Comments

• The dialogue was great but the questions could have been a bit better/more detailed, and a few more of the expressions could have been listed, for example “Olhe, quem me dera pensar….” Em outros aspectos muito bom, estou a aprender muito!

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  • Hi Ryan, glad you enjoyed the dialogue! You’re right about the questions – they are a bit simplistic for this one. Since this dialogue shows up at the end of our Basic Conversation unit (one of the first few units) we decided to take it easy on beginners. I just added the expression “quem me dera” to the list. Thanks so much for the feedback!

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    • When listening to this i was a bit worried about the questions that would come since i feared not to be able to answer them 🙂 But they were indeed more simple than i had expected. But I like these challenging texts!

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• I just have a little question ,”nao te estou a perceber” why is there a finite “a” before perceber , isnt it just before nouns “the” ?

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  • Hi Avinoam – In this case, the “a” is actually the preposition “a” (corresponding to “to”), rather than the definite article “a” meaning “the”. You will see this construction a lot, as it’s used for the present continuous tense: estar + a + the infinitive form of a verb. (We have a unit called “Present Continuous”, so you’ll get more practice with this later. Also, you can read more here: Present Continuous

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• i really appreciate the links to grammatical aids as here with the Present Continuous . It adds considerably to the learning process . Thank you , Ian MacGregor .

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• Following on from the previous comment about the use of the present continuous, there is a sentence “O senhor disse que esta a procura do “tea room”. Apologies I haven’t marked the accentuated words. In stead of using the noun procura could this sentence be:-
  “O senhor disse que esta a procurar do “tea-room”. Or is there a subtle reason underlying this construction?

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  • Good question. Yes, those are two of many ways we could say that:
    – “…está a procurar o…” = “is looking for the” (verb procurar in the Present Continuous – note that there’s no “de” here)
    – “…está à procura do…” = “is in search of the” (noun procura)

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    • Thank you for this explanation because I was scratching my head at why isn’t procura in its infinitive form.

      But now my question is, what kind of structure is “… está à procura do…”?

      Is the structure: … está a a procura de …? Is this still present continuous?

      Apologies for the basic questions! I’m a totally beginner and I got to this shorty by going through the units!

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      • You’re welcome 🙂 “Estar à procura” and “estar a procurar” are interchangeable, but only the latter follows the structure of what is typically defined as the Portuguese equivalent forms of the English present continuous (estar a + infinitive OR estar + present participle) and broadly applicable to any verb. These alternative continuous structures using nouns instead of infinitives only apply in certain cases, such as “estar à espera”, “estar à escuta”, or “estar à caça”. We don’t say “estar ao trabalho”, for example – only “estar a trabalhar”.

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        • This is so helpful. Thank you!

• In the dialogue they used “concordo consigo” but in the lesson it was “concordo contigo”… which is correct for I agree with you?

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  • Good question! Both are correct, but contigo is used in more informal contexts with someone you know well (when using the pronoun “tu”), whereas consigo is used in more formal contexts or with someone you don’t know well (when using the pronoun “você” or its variants). You’ll learn more about this in later units when we discuss formality and pronouns in more depth, or you can start reading more now: Informal vs Formal.

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  • consigo is formal “you”. contigo informal.

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• Thanks for the great work here!

  Another suggestion: for the vocabulary and expressions, give a toggle to switch between sorting alphabetically and sorting in the order they appear in the dialogue. Or perhaps have a sort of two-column view, where one column is vocab/expressions, synchronized to the dialogue, that you can show/hide? It’s a bit annoying to have to scroll up and down (especially because it’s a frame within the window).

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  • These are all good points, thanks for the feedback! Added to the list for review. 🙂

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• My question is not strictly related to the dialogue.

  Is there a way to say “o senhor entende” using a personal pronoun? Just the way it is done in other Roman languages:
  – ¿Usted entiende? (Spanish)
  – Lei capisce? (Italian)
  – Est-ce vous comprenez? (French)

  Moito obrigada!

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  • Good question — I think this unit will help explain this concept more thoroughly: Different Forms of “You”. Read through the Learning Note at the very beginning of the unit — the associated personal pronoun is “você”, but you’ll see that the alternative forms are used much more often in Portugal.

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• Hi, I enjoyed the conversation.. it’s about at the right level for me.. thank you.
  Stella

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• The conversation is interesting , I must review many times so that I can remain the expressions . and I try to heard the conversation without the texts for my comprehension in portuguese, it is still difficult for me to understand.

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• Realistically, how long would it take a complete Portuguese beginner to reach this level? The guy in this conversation says he only knows a little Portuguese but he seems to have very little difficulty in both speaking and understanding what she was saying. It seems like the only thing he didn’t know how to say was “sala a chá”!

