Learn all about Portuguese articles, nouns, and gender
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Braden: Hello, and welcome to PortuguesePod101.com. |
| Thássia: Welcome to the Absolute Beginner Series Season 2. Prazer em conhecê-los! Braden, could you explain a bit about this new series? |
| Braden: Sure. This series is geared toward people who have already completed the previous Absolute Beginner series. |
| Thássia: That's right. We'll be making lots of reference to things we learned in other series. |
| Braden: So in this series, we have two storylines. One of a group of friends setting up a surprise birthday party. |
| Thássia: And the other is about a group of co-workers who travel to all 12 host cities of the 2014 World Cup. |
| Braden: So Thássia, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Thássia: In this lesson, you'll learn about grammatical gender, nouns, and articles. |
| Braden: The conversation is between Michael and a woman on the street and it takes place in the morning, doesn’t it? |
| Thássia: Yes, and Michael doesn’t know the woman, so they will be speaking formally. Vamos lá? |
| Braden: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Michael: Com licença. Estou um pouco perdido. A senhora poderia me informar onde fica o restaurante "A casa da carne"? |
| Mulher: Hummm, é uma churrascaria? |
| Michael: É. Preciso chegar lá para encontrar com um amigo. |
| Mulher: Tem uma churrascaria que fica a três ruas pra lá. |
| Michael: E aí como eu faço para chegar lá? |
| Mulher: Fica bem ali, a esquerda. |
| Michael: Muito obrigado! |
| Mulher: De nada! Boa tarde! |
| Michael: Boa tarde! |
| Braden: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Michael: Com licença. Estou um pouco perdido. A senhora poderia me informar onde fica o restaurante "A casa da carne"? |
| Mulher: Hummm, é uma churrascaria? |
| Michael: É. Preciso chegar lá para encontrar com um amigo. |
| Mulher: Tem uma churrascaria que fica a três ruas pra lá. |
| Michael: E aí como eu faço para chegar lá? |
| Mulher: Fica bem ali, a esquerda. |
| Michael: Muito obrigado! |
| Mulher: De nada! Boa tarde! |
| Michael: Boa tarde! |
| Braden: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Michael: Com licença. Estou um pouco perdido. A senhora poderia me informar onde fica o restaurante "A casa da carne"? |
| Braden: Excuse me. I'm a little lost. Where is the restaurant, "The House of Meat?" |
| Mulher: Hummm, é uma churrascaria? |
| Braden: Mmmm, is it a churrascaria? |
| Michael: É. Preciso chegar lá para encontrar com um amigo. |
| Braden: Yes, it is. I need to get there to meet with a friend. |
| Mulher: Tem uma churrascaria que fica a três ruas pra lá. |
| Braden: There is a churrascaria three streets that way. |
| Michael: E aí como eu faço para chegar lá? |
| Braden: And then how can I get there? |
| Mulher: Fica bem ali, a esquerda. |
| Braden: It's right there, on your left. |
| Michael: Muito obrigado! |
| Braden: Thank you! |
| Mulher: De nada! Boa tarde! |
| Braden: You're welcome. Good afternoon. |
| Michael: Boa tarde! |
| Braden: Good afternoon! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Braden: So Thássia, how many times has this happened to you? |
| Thássia: More times than I can remember. |
| Braden: Getting lost in Brazil is pretty common, especially in São Paulo or other big cities. |
| Thássia: It certainly is. |
| Braden: One thing that was very different for me when I first came to Brazil is the number of people walking around on the street. |
| Thássia: Why was that different? |
| Braden: Where I’m from most people drive cars so there just aren’t that many people just walking around. |
| Thássia: Ha! but in Brazil… |
| Braden: Right! In Brazil most people walk, bike, take the bus or some combination of those. That means there are lots of people in the street and lots of people who could give you directions. |
| Thássia: And remember, if you are in a hurry, Brazilians tend to talk a lot. |
| Braden: That’s very true. So, be polite, but just like Michael in the dialogue, |
| Thássia: remind them that you need to be somewhere. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Braden: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Thássia: a [natural native speed] |
| Braden: the (feminine, singular) |
| Thássia: a [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: a [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: um [natural native speed] |
| Braden: one (1), a |
| Thássia: um [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: um [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: uma [natural native speed] |
| Braden: one (1), a |
| Thássia: uma [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: uma [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: o [natural native speed] |
| Braden: the (masculine, singular) |
| Thássia: o [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: o [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: mulher [natural native speed] |
| Braden: woman |
| Thássia: mulher [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: mulher [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: esquerda [natural native speed] |
| Braden: left |
| Thássia: esquerda [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: esquerda [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: atrasado [natural native speed] |
| Braden: late |
| Thássia: atrasado [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: atrasado [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: churrascaria [natural native speed] |
| Braden: steak house |
| Thássia: churrascaria [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: churrascaria [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: nada [natural native speed] |
| Braden: nothing |
| Thássia: nada [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: nada [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: chegar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to arrive |
| Thássia: chegar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: chegar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: And our last word is... |
| Thássia: restaurante [natural native speed] |
| Braden: restaurant |
| Thássia: restaurante [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: restaurante [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Braden: Ok, so let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Thássia: The first word/phrase we’ll look at is “poderia me informar” |
| Braden: In the dialogue, the phrase “poderia me informar” was used to ask the woman for help. |
| Thássia: The phrase “poderia me informar” literally translates to “could me inform” |
