Learn Portuguese question words and the letter -o
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Thássia: Bom dia! |
| Braden: Braden here! This is Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 25 - Enough Brazilian Questions Already! So Thássia, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Thássia: In this lesson, you will learn about question words. |
| Braden: Where does this conversation take and who is it between? |
| Thássia: This conversation takes place on the beach and it’s between Leonardo and Julie. |
| Braden: What’s the formality level of this conversation? |
| Thássia: Well, the speakers are friends, they'll be speaking casually. |
| Braden: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Leonardo: Quando você vai voltar para Inglaterra? |
| Julie: Em três dias. |
| Leonardo: Quanto tempo você está aqui? |
| Julie: Há quatro semanas. |
| Leonardo: Onde você mora? |
| Julie: Em Leeds. |
| Leonardo: O que você faz lá? |
| Julie: Tantas perguntas! |
| Braden:One time slowly. |
| Leonardo: Quando você vai voltar para Inglaterra? |
| Julie: Em três dias. |
| Leonardo: Quanto tempo você está aqui? |
| Julie: Há quatro semanas. |
| Leonardo: Onde você mora? |
| Julie: Em Leeds. |
| Leonardo: O que você faz lá? |
| Julie: Tantas perguntas! |
| Braden:One time faster with translation. |
| Julie: Quando você vai voltar para Inglaterra? |
| Braden : When will you go back to England? |
| Julie: Em três dias. |
| Braden: In three days. |
| Julie: Quanto tempo você está aqui? |
| Braden : How long have you been here? |
| Julie: Há quatro semanas. |
| Braden: Four weeks. |
| Julie: Onde você mora? |
| Braden : Where do you live? |
| Julie: Em Leeds. |
| Braden: In Leeds. |
| Julie: O que você faz lá? |
| Braden : What do you do there? |
| Julie: Tantas perguntas! |
| Braden : So many questions! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Braden: So Julie seemed a little irritated about all the questions, didn’t she? |
| Thássia: Well, yeah, pretty much. |
| Braden: I wanted to explain something a little further here about the letter "-o." |
| Thássia: What's that? |
| Braden : It's just to say that the "-o" vowel in Portuguese can be a bit tricky. |
| Thássia: That's true. Every dialect treats the "-o" a little different and English doesn't really have all the possible variations. |
| Braden : English speakers typically have a hard time pronouncing the letter "-o." |
| Thássia: It seems like it's a difficult sound to isolate for English speakers. |
| Braden : So here's what we are going to do. I'm going to say a normal English "-o" slowly and then Thássia will say the Portuguese "-o" one time slow and one time fast. "-o" (slowly) |
| Thássia: Now in Portuguese, "-o" (slowly), "-o." |
| Braden: It's almost as if the English "-o" was chopped in half and you just say the first half. |
| Thássia: That's right. There's no "-u" sound at the end. It's just "o." |
| Braden: So in English, “-o”. |
| Thássia: In Portuguese, “-o”. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Braden: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. Our first word we shall see is: |
| Thássia: Quando [natural native speed]. |
| Braden : When. |
| Thássia: Quando [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Quando [natural native speed]. |
| Braden: And our next word is… |
| Thássia: Quanto [natural native speed]. |
| Braden: How much, how many. |
| Thássia: Quanto [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Quanto [natural native speed]. |
| Braden: And next we have… |
| Thássia: Onde [natural native speed]. |
| Braden: Where. |
| Thássia: Onde [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Onde [natural native speed]. |
| Braden: Our next word is… |
| Thássia: Inglaterra [natural native speed]. |
| Braden: England |
| Thássia: Inglaterra [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Inglaterra [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Our next word is… |
| Thássia: Voltar [natural native speed]. |
| Braden: To return, to go back, to come back. |
| Thássia: Voltar [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Voltar [natural native speed]. |
| Braden: And our last word is… |
| Thássia: O que [natural native speed]. |
| Braden : What. |
| Thássia: O que [slowly - broken down by syllable]. O que [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Braden: Let's have a closer look at the usage for one of the phrases in this lesson. |