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• Missing under the “Expressions” tab is “quem me dera de…”, which is not self-explanatory

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  • Added 🙂

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• Great social commentary, too! 😉

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• Nice dialogue, i could follow it pretty much. Thanks

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• I did not see the definition of ‘piada’ in the vocabulary list, but looked it up.

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  • Olá, George. Since full English subtitles are also provided for easy reference, not all words end up in the vocabulary list, but ‘piada’ (joke) is a good one to include 🙂 We’ve just updated it. Thanks for your comment!

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• Questions were too easy!

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• Really nice and a lot of useful expressions

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  • Thanks for your kind comment, Peter!

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• Love this dialog… has me dreaming of a future conversation like this in Portugal.

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• This may be a silly question but I can’t understand what is said before the dialogues. “Practice Portuguese …… ……. ……” Sounds like “son tu com”. Can you help?

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  • Don’t worry, we get this question a lot. It’s “ponto com”, which means “dot com”, as in PracticePortuguese.com 🙂

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• I realized I’m not sure what is said at the end of each lesson: Practice Portuguese… Ponto com? Eu não entendo. Ajuda me por favor?

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  • Yes, you’re right! It’s ponto com, as in dot com, as in PracticePortuguese.com 😊

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• What is the difference between Ca and Acqui?

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  • Olá! This Learning Note provides a detailed explanation: Adverbs of Place: Here and There

    If you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out again here or via our contact section 🙂

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• Good level for me – obrigada

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• In the dialog, fica is used as a translation for it’s. I’m not making sense of this as I thought fica would be formal ‘you stay’ or ‘you become’. I do not recall seeing anything related to fica, but then again, I’m sure I’m not getting a lot of content as I’m missing a lot of content I would expect to receive. Maybe, it’s on the missing content, or in a YouTube video somewhere.

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  • Olá, Todd. Thanks for your question. That is one of the additional uses of the verb ficar: indicating locations, as in this dialogue. That’s described in this Learning Note about this verb: How to Use the Verb Ficar

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• It says “só falo português” but can I also say “falo só português”?

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  • Olá Jonathan!
    Yes, you could perfectly change the order of those two words. Currently speaking, I would say that people would more naturally start with “Só”, but it’s not incorrect to change it. Feel free to do it! 🙂
    Cheers,
    Luís

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• Wow I’m amazed about the level questions asked here. Without the translation I would not be able to understand anything. Not a word and I’m not exagerating.

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• So, I have a point to make that doesn’t just apply to this text.
  Whilst the text is generally A1 there is a use of the verb TER in the Imperative, Tenha cuidado (at least I think this is, it’s either that or Conjunctive, but same point applies) and this is definitely not A1 Level. This is confusing as how could someone at A1 level be expected to know this?

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  • Thanks for your question! Yes, there are a number of lines with more advanced grammar and it’s relatively long, so I do understand that it may not feel very A1. It could definitely fit under A2.

    The primary purpose of including these Shorties in the A1 units is to provide exposure to realistic language from the very beginning. We don’t expect someone at A1 to understand the full dialogue yet, or even most of it. Learners can look and/or listen for words/phrases learned in the unit, to see how they might show up in a real conversation. But beyond that, we expect they’ll mainly be listening and following along with the Translate toggle on. Later, as time goes on, they can start challenging themselves to fill in the gaps / figure out the parts they don’t understand.

    In general, the levels are estimates, as the CEFR guidelines are quite subjective. Ultimately, we went with A1 for this episode because most (but not all) of the grammar falls under what is covered in the A1 units and because we felt it was a good way to showcase many functional phrases that learners may want to use very early on, in their first conversations in Portugal.

    Sometimes it helps to “dip in” to more advanced grammar to get by in certain contexts. For example, you could memorize the phrase “Tenha cuidado”, if it’s something you would find useful in your real life, without needing to understand all about the imperative just yet. Or if not, you can just get the meaning from the translation and worry about it later when you get to the imperative unit.

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• Muito obrigada for your excellent lessons. And I’m very pleased one of your vocabulary speakers is no longer forced to squint into the sun while speaking. I’ve become quite fond of them all. But I think I’m missing the nuance of some formal/ informal usage here. They’re speaking formally with each other but one says peço desculpa. Since it’s formal, why isn’t it desculpa?

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  • Your question is absolutely understandable! When changing between “desculpe” and “desculpa” wether is formal or informal, we’re using forms of the verb desculpar. When asking for “apology/excuse/forgiveness/pardon”, like when saying “peço desculpa” (Eu peço. Peço is the 1st person singular, present form of the verb pedir – to ask for), desculpa is the noun, not the verb. And the noun, of course, doesn’t suffer any change. “Uma desculpa” as in “an excuse” or “an apology”.
    “Peço desculpa” here works as “I apologize” or “I beg your pardon”. See how formal that is?

