Learn how to conjugate two Portuguese verbs in the preterit
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Braden: Braden here. This is Intermediate Season 1, Lesson 2 - A Brazilian Promotion is a Cause for Celebration. Well, this is our second Intermediate lesson! We're moving right along, aren't we? |
| Silvia: That's right! Anyway, on to the lesson. Please tell us what we'll be learning in this lesson. |
| Braden: In this lesson, we'll be learning how to use the verbs saber and conhecer |
| Silvia: Where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Braden: This conversation takes place at night, at home, and it's between Paulo and Raquel. |
| Silvia: What's the formality level? |
| Braden: Well, they're husband and wife, so it's informal. |
| Silvia: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Paulo: Desculpe a demora. |
| Raquel: Não tem problema eu também me atrasei. «dois beijinhos» |
| Raquel: Mas (...) aconteceu alguma coisa? |
| Paulo: Não, não. Eu demorei porque teve uma festinha lá na empresa. |
| Raquel: Uma festinha? |
| Paulo: Sim, para o Hélio. Ele foi promovido e fomos comemorar. |
| Raquel: Ah sim é verdade, eu soube que ele foi promovido. |
| Paulo: E você conhece o Hélio? |
| Raquel: Sim, eu o conheci na festa de natal do ano passado, lembra? «risos» |
| Paulo: Ah, claro que lembro. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Paulo: Desculpe a demora. |
| Raquel: Não tem problema eu também me atrasei. «dois beijinhos» |
| Raquel: Mas (...) aconteceu alguma coisa? |
| Paulo: Não, não. Eu demorei porque teve uma festinha lá na empresa. |
| Raquel: Uma festinha? |
| Paulo: Sim, para o Hélio. Ele foi promovido e fomos comemorar. |
| Raquel: Ah sim é verdade, eu soube que ele foi promovido. |
| Paulo: E você conhece o Hélio? |
| Raquel: Sim, eu o conheci na festa de natal do ano passado, lembra? «risos» |
| Paulo: Ah, claro que lembro. |
| English Host: One time fast with translation. |
| Paulo: Desculpe a demora. |
| Braden: Sorry for being late. |
| Raquel: Não tem problema eu também me atrasei. «dois beijinhos» |
| Braden: No problem. I was late too. (2 kisses) |
| Raquel: Mas (...) aconteceu alguma coisa? |
| Braden: But... did something happen? |
| Paulo: Não, não. Eu demorei porque teve uma festinha lá na empresa. |
| Braden: No, no. I got behind because there was a small party at work. |
| Raquel: Uma festinha? |
| Braden: A party? |
| Paulo: Sim, para o Hélio. Ele foi promovido e fomos comemorar. |
| Braden: Yeah, for Hélio. He was promoted and we all celebrated. |
| Raquel: Ah sim é verdade, eu soube que ele foi promovido. |
| Braden: Oh that's right. I'd heard that he was promoted. |
| Paulo: E você conhece o Hélio? |
| Braden: Have you met Hélio? |
| Raquel: Sim, eu o conheci na festa de natal do ano passado, lembra? «risos» |
| Braden: Yes, I met him at the Christmas party last year, remember? |
| Paulo: Ah, claro que lembro. |
| Braden: Oh, Of course, I remember. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Braden: What's going on in this conversation? Explain it a little bit for us. |
| Silvia: It seems like the husband has just arrived home late and he was excusing himself for his wife. |
| And he told her what was going on and she understood. She even knew that his friend from work (the coworker) was promoted and she knew him already from a Christmas party. |
| Braden: A question that I had, are this kind of company Christmas parties - are those common in Brazil? Do you guys do that? |
| Silvia: Not Christmas parties, but end year parties. And they are much fun. I used to work at ExxonMobil and they made huge parties there and it was very much fun. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Braden: Ok. Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Sílvia: promoção [natural native speed] |
| Braden: promotion, offer |
| Sílvia: promoção [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: promoção [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Sílvia: promovido [natural native speed] |
| Braden: promoted |
| Sílvia: promovido [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: promovido [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Sílvia: atrasar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to be late, to be made late |
| Sílvia: atrasar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: atrasar [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Sílvia: demorar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to delay, to take a long time |
| Sílvia: demorar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: demorar [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Sílvia: festinha [natural native speed] |
| Braden: small party |
| Sílvia: festinha [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: festinha [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Sílvia: comemorar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to celebrate, to comemorate |
| Sílvia: comemorar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: comemorar [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Sílvia: empresa [natural native speed] |
| Braden: company, business |
| Sílvia: empresa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: empresa [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Sílvia: lembrar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to remember |
| Sílvia: lembrar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: lembrar [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Braden: Ok. Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Silvia: The first phrase we'll look at is desculpa a demora |