| Thássia: The phrase we'll look at is, "Tantas Perguntas!" |
| Braden: In the dialogue, Julie responds to Leonardo's last question with the phrase… |
| Thássia: "Tantas perguntas!" |
| Braden: Which means, "So many questions!" When used like this, "tantas" means "so many," as in… |
| Thássia: "Tantas pessoas," |
| Braden: Which means "so many people," or… |
| Thássia: "Tantos sapatos," |
| Braden: Which means "so many shoes." |
| Thássia: If you look in the dictionary, you'll find "tanto," which is the masculine form of "tantas." |
| Braden: And "tantas" is the plural feminine form of "tanto." Is there anything about the pronunciation we should be aware of? |
| Thássia: Just that the first syllable is very nasal, “tan-tas." |
| Braden : Oh that's important, it's not "tan-tas." It’s… |
| Thássia: Tan-tas. Tan-tas. |
| Braden: Let's take a look at the grammar point for this lesson. |
Lesson focus |
| Thássia: The focus of this lesson is question words. |
| Braden : In the dialogue, we heard many question. One of the questions we heard was… |
| Thássia: "Quando você vai voltar pra Inglaterra?" which means… |
| Braden: "When are you going to go back to England?" In English, most of our question words start with "-wh." |
| Thássia: Like "what," "when," "where," and "why." In Portuguese, these question words are all formed in the same way as in English. |
| Braden :Right. Let's go through the question words. |
| Thássia: Sounds good. "Quem" means "who" and the sentence "Quem é aquele homen alí?" translates to "Who is that man over there?" |
| Braden : The next one is "quando," which means "when." The sentence "Quando é a festa?" means "When is the party?" |
| Thássia: "Onde" means "where," and the sentence "Onde você mora?" translates to "Where do you live?" |
| Braden : Next, we have "por que," which means "why." A good example sentence would be… |
| Thássia: "Por que o céu é azul?" |
| Braden: Which means "Why is the sky blue?" |
| Thássia: Ask your science teacher. |
| Braden: A good example right? |
| Thássia: Sure. "Como" means "how" and is used like in this sentence, "Como eu faço isso?" which means. "How do I do that?" |
| Braden: And last of all, we have… |
| Thássia: "O que" which is also sometimes just "que." |
| Braden: Right. When you say something like "What is that?", then you say… |
| Thássia: "O que é isso?" |
| Braden: But when you say, "What book is that?" you’ll normally say… |
| Thássia: "Que livro é esse?" |
| Braden: Basically, if there is a noun right after your "O que," you can drop the "-o." That's how I learned it anyway. |
| Thássia: My tip is that "que" is an adjective and it’s put before the noun it refers to. "O que" is a pronoun and can be stand by itself. |
| Braden : That's a good explanation too. Hey, Thássia, did you know that this is the last lesson in our Absolute Beginner Session Series One? |
| Thássia: Oh, how sad. |
| Braden: But don’t worry, we have another one coming soon. |
| Thássia: Oh, that’s great. |
| Braden: Yeah. Come to PortuguesPod101.com and we’ll see you in our other series. |
| Thássia: Bye. |
| Braden: Ciao! |
Comments
HideOn to Season 2!
Obrigada Marcia! That definitely helps clear things up. How then would I say, "How long will you be here?"
"Quanto tempo vocé vai estar aqui?"
Olá, Jaysen,
in Portuguese we have this flexiblity of the verb. In this case we can use "está" to refer to actions that started in the past and still occur in the present. In English it's a bit different. So, there is no problem with this sentence (in this case) using "está" in the present tense to refer to the past.
Relating to time, we also use "Há" (counting the time you have been doing something):
examples:
Estou aqui há cinco minutos.
Estudo nesta escola há três anos.
Is it clear? Tell us if you need more clarifications, ok? :)
Sincerely,
Marcia
Team PortuguesePod101.com
Hey there! Curious about the tense of "estar" in the sentence from the dialogue, "Quanto tempo você está aqui?" "Você está" appears to be translated "have you been." I was under the impression that "está" is the present tense conjugation, which would change the translation to, "How long are you here?". It seems like the present perfect progressive tense of the sentence, "How long have you been here?" would require the use of the word, "esteve."
