Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Thássia: Ola!
Braden: Braden here! This is Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 7 - Portuguese: Girl or Boy Language?
Thássia: Hello everyone! I'm Thássia, and welcome back to PortuguesePOD101.
Braden: With us, you'll learn to speak Portuguese with fun and effective lessons. We also provide you with cultural insights...
Thássia: ...and tips you won't find in a textbook.
Braden: In this lesson, we'll focus on how to use possessive words.
Thássia: This conversation is between Davi and Natalie and takes place just outside the party they were in.
Braden: The situation is very casual so they will be speaking informally. Let's have a listen.

Lesson conversation

Davi: Como está a sua família?
Natalie: A minha família está bem, obrigada.
Davi: E seu irmão, Alex?
Natalie: Você lembra de Ana Paula, nossa amiga? Eles vão se casar.
Braden:One time, slowly, please.
Davi: Como está a sua família?
Natalie: A minha família está bem, obrigada.
Davi: E seu irmão, Alex?
Natalie: Você lembra de Ana Paula, nossa amiga? Eles vão se casar.
Braden:And one time fast with translation.
Braden:One time, natural speed with the translation.
Davi: Como está a sua família?
Braden: How is your family?
Natalie: A minha família está bem, obrigada.
Braden: My family is well, thank you.
Davi: E seu irmão, Alex?
Braden: And your brother, Alex?
Natalie: Você lembra de Ana Paula, nossa amiga? Eles vão se casar.
Braden: Do you remember Ana Paula, our friend? They're getting married.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Braden: You know, I've always found it interesting that in Portuguese the word "the" is used very often.
Thássia: Yes, it is. In fact, most of the time when you're talking about anything, we use the word "the" before it.
Braden: In Portuguese, all nouns have the word "the" before them, always.
Thássia: I don't know about always, but most of the time that's certainly true.
Braden: And to make it even more fun, from an English point of view, sometimes "the" is used in strange places.
Thássia: That's true. Davi asked about Natalie's family and said "a sua família," which literally translates to "the your family."
Braden: Exactly! That's a normal way to use the word "the" in Portuguese but it makes absolutely no sense in English.
Thássia: I know. When I write something in English, like an email, I always need to review what I wrote and delete the extra "the's."
Braden: Do you do that?
Thássia: Yes.
Braden: It really was hard for me to learn how to use "the" correctly, especially since there are two in Portuguese.
Thássia: That's true. There is the masculine "the" which is "o" and the feminine "the" which is "a." It's better to say, "do" and "da."
Braden: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
Thássia: The first word we shall see is: meu [natural native speed].
Brade: My, mine.
Thássia: Meu [slowly - broken down by syllable], meu [natural native speed].
Braden: The next word is.
Thássia: Seu [natural native speed].
Braden: Your, yours.
Thássia: Seu [slowly - broken down by syllable], seu [natural native speed].
Braden: Next we have.
Thássia: Minha [natural native speed].
Braden: My, mine.
Thássia: Minha [slowly - broken down by syllable], minha [natural native speed].
Braden: The next word is.
Thássia: Sua [natural native speed. ]
Braden: Your, yours.
Thássia: Sua [slowly - broken down by syllable], sua [natural native speed].
Braden: Next.
Thássia: Nossa [natural native speed].
Braden: Our, ours.
Thássia: Nossa [slowly - broken down by syllable], nossa [natural native speed].
Braden: And then we have.
Thássia: Nosso [natural native speed].
Braden: Our, ours.
Thássia: Nosso [slowly - broken down by syllable], nosso [natural native speed].
Braden: And the last word is.
Thássia: Família [natural native speed].
Braden: Family
Thássia: Família [slowly - broken down by syllable], família [natural native speed].
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Thássia: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Braden: In Portuguese, there are several ways to express possession.
Thássia: In this lesson, we will learn how to express possession using the words "meu" and "minha," "nosso" and "nossa," then "seu" and "sua."
Braden: The reason we have these words in pairs like that is because of grammatical gender.
Thássia: We briefly discussed grammatical gender in All About Series Lesson 3.
Braden: And a detailed explanation of grammatical gender is offered in the Absolute Beginner series lesson 10.
Thássia: Listen to those lessons if you have any questions about gender.
Braden: And if you still have questions after listening to those lessons, send us an email or post a comment on the blog. We'd love to hear from you.
Thássia: So, first we're going to learn about "meu" and "minha."
Braden: Right. "Meu" and "minha" both mean "my," but they function differently in Portuguese sentences.
Thássia: That's right. "Meu" is for words of masculine gender and "minha" is for words of feminine gender.
Braden: Like in the phrase…
Thássia: "Meu livro."
Braden: Which means "my book," the word "livro" is a masculine word. So you have to use "meu" to say "my book."
Thássia: And in the phrase "minha caneta," which means "my pen," the word "pen" is a feminine word, so you have to use "minha" if you want to say "my pen."
Braden: Exactly. The same thing goes for the word "our."
Thássia: That's right. "Nosso" and "nossa" both mean "our," but "nosso" is the masculine word and "nossa" is the feminine word.
Braden: So if you want to say the phrase "our house," you need to say…
Thássia: "Nossa casa."
Braden: If you say "nosso casa" it sounds very wrong, doesn't it?
Thássia: Yes, it does. Or if you want to say "our car," you would say "nosso carro" because "carro" is a masculine word. It needs to have the masculine form of "our," which is "nosso."
Braden: Okay. Last, we have…
Thássia: "Seu" and "sua." These are very versatile words.
Braden: They could mean "your," "his," "her," or with a little modification "their" depending on the context.
Thássia: Good! In this lesson, we will explain how to use it to mean "your." We will cover the other meanings according to context in future lessons.
Braden: So if you want to say "your bag," you would say…
Thássia: "Sua bolsa."
Braden: Because the word…
Thássia: "Bolsa."
Braden: Is a feminine word, and "sua" is the feminine form of "your."
Thássia: Likewise, to say, "your friend," you would say "seu amigo" because "amigo" is a masculine of friend and it requires the masculine "your," which is "seu."
Braden: Let's take a look at today's grammar point.