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• I noticed this too! He’s enough of a beginner to need her to repeat the name of the tea shop but sophisticated enough to joke about non-socialized medical care 😉 (I appreciated that joke btw)

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• Good luck with that. I trust you’ll avoid commenting on how cheap a proposed kindness is and say thank you instead!!

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• Great scenario and the convo was just the right level “para mim” 🙂

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• Took me an hour to get through reading this 😆. I I was translating every word and sentence and seeing why it was phrased the way it is. I’d say I understood >1% of it.

  The only thing I’m confused about is the “de” preposition. It seems to get used to mean “to” quite a lot but it didn’t say it means “to” in the part where we learn about the preposition of de.

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  • Uff, one hour is hard work! That effort will surely pay off over time – keep at it 🙂
    Could you give me some examples you saw of “de” being used to mean “to”?

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    • My apologies. I haven’t seen it to mean “to”. I meant “for” although I have seen it to mean”to” in other dialogues. Time stamp 00:44 – procura da. “Looking for”. Shouldn’t this be por or para? Also could you explain what á means which is before “procura” at both 00:44 and 00:39. Is it always just used before procura because I thought á mean “to the”. Thank you 😁

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      • Got it! In this context, it’s not so much that ‘de’ directly translates as ‘for’, but that it’s the most idiomatic way of translating it in English 🙂
        Take a look at these two options for phrasing, and their more direct translations:
        – Está à procura da sala de chá -> You’re in search of the tea room (so, ‘de’ really means ‘of’)
        – Está a procurar a sala de chá -> You’re looking for the tea room

        As you see, in the 1st option, we have the noun ‘procura’ and that is what triggers the use of ‘à’. This ‘à’ isn’t really translateable on its own here; you have to look at the whole expression. In the 2nd option, with the verb ‘procurar’, we must use ‘a’, without accent. This is a typical pattern in sentences that can be phrased interchangeably with a noun or related verb (e.g. “Estou à caça”/”Estou a caçar”, “Estou à espera”/”Estou a esperar”).

        ‘Para’ would be grammatically incorrect here. ‘Por’ would be an acceptable alternative in the 2nd option, with the verb: Está a procurar pela sala de chá (pela = por + a)

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• These narratives move too quickly for me to follow, so it’s difficult to learn from them. Also it says “complete the quiz,” but I don’t see any quiz🤔

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  • The quiz is on the far right, after “Expressions”. If you’re on the app or a smaller screen, you may need to use the right arrow to scroll over to see it.

    Keep tapping the 1X symbol to control the audio speed. But don’t worry, at this level we definitely don’t expect you’ll be able to follow these completely. In the beginning we expect you’ll use the Translate button heavily and just use it as a chance to explore the language and start getting comfortable with how it sounds. Listen for some of the phrases you’ve learned in the Units/Lessons you just completed (like Bom dia, A senhora fala inglês?, Desculpe, Que bom, Que mau, asking about where someone is from, etc…), but don’t worry about understanding every word yet.

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• So well done with good acting and cute story.

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• Quite unrealistic. Sara said she couldn’t speak English, but somehow she could pronounce “tea room” perfectly lol.

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• This dialogue was a real challenge! But it’s good to be challenged. There are a few things which will be covered in later units I suppose (imperatives etc). A couple of sentences have really confused me though. First one being “Não consigo perceber” – to me it looks like “Not with you understand” whereas I feel it would make more sense as simply “Não percebo”. I think I don’t understand what “consigo” is doing? Second one is “Olhe, quem me dera pensar o mesmo” because I’m not sure what “quem” is doing? I understand the word as “who” but it doesn’t appear to fit with the sentence? Thank you in advance for any response.

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  • Olá! You’re thinking of “consigo” as the contraction of com (preposition) + si (pronoun). But actually what you see here is a first-person conjugation of the verb ‘conseguir’ (can / to be able to). So, “Não consigo perceber” simply means “I can’t understand”. It just so happens that the verb conjugation looks the same as the contraction, so you need to distinguish them by context.

    “Quem me dera” is an idiomatic expression that simply means “I wish” and works as a single unit (only the middle pronoun can vary as needed). If you try to dissect it word per word, it won’t make much sense! 🙂

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    • Great! That all makes sense, thanks for the help!

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• She is a very friendly portuguese XD

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• Hi all, great learning tool, by far the best one i’ve seen.
  Question concerning ‘telefonar’, I never hear this here, people use ‘ligar’. Could be a brasilian/Portuguese thing though … Can you explain?