| Braden: but means “could you tell me” as in “could you tell me where the restaurant is?” |
| Thássia: This is a very polite way to ask for help. |
| Braden: Another phrase used in the dialogue is the phrase “chegar lá” to mean “get there.” |
| Thássia: Michael says to the lady “preciso chegar lá” which literally translates to “I need to arrive there” but it’s used to mean, “I need to get there.” |
| Braden: The last phrase we’ll look at is “ de nada”. |
| Thássia: “De nada” literally translates to “of nothing” but it means “you’re welcome.” |
| Braden: This expression has changed a lot over the years and what once was a long phrase that meant something like “You are not required to do anything back” was shortened, right? |
| Thássia: Right. Now it's just “de nada” and it's the standard response to “obrigado” (thank you). |
| Braden: and one last note about the pronunciation of the word “restaurante.” In certain dialects of English, “restaurant” often has a “ch” sound in the middle of the word. ”Restaurant.” It’s a “t” but it often becomes a ch. |
| Thássia: But in Portuguese, it only makes a “t” sound. “restaurante.” |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Thássia: The focus of this lesson is the gender relationships between nouns and articles. |
| Braden: In the dialogue we heard the phrase |
| Thássia: “...o restaurante, “A casa da carne” |
| Braden: Which means "..the restaurant, ‘The House of (the) Meat’” Thássia, what’s going on here. |
| Thássia: This is an example of grammatical gender. Grammatical gender is one of the key grammatical concepts in Portuguese. |
| Braden: And it’s a huge concept. In this grammar point we’re going to cover gender from a top level perspective and move down to the ground level to give you a full idea of what Grammatical gender is. |
| Thássia: But if this fries your brain, don’t worry. We’ll go over this again and again from different perspectives so you can really understand how it works. |
| Braden: You should always remember that gender is centered on nouns and then extends to articles and adjectives. |
| Thássia: Nouns are words that represent people, places, things, or ideas. |
| Braden: Like shoes, sunglasses, trees, ants, and clouds, etc. These are all nouns. |
| Thássia: In Portuguese however, every noun has either a masculine or a feminine gender. Most nouns dealing with males are masculine (brother, father, sir) and most nouns dealing with females are feminine (daughter, aunt, ma’am). |
| Braden: The key is that even nouns that have nothing to do with either masculinity or femininity, like road and cloud, are still assigned a gender. So Thássia, What does gender affect? |
| Thássia: Grammatical gender affects noun, articles, and adjectives. |
| Braden: That’s right. Grammatical gender does not affect verbs in any way. |
| Thássia: Prepositions also can’t be affected directly but many prepositions (like de) form contractions with articles. This can make them seem gender sensitive. |
| Braden: For example, the preposition “de” means “of” or “from” and is one of the most used words in Portuguese. The rule states that if “de” is followed by either of the articles “o” or “a” then it must contract with them. Since the articles have gender the resulting contractions “do” and “da” also have gender. |
| Thássia: In a phrase this would look like Esse livro é da escola. “this book is (of the) school.” or “this book is the school’s.” |
| Braden: We’ve got a whole lesson dedicated to these and other contractions in Portuguese but just remember that “do,” “dos,” “da,” and “das” all mean the same thing, “of the.” So back to gender. |
| Thássia: Right. Nouns and Articles. Every noun in Portuguese is preceded by an article. |
| Braden: So what’s an article? In English, we have three which are “the,” “a,” and “an.” |
| When you are talking about grammar, articles are part of speech that subtly affect the meanings of nouns. For example, the word “book” by itself is pretty simple but when you say “the book,” the meaning is subtly specified. |
| Thássia: They do the same thing in Portuguese. We just have more of them. Also, English articles don’t have grammatical gender, but in Portuguese there is the feminine “a” article and the masculine “o” article and then plural forms of each of these. |
| Braden: That’s right. You have to know the gender of the noun because the gender of the article has to match or agree with the gender of the noun. |
| Thássia: So some examples, “a caneta” means “the pen.” “caneta” is feminine so you have to use the feminie article “a.” |
| Braden: And “o caderno” which means “the notebook.” Notebook is masculine so you have to use the masculine article, “o.” |
| Thássia: You use “a” and “o” the same way you would use “the” in English, but before every noun, even if you wouldn’t use it in English, like before people’s names or days of the week. |
| Braden: So Thássia, let’s quickly go over the pronunciation of these articles. |
| Thássia: Let's. The masculine article is “o” |
| Braden: Could you repeat that? |
| Thássia: “o” |
| Braden: See how that isn’t “ou” or “aahh” or something it’s “o” wait... could you do it? |
| Thássia: “o” |
| Braden: It’s that. and the feminine article. |
| Thássia: “a” |
| Braden: Same thing here. It’s |
| Thássia: “a” |
| Braden: not “uh” or “a” and certainly not “ei.” Ok? One last time? |
| Thássia: “a” |
| Braden: Awesome! and there are plurals for these, right? |
| Thássia: Right. There’s the masculine “os” and the feminine “as.” |
| Braden: And all of these just mean, “the”? |
| Thássia: Right. |
| Braden: Wonderful. So, how important is it to use articles in Portuguese? |
| Thássia: Very. Every noun has an article before it and if you use the wrong article you can actually change the meaning of the word. And grammatical gender is one of the central concepts of Portuguese. |
| Braden: Perfect. Thanks for that! |
Outro |
| Braden: That just about does it for today. |
| Thássia: Ok. Some of our listeners already know about the most powerful tool on PortuguesePod101.com |
| Braden: line-by-line audio. |
| Thássia: The perfect tool for rapidly improving listening comprehension... |
| Braden: by listening to lines of the conversation again and again. |
| Thássia: Listen until every word and syllable becomes clear. Basically, we break down the dialog into comprehensible, bite-size sentences. |
| Braden: You can try the line-by-line audio in the Premium Learning Center at PortuguesePod101.com |
| Braden: Thanks for joining us for this first lesson of our new Absolute Beginners series. And we’ll see you next time! Bye-bye! |
| Thássia: Bye-bye! Até a próxima! |
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