Learn the passive voice
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Braden: Hello, and welcome to PortuguesePOD101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Portuguese! |
| Sílvia: I'm Sílvia, and thanks again for being here with us for this Intermediate S1 lesson. |
| Camila: So Braden, please tell us what we'll be learning in this lesson. |
| Braden: In this lesson, we'll be learning buying a refrigerator |
| Camila: Where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Braden: This conversation takes place in the afternoon, at the store, Tiago &vendedor |
| Camila: What's the formality level? |
| Braden: Well, it's informal. |
| Camila: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Vendedor: Posso ajudar? |
| Senhor: Sim estou procurando uma geladeira nova. |
| Vendedor: Que tipo de geladeira você quer? |
| Senhor: Bem, o apartamento é pequeno e foi alugado por minha esposa. Só tem espaço para uma de 350 a 400 litros. |
| Vendedor: É uma geladeira Frost-Free que o senhor quer? |
| Senhor: Sim. Eu não gosto que precisa descongelar. |
| Vendedor: É muito ruim né? Bem então temos esses três modelos. A Bosch, a Brastemp, e a Consul. |
| Senhor: Tá bom. |
| Vendedor: A Bosch é de 403 litros na verdade mas a Brastemp é de 352 e a Consul é de 367. |
| Senhor: Todas frost-free? |
| Vendedor: Todas. |
| Senhor: Faz parcelado? |
| Vendedor: Fazemos. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Vendedor: Posso ajudar? |
| Senhor: Sim estou procurando uma geladeira nova. |
| Vendedor: Que tipo de geladeira você quer? |
| Senhor: Bem, o apartamento é pequeno e foi alugado por minha esposa. Só tem espaço para uma de 350 a 400 litros. |
| Vendedor: É uma geladeira Frost-Free que o senhor quer? |
| Senhor: Sim. Eu não gosto que precisa descongelar. |
| Vendedor: É muito ruim né? Bem então temos esses três modelos. A Bosch, a Brastemp, e a Consul. |
| Senhor: Tá bom. |
| Vendedor: A Bosch é de 403 litros na verdade mas a Brastemp é de 352 e a Consul é de 367. |
| Senhor: Todas frost-free? |
| Vendedor: Todas. |
| Senhor: Faz parcelado? |
| Vendedor: Fazemos. |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Vendedor: Posso ajudar? |
| Braden: May I help you? |
| Senhor: Sim estou procurando uma geladeira nova. |
| Braden: Yes, I'm looking for a new refrigerator. |
| Vendedor: Que tipo de geladeira você quer? |
| Braden: What kind of refrigerator do you want? |
| Senhor: Bem, o apartamento é pequeno e foi alugado por minha esposa. Só tem espaço para uma de 350 a 400 litros. |
| Braden: Well, the apartment is small and was rented by my wife. There's only enough space for one of about 350 to 400 liters. |
| Vendedor: É uma geladeira Frost-Free que o senhor quer? |
| Braden: Do you want a Frost-Free refrigerator? |
| Senhor: Sim. Eu não gosto que precisa descongelar. |
| Braden: Yes. I don't like needing to defrost it. |
| Vendedor: É muito ruim né? Bem então temos esses três modelos. A Bosch, a Brastemp, e a Consul. |
| Braden: Yeah, that's really bad. Well, then we have these three models, the Bosch, a Brastemp, and a Consul. |
| Senhor: Tá bom. |
| Braden: Okay. |
| Vendedor: A Bosch é de 403 litros na verdade mas a Brastemp é de 352 e a Consul é de 367. |
| Braden: The Bosch is actually 403 liters but the Brastemp is 352 liters and the Consul is 367 liters. |
| Senhor: Todas frost-free? |
| Braden: All of them are Frost-Free? |
| Vendedor: Todas. |
| Braden: Yes, all of them. |
| Senhor: Faz parcelado? |
| Braden: Do you parcel? |
| Vendedor: Fazemos. |
| Braden: Yes we do. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Braden: (ask --- something about the dialogue-Peter always does a little review about the previous lessons. explain what you are thinking about the storyline in the lesson, so the students can follow and participate - don't make them guess.) |
| ---: response |
| Braden: Okay, so when you walk into a store, careful with that price that's in big letters. It's usually the parcelado price. |
| ---: That's right. Parcelado or parcelamento is the rather complex form of Brazilian personal credit where the store divides the total price into monthly payments. The entire amount isn't billed to you right away but is kept on record and readjusted as you pay down the difference. |
| Braden: The best comparison is a 12 month no interst kind of promontion that some credit cards offer. The difference is that parcelamento is controlled at the store level not the card level. |