Lesson focus

Thássia: The focus of this lesson is how to use possessive adjectives in Portuguese.
Braden: In the dialogue, we heard the phrase…
Thássia: "Nossa amiga?"
Braden: Which means "our friend."
Thássia: In English, the words "my," "your," and "our" are called possessive adjectives.
Braden: Sorry to throw a grammar word at you like that, but she really likes to say those two words.
Thássia: It's fun! Anyway, Portuguese has more of those than English does. But for the most part, they are used the same way.
Braden: Exactly. Just as in English, the possessive comes first.
Thássia: For example, "minha gravata" has "minha," first, which means "my," and then second, the word "gravata," which means "tie."
Braden: As in "necktie."
Thássia: Right.
Braden: So the word order is the same, "minha gravata" "my tie." You know what that means!
Thássia: You don't need to worry much about the grammar.
Braden: Exactly! The goal is to get you speaking Portuguese fluently as fast as possible and unnecessary explanations will slow you down.
Thássia: But if you have questions, or don't understand something please post in the web site. We're here to help you.
Braden: Right! In the dialogue we also heard the phrase…
Thássia: "A sua família."
Braden: Which literally translates to "the your family" but it means just "your family."
Thássia: The word "a" at the beginning of the phrase means "the."
Braden: In Portuguese, words like "the," "a," and "an" called articles or in Portuguese “A” can often be used before possessive words with hardly any change in meaning.
Thássia: But it does give a slight increase in politeness.
Braden: That's right. That just about does it for today.
Thássia: You want to make the vocab words from this lesson stick?
Braden: Check out the vocabulary list provided with each lesson, available to premium members.
Thássia: Click on any word to automatically add it to your word bank.
Braden: Words added to your word bank can be made into flashcards used to quiz yourself.
Thássia: Give it a try at PortuguesePOD101.com.
Braden: That's going to do it.
Thássia: Até mais!

Grammar

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