was going to be“, rather than “I thought it was”. But in practical terms, in that sentence, it would be fine to use either one.
Muito obrigado, Joseph. Estou a aprender muito, mas tenho muito, muito mais aprender.
Nós partimos a mesa – We broke the table. Nós deixámos a mesa – We left the table? Could be embarrasing trying to explain to the police!
Olá, David, That’s correct! To use ‘partir’ in the sense of leaving a place, you need to pair it up with the preposition ‘de’.
– Nós partimos de Lisboa às 13h00. (We left Lisbon at 1pm)
So, in theory, “nós partimos da mesa” is how you could say “we left the table”. In practice, that doesn’t sound idiomatic for us, though!
When you want to comment on a lesson exercise, you have an option to “Report a problem” on the lower-right corner, which should appear right after you check your answer. Don’t worry, you’ll have a drop-down list to specify if it’s an actual problem or just general feedback. You can also use the general “Contact” or “Send lesson feedback” options which appear on the website menu, under the tab “Help” 🙂
My previous comment was about one of the lessons in this unit- not from the conversation Uma carta enviada…….l can’t find a way of passing a comment on a particular lesson. The Contact Us on the lesson page seems to be meant for technical problems only.
In the headline you’ll find “ao engano” and later on you’ll find “por engano”. Would you please explain the usage of prepositions here.
Olá, Tommy. Both “ao engano” and “por engano” are used, and sometimes interchangeably, as seen here. “Por engano” always means “by mistake”, “by accident” – something you do without wanting to. “Ao engano” has other additional uses, as the examples below show:
– Eu fui ao engano a este restaurante. Afinal, é péssimo! -> Here, “ao engano” means that the person did go to the restaurant intentionally, but with the wrong assumption that it would be good. So, “ao engano” relates to the idea of deception, delusion or simple naivety.
– A mensagem levou as pessoas ao engano. -> The construction “levar ao engano” means “induce in error”.
Joseph, thank you for a thorough and clear explanation!
In the sentence “Uma vez também abriram uma carta minha e não gostei nada”, the meaning is not clear to me, since no subject is mentioned, and “abriram” could refer to either “us” or “them”. Or did I miss something?
Olá, Georges. “Abriram” only refers to the subject “they” – which is indeed undetermined in this context. The idea is to say that someone (she doesn’t know who) opened the letter.
Helene says “Não percebi” in a situation where i would have said “Não percebo” but there I can see how either would be fine. but then Mouro explains and asks “Agora perbebiste?” (now did you understand?) but I would have said “Agora percebes?” (now do you understand?)
since i say ” i do not understand” quite a lot in Portuguese, I wonder if I should use the past instead, as Helena does here. And i also wonder why Mouro is using the past tense.
Olá, Chris. Grammatically speaking, both tenses are fine to use in both sentences, but:
– We’re more likely to use the past tense for a one-off thing (e.g. someone said something you didn’t understand): Não percebi.
– For something that you’re continually struggling with (e.g. a concept that you’ve read about more than once, but still doesn’t click for you), the present tense is used more: Não percebo.
So, the use of the past tense in this dialogue is an idiomatic preference.
Helena says não percebi but it’s translated in present tense? Ditto percebeste agora? But that’s really past tense?
Also is “de” omitted in past tense with gostar? Gostei nada e não gostaste?
Obrigada
Olá! The differences between Portuguese and English have to do with what’s the most idiomatic/usual phrasing in each language. You can read my comment above where I also get into that 🙂
About the verb gostar and the preposition “de”, the preposition is used as a connecting word between the verb and the thing you like/don’t like and it’s not omitted in any tense. When someone says “Não gostei nada”, they’re not describing the thing they didn’t like, they’re describing to what extent they didn’t like it, which is a bit different. That’s why you don’t see any preposition there. Note the difference between the following two sentences:
– Eu não gostei de nada -> I didn’t like anything
– Eu não gostei nada -> I didn’t like it at all
Haha. Faz sentido. Obrigada ❣️
Is there a rule of thumb when to use achar or pensar? Would all of these translate the same?
Eu achei que sim.
Eu pensei que sim.
Eles acharam de nós.
Eles pensaram de nós.
Nós achámos que não.
Nós pensámos que não.
Olá, Peter. The two verbs overlap to an extent, but pensar relates more to the act itself of thinking, while achar refers more to a specific opinion you hold, as discussed in this forum post which should be helpful for you: Achar vs Pensar – Practice Portuguese Forum.
In your examples, pairs #1 and #3 would translate the same. In pair #2, only the verb pensar is correct, since the sentence is strictly focused on the act of thinking, not on what the thought was. Just note that we’d say “Eles pensaram em nós”, not “Eles pensaram de nós” 🙂
I had problems telling the difference between the spoken choices of abriram/abriam and partiram/partiam. They sounded the same! Perhaps more context would help.
I’m not sure if I understand your question regarding this Shorty. However, the context for using abriram in this Shorty is that you’re saying “uma vez”, so you know it’s not an ongoing past thing, like it would be with abriam / partiam. So even if you don’t hear it, you know it has to be the simple past tense version.
In general, whenever you hear these words, you’ll catch the correct spelling within context. If you find it somewhere on our website out of context, you’ll probably have the slow speed audio clip available, where you can listen to the word slowly to make sure if it’s one form or the other.
If still in doubt, just reach out to us!
My comment wasn’t about the Shorty but the exercise before it on the past tense.
Oh I see! Well, yes… I understand it can be tricky. Be sure, though, that it will get easier over time with more listening practice and overall practice! 🙂