| Braden: And what does this mean? |
| Silvia: Well, desculpa a demora is how you say “Sorry for being late” in Portuguese. |
| Braden: Literally, it translates to “Sorry for the delay” (but the obvious inferred meaning of “by me”) could you break this down for us? |
| Silvia: desculpa a demora |
| Braden: the word demora has an "o" in it, is that "o" open or closed? |
| Silvia: the o is open. |
| Braden: So what's our next phrase? |
| Silvia: claro que lembro |
| Braden: which means? |
| Silvia: Well, Claro que lembro literally translates to “clear that I remember” but it means “of course I remember." |
| Braden: Claro is often used to mean “of course” and the que here is acting like a conjunction connecting claro and lembro. |
| Silvia: Right. Kind of like "it's obvious (that) I remember him." |
| Braden: could you break this down? |
| Silvia: claro que lembro |
| Braden: Okay, and what's our next phrase? |
| Silvia: eu o conheci |
| Braden: And what does this mean? |
| Silvia: Eu o conheci is an example of indirect object pronouns in Portuguese. Literally, it translates to “I him met” but it means “I met him.” |
| Braden: When “o” and “a” are used as indirect object pronouns, they almost always come before the verb, right? |
| Silvia: Right. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Braden: So Silvia, what's the focus of this lesson? |
| Silvia: The focus of this lesson is saber and conhecer in the preterit |
| Braden: In the dialogue, we heard the phrase |
| Silvia: E você conhece o Hélio? |
| Braden: Which we translated as "Have you met Hélio?" Here the verb conhecer is used to mean "to met." |
| Silvia: That's right. Foreigners frequently have difficulty with the verbs saber and conhecer and when to use which. |
| Braden: Yeah, I think it's because they both translate to "to know." but they only share different parts of the verb "to know" and it's difficult to know exactly where to draw the line. Then it gets even more difficult when you conjugate them into the past tense, which is what we are going to look at in this lesson. |
| Silvia: So, let's start with the verb saber. The verb saber means to know factual information. It is followed by an abstract noun (e.g. a verdade, a razão) or by a sentence introduced by que (that). |
| Braden: could you give us some examples? |
| Silvia: Sure one example would be Eu soube que você é de Maranhão. |
| Braden: Which we translated as "I found out that you are from Maranhão." |
| Silvia: Right. This is a simple example where saber translates to "found out." Another maybe better example, would be Você soube quem é seu vizinho? |
| Braden: Ah, good one. This has two meanings depending on the tone of voice. |
| Silvia: Right if you say it wit ha tone of disbelief Você soube quem é seu vizinho? then it means "You knew who your neighbor was? with a tone of "how is that possible?" but if you say it Você soube quem é seu vizinho? with a guess what "guess what" kind of tone |
| Braden: then it means "Did you know who your neighbor is?" as if he were a celebrity. |
| Silvia: And one last example would be Alex soube da mudança? |
| Braden: this one has two possible translations as well. the first is "Alex knew about the change?" and the second is "Did Alex know about the change?" |
| Silvia: Next we'll move on to the verb conhecer in the preterit. In the preterit, the verb saber means "found out," while the ver conhecer means "met" or "became acquainted with." |
| Braden: Could you give us some examples? |
| Silvia: Sure. Ele conheceu o President ontem à noite. |
| Braden: Which translates to "He met the President last night." isn't that nice. |
| Silvia: ha! When you're talking about people it's not so complicated but let's do an example with Rio. You can't really meet a city in English, can you? |
| Braden: No, not really. |
| Silvia: So, another example is - Elas conheceram o Rio na viagem. |
| Braden: Ah! which translates to "They became acquainted with Rio on the trip." |
| Silvia: Or more naturally "They went to Rio for the first time on the trip." |
| Braden: right. Okay so for contrast, how about one more example for saber in the preterit? |
| Silvia: ummm.... how about A funcionária soube ontem que aquele formulário é necessário? |
| Braden: Good one. Which translates to "The employee found out yesterday that that form is necessary?" or better, "Yesterday, did the employee know that form is necessary?" |
| Silvia: Okay so our tip for this lesson is the phrase "did you know that?" |
| Braden: That should ring some bells for the Bill Nye generation, like me. Anyway, like we said before, saber can often be translated as "knew" or "found out." But to say the phrase "Did you know that..." you have to use the verb saber in the pretérito impefeito or imperfect tense |
| Silvia: Which would be "você sabia que..." not "você soube que" |
| Braden: So to ask, "Did you know that sarah is form Washington?" you would say |
| Silvia: Você sabia que sarah é de Washington?" |
| Braden: Excellent. Okay, so quick review, saber in the preterit tense translates typically translates to "found out" but conhecer in the preterit tense typically translates to "met" or became acquainted with." |
| Silvia: perfect. |
| Braden: well that just about does it for today. Thanks for listening! |
Outro |
| Braden: That just about does it for today. |
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| Braden: Tchau pra vocês! |
| Sílvia: Tenha um ótimo dia! |
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