| ---: And not everything can be parcelado for the same amount of time. Some things can only be parcelado for 3 months some for 9 some for 24. |
| Braden: Depends on a lot of factors, including your credit. Sometimes the store charges interest, sometimes they don't you have to check on that on a store wide basis. (how many things do you have parcelado right now?) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Braden: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Sílvia: geladeira [natural native speed] |
| Braden: fridge, refrigerator, ice box |
| Sílvia: geladeira [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: geladeira [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Sílvia: frost-free [natural native speed] |
| Braden: frost free |
| Sílvia: frost-free [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: frost-free [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Sílvia: espaço [natural native speed] |
| Braden: space, an open area |
| Sílvia: espaço [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: espaço [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Sílvia: litro [natural native speed] |
| Braden: liter, quarter gallon |
| Sílvia: litro [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: litro [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Sílvia: descongelar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: unfreeze, defrost |
| Sílvia: descongelar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: descongelar [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Sílvia: modelo [natural native speed] |
| Braden: model |
| Sílvia: modelo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: modelo [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Sílvia: refrigerador [natural native speed] |
| Braden: refrigerator |
| Sílvia: refrigerador [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sílvia: refrigerador [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Braden: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| ---: The first phrase we'll look at is geladeira. |
| Braden: Geladeira is the traditional word for refrigerator in Portuguese. Most of the time, when anyone refers to their refrigerator, they call it a geladeira. |
| ---: Geladeira comes from the word gelo which means "ice" and the verb gelar which means to cool. So, geladeira means "thing that makes ice" as was the original name of the "ice box." |
| Braden: Until the past 10 years this was a very accurate description of most refrigerators in Brazil because they had to be defrosted almost every month. Portuguese does have the word refrigerador but it isn't used much. |
| Braden: Could you break this down? |
| ---: (break down) |
| Braden: what's our next phrase? |
| ---: The next phrase we'll look at is esposo |
| Braden: esposo means "husband" just like marido does. |
| ---: There is a slight difference in feeling however. For example, the dictionary lists marido as "married man." but lists esposo as "a person who is connected to another through matrimony." |
| Braden: Could you break this down? |
| ---: (break down) |
| Braden: what's our next phrase? |
| ---: The next phrase we'll look at is Gosto que |
| Braden: This is an interesting case where spoken and written differ. As we all know, the verb gostar requires the preposition "de." That's just a rule cut and dry. But here the "de" wasn't used. why? |
| ---: The correct way would be "não gosto de que precise descongelar" but that's rather difficult to say. |
| Braden: In this instance, the que acts as a subjunctive trigger. However, when the de is dropped the que takes on a more conjunctive function and the subjunctive feel is lost. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Braden: So ---, what's the focus of this lesson? |
| ---: The focus of this lesson is the passive voice in Portuguese. In the dialogue, we heard the phrase Senhora - Bem, o apartamento é pequeno e foi alugado por meu esposo. |
| Braden: Which we translated as "Senhora - Well, the apartment is small and was rented by my husband." Here the passive voice is used. Passive voice is used much more in Portuguese than in english. During Junior high they probably pushed very hard for you to never use passive voice in your writing but in Portuguese, it's okay and even respected if you do it well. |
| ---: So, just like in English, there are two types of sentences in Portuguese - Active and Passive. In active sentences, the doer of the action is the subject of the sentence (e.g. The walrus swallowed the ice.). |