One more little thing! When is it correct to add "Ha" or "A" before "quanto tempo" in a sentence?
Thanks so much for your help! Love the curriculum.
Olá, zhuldyzay,
it means that the sound of o is pronounced like a light U in some words.
So, in English, this sound is a bit difficult to understand.
example: modo/ medo/ the sound od O is pronounced like a small U sound.
I hope it is a bit clear now.
Sincerely
Marcia
Team PortuguesePod101.com
hello
Please, can you respond to my question
thank you
Hello
can I ask one question
what does this frase mean?
Remember, there's no -u in the Portuguese -o.
cna you give me some examples
Olá, Corey!
We are happy that you want to learn a new language and also because you are here with us!
So, You can try to listen to some Brazilian songs, with simple lyrics and calm songs so you will be able to listen better to the words. Watching some videos can also help you.
Since you are just starting, try to pick one word a day and create at least 4 sentences with that word. It will help you to remember the meaning in different situations and always write them. It will also help your brain to retain the information easily.
Keep here studying and sharing with us
Sincerely
Marcia
Team PortuguesePod101.com
Really love this site and I feel like I've been learning a lot! My girlfriend is from Brasil and hearing her speak in Portuguese made me really want to learn. I've been taking notes and trying to use the flashcards for about 2 weeks now, but I have never really learned a second language before, so sometimes I just feel like i'm memorizing words and not really understanding what the words mean, do you have any tips that are helpful with remembering/understanding a lot of the stuff covered in the lessons?
Oi Sam!
Thank you for posting.
It's up to you! There are many different levels also for the video lessons, please have a look here:
https://www.portuguesepod101.com/index.php?cat=Beginner+Videos
Thank you,
Ofelia
Team PortuguesePod101.com
When should I be doing the video lessons? Should I be doing it along the way or after a season?
Oi Jonathan,
I think Braden and Thássia were talking about the sound of the letter "o" when said alone.
But you're right, many times the letter "o" sounds like "u" in words.
If you still have any questions about it, please let me know!
Paloma
Team PortuguesePod101.com
They say in the lesson that the English "o" has more of a "u" to it then the Portuguese "o".
It sounds to me like there is more of a "u" sound In Portuguese than English, especially at the end of words. Am I missing something, or is it just my untrained ear?
Olá Derek,
We don't have the Grammar List for all lessons. We added it in our Absolute Beginner series mainly when the focus of the lesson is related to verb conjugation.
Please let me know if you have any questions about this lesson.
Paloma
Team PortuguesePod101
I was wondering why the grammar notes are no longer on the right side of the page with the other content of the lesson? When I go thru the lesson checklist, the grammar is no longer there for me to review.
Olá Chris,
I'm sorry for the mistakes. And thanks for pointing them out. I corrected the dialog and Lesson Notes already.
Please let us know if you have any other question or comments! We're here for you!
Paloma
Team PortuguesePod101
Olá Paloma,
Thank you for your clarification regarding "quanto".
Just to clarify regarding the translations. In the audio they say "semanas" and have written "meses". They also say "Leeds" in the audio and have written "Cardiff" in the English translation. It isn't a big issue as you could always change these words and the example still makes sense but I thought I would let you know anyway.
Obrigado,
Chris
Olá Chris,
I wasn't able to find the wrong translations that aren't matching. I couldn't find "semanas" in the lesson notes (weeks) and the word "meses" is correct (months).
"Quanto" can be a pronoun meaning "how much"or an adverb meaning "what or how." It depends on the situation.
Please let me know where exactly did you find those mistakes so I can fix it :smile:
Mais alguma pergunta? Any other question?
Paloma
Team PortuguesePod101
Re: “Absolute Beginner #25 - Enough Brazilian Questions Already!”
A few questions...
1) Why doesn't the translation match properly? (eg: semanes and meses)
2) Is quanto a pronoun? I thought it was an adverb?