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  • Olá and thanks for your comment!
    “Telefonar” and “ligar” are both perfectly fine in European Portuguese. “Ligar”, being shorter, is naturally more common in everyday life, but “telefonar” remains well in use 🙂

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• Hi. “Pode dizer outra vez” and “Pode falar mais devagar” – what is the distinction between these 2 verbs please? Also “outra vez” – I presume that vez is a feminine noun? Thank you team!

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  • Olá! The verb ‘falar’ is more focused on the act of speaking itself. The verb ‘dizer’ is focused on what exactly is being said. We have a Learning Note that explains the differences between them in more detail: Falar, Dizer, and Contar | Practice Portuguese. In the sentences you mentioned, one is asking someone to repeat what they said (Pode dizer outra vez?), while the other is just asking someone to speak more slowly (Pode falar mais devagar?).

    As for ‘vez’, yes, it is a feminine noun 🙂

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• I found this app a couple weeks ago and have been enjoying it! Keep the new content coming. It is so helpful.

  Muito obrigado!

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  • Thank you so much for your positive feedback! 🙂

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• The comment about how he’s used to pain because healthcare in the US is expensive is weird. I mean, it’s true, but that’s a strange comment to make to someone you just met!

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• Hopefully it is indeed this easy to make new friends in Portugal 🙂 In this kind of situation, would we expect them to switch to informal ‘tu’ when they meet up for tea the next day, or is Sara more likely to continue referring to him as ‘o senhor’?

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  • What usually happens is that people retain the formal treatment until one of them asks for permission to use ‘tu’ or encourages the other to do so. The formal treatment might even remain the standard between them even as they become more intimate – this is common among older generations 🙂

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• When I checked the meaning of “embora”, it means “even though, although”. So in this sentence it is used at the end. That made me think that it might have another meaning or usage something?
  “Infelizmente, está a car tarde e tenho de ir embora.”

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  • Olá. Yes, “embora” on its own is used as a conjunction with the meanings you indicated. But as part of the expression “ir embora”, it means “to go away” or to leave. That’s how it’s being used here 🙂

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• David said “este cha esta muito bom”. Shouldn’t it be “boa” because cha is feminine?

  Thanks.

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  • Olá, Andres! Chá is actually a masculine word, so the use of bom is correct. I wish I could tell you why, but the fact that some words are feminine and masculine seems to be arbitrary and something that was decided long ago by the speakers, as the language evolved. Cheers!

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• Eu escutei o diálogo sem a script e Eu gosto muito porque pude aprender muito palavras novas. Obrigada.

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• Diálogo muito bem estruturado.
  Um diálogo agradável!

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• Sadly, Casa de Chá in Coimbra has been closed for some time now. I added this comment because I don not want anyone to be disappointed if they try to find it. I went looking for it after I first heard this Shortie years ago and it became one of my favorite places in Coimbra. I miss it.

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• This is a great shorty with lots of useful expressions! I learned a lot.
  What’s the difference between “tenho de ir” and “tenho de ir embora”? In Practice Portuguese, the former is translated to “I have to go” and the latter “I have to leave,” but I’m not sure how they are different in usage?

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  • Olá! It depends. “Tenho de ir embora” is clearly about leaving a place altogether. In the absence of further context, “tenho de ir” expresses the same idea by default, but you can also add context to it to convey a different meaning. For example:
    – Tenho de ir embora. Até amanhã! = I have to leave. See you tomorrow!
    – Tenho de ir ajudar na cozinha. Já volto! = I have to go help in the kitchen. Be right back!

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    • Makes sense. Muito obrigado pela ajuda!

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• These conversations are so helpful, thank you!

  I also thought his reply of, “everything in Portugal is cheap!” was quite rude! Is this how Portuguese people view Americans? Or was it more of a way to include some vocabulary?
  The healthcare comment was interesting as well haha

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  • Thank you for your comment! I don’t think the comment about how “everything” in Portugal is cheap was rude or, at least, that’s not what we were aiming for. But it is a fairly common comment foreigners make (not just Americans), as coffee, pastries and groceries tend to be cheaper in general than in other European countries. With that said, it was just a line to make the conversation more interesting / natural, since it’s A1 level and that’s always something harder to do at that level. But we hope you enjoyed it still!

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• Student from the United States here, I laughed so hard from the dialogue around not going to the doctors because it costs too much that I had to go back and re-read. And in all seriousness it is true! So the vocabulary and dialogue will be used in the future. Obrigada!

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• This looked a bit daunting with lots of new words (for me), but was great! Obrigado.

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