| Braden: In passive sentences, the receiver of the action is the subject of the sentence (e.g. The ice was swallowed by the walrus.). |
| ---: a few more examples of active sentences would be The bully broke my glasses. or |
| My big brother broke the bully. |
| Braden: And the correspondings Passive voice would be My glasses were broken by the bully. or The bully was broken by my big brother |
| ---: One of the main differences is that in a passive sentence the doer of the action may be ignored. |
| Braden: for example, The window was broken (by a gang of hoodlums). or John was praised (by his girlfriend). |
| ---: As can be seen, the true passive in english follows the following pattern - |
| Subject + "to be" verb + past participle + (by + agent) |
| Occasionally the agent will be left understood (i.e., the houses were built.) but the other elements are always present. |
| Braden: the Portuguese construction for the true passive parallels the english construction - |
| Subject + SER + Past participle + (por + agent). |
| ---: Some examples would be Minha família foi visitada por um vendedor. or |
| As casas foram constuídas por meu avô. |
| Braden: Note tha the past participle agrees in number and gender with the subject. familia foi visitada and casas foram construídas. this is called the true passive. |
| ---: okay so the Por + agent part is absent if the agent is just understood rather than expressed. Remember that the past participle agrees in numebr and gender with the subject. examples, A espada foi escondida no monte (pelo Rei Pedro). |
| Braden: There is something else that uses the verb estar called the statal passive. The true passive uses the verb ser, expresses action and has an agent expressed or implied. The statal passive uses the verb estar, resultant of action and has no agent or action. Don't be too confused because the technical definitions are a bit complicated but this is really easy to use. |
| ---: The true a statal passive vocies are more easily distinguished in Portuguese than in english because the true passive is formed with the verb ser. The statal passive is formed with the verb estar. examples would be A porta está fechada. - "The door is closed." (statal) A porta é fechada pelo professor. – "The door is closed by the teacher." (true) |
| Braden: okay so the reason we talked about that is because Portuguese uses the passive a lot! A lot a lot! much more than English. Often with the reflexive. |
| ---: When the agent is implied, but not expressed, the reflexive construction may be used in place of ser and the past participle in the true passive. for example, Muitos sapatos são vendidos aqui. this is normal true passive. compare that to "Vendem-se muitos sapatos aqui."These have identical meanings. |
| Braden: Another example would be O barco foi restaurado. and Restaurou-se o barco. |
| ---: The verb of the reflexive construction agrees in numebr with the subject (e.g. vendem-se is plural because muitos sapatos is plural). Note that the subject often follows the verb in this construction. |
| Braden: so the rule is "To express the passive voice when the agent is implied, but not expressed, use the reflexive se with the verb expressing the action, and make the vebr agree in number with the subject." |
| ---: so Vende-se roupa aqui. means clothing is sold here. and Fala-se inglês aqui. means Enlgish is spoken here. |
| Braden: Passive voice is used much more in Portuguese than in english. During Junior high they probably pushed very hard for you to never use passive voice in your writing but in Portuguese, it's okay and even respected if you do it well. |
| quick review at the end of the lesson - explanation of why this is useful |
| ---: Well that just about does it for today. Have great week! |
| Braden: see ya! |
Outro |
| Braden: That just about does it for today. |
| Sílvia: Listeners, looking for a cheat sheet to memorizing Portuguese vocabulary? |
| have you checked out our Video Vocab series? : |
| Braden: These themed video lessons combine visual cues with the voices of native speakers. |
| Sílvia: Just another effective method of learning and retaining thousands of vocabulary words. |
| Braden: Go to PortuguesePod101.com... |
| Sílvia: ...click on the Video Lessons tab... |
| Braden: ...and hit play! |
| Sílvia: It's that easy. |
| Braden: But don't take our word for it. |
| Sílvia: Try it for yourself at PortuguesePod101.com |
| Braden: Thanks for listening! |
| Sílvia: Até amanhã! |
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