Learn about the different Portuguese subject pronouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Thássia: Hello everyone! I'm Thássia, and welcome to PortuguesePod101.com. |
| Braden: With us, you'll learn to speak Portuguese with fun and effective lessons. |
| Thássia: We also provide you with cultural insights... |
| Braden: ...and tips you won't find in a textbook. |
| Thássia: So, Braden, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Braden: This lesson is on subject pronouns and how to use Tu and Vós. This is also our first lesson with our travel group. So we're going to meet two of the coworkers. |
| Thássia: That's right. This conversation is between Vinícius and Marta. |
| Braden: That's right. Marta is from Portugal so he has a very different accent. |
| Thássia: They are at the churrascaria right? |
| Braden: Right and they are friends so they'll be speaking informally. |
| Thássia: Sounds good. |
| Braden: Let's listen to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Marta: O que é isso? |
| Vinícius: É um convite da empresa para conhecer todas as cidades sede da copa de 2014! |
| Marta: E quanto isso me custará? |
| Vinícius: É de graça! É pela empresa. Eles querem nosso ponto de vista sobre as sedes da Copa. |
| Marta: Mas por que estão a fazer isto? |
| Vinícius: Eles querem que escrevamos na Internet sobre a viagem pra servir de propaganda para a empresa. |
| Marta: Tu sabes que, hoje em dia, Orkut e Twitter são os mais usados no Brasil?! |
| Vinícius: Tem razão. Vamos usar Twitter. |
| Marta: Quem mais vai? |
| Vinícius: Sim, Paula, Bia, e Jack! Nós cinco! |
| Marta: Optimo! Qual é a primeira cidade? |
| Vinícius: Cuiabá. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Marta: O que é isso? |
| Vinícius: É um convite da empresa para conhecer todas as cidades sede da copa de 2014! |
| Marta: E quanto isso me custará? |
| Vinícius: É de graça! É pela empresa. Eles querem nosso ponto de vista sobre as sedes da Copa. |
| Marta: Mas por que estão a fazer isto? |
| Vinícius: Eles querem que escrevamos na Internet sobre a viagem pra servir de propaganda para a empresa. |
| Marta: Tu sabes que, hoje em dia, Orkut e Twitter são os mais usados no Brasil?! |
| Vinícius: Tem razão. Vamos usar Twitter. |
| Marta: Quem mais vai? |
| Vinícius: Sim, Paula, Bia, e Jack! Nós cinco! |
| Marta: Optimo! Qual é a primeira cidade? |
| Vinícius: Cuiabá. |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Marta: O que é isso? |
| Braden: What's that? |
| Vinícius: É um convite da empresa para conhecer todas as cidades sede da copa de 2014! |
| Braden: It's an invitation from the company to visit all the cities of the 2014 World Cup. |
| Marta: E quanto isso me custará? |
| Braden: How much will that cost me? |
| Vinícius: É de graça! É pela empresa. Eles querem nosso ponto de vista sobre as sedes da Copa. |
| Braden: It's free! It's through the company. They want our point of view about the cities of the World Cup. |
| Marta: Mas por que estão a fazer isto? |
| Braden: But why are they doing this? |
| Vinícius: Eles querem que escrevamos na Internet sobre a viagem pra servir de propaganda para a empresa. |
| Braden: They want us to write on the Internet about the trip to act as advertising for the company. |
| Marta: Tu sabes que, hoje em dia, Orkut e Twitter são os mais usados no Brasil?! |
| Braden: Did you know that today, Orkut and Twitter are the most used in Brazil? |
| Vinícius: Tem razão. Vamos usar Twitter. |
| Braden: Good point, let's use Twitter. |
| Marta: Quem mais vai? |
| Braden: Who else is going? |
| Vinícius: Sim, Paula, Bia, e Jack! Nós cinco! |
| Braden: (Yes,) Paula, Bia and Jack. Us five! |
| Marta: Optimo! Qual é a primeira cidade? |
| Braden: Great! What's the first city? |
| Vinícius: Cuiabá. |
| Braden: Cuiabá. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Braden: Have you ever been to Cuiabá? |
| Thássia: No, but you have right? |
| Braden: Yeah I lived there for 6 months. Cuiabá is the capital city of Mato Grosso, the third largest state in Brazil, and is widely regarded as the hottest capital in Brazil. |
| Thássia: Cuiabá is located within two hours of the world’s most beautiful natural wonders, the Pantanal. Paloma talked about the Pantanal in Advanced Audio Blog lesson #8, didn't she? |
| Braden: I lived in Cuiabá for about 6 months and I learned an important lesson there about open and closed vowels. |
| Thássia: what did you learn? |
| Braden: Well, it was very hot and during the burning season so there was lots of smoke in the air so I was always asking people for water. After a few months of this, I noticed a pattern of every time I said I was thirsty; first confusion, then a kind of chuckle, then a cup of water. |
| Thássia: Why were they doing that? |
| Braden: Well, I finally got up the courage to ask a friend about it and he explained that “sede” means "thirsty" and “sede” means “headquarters” or “center.” So I was telling people "I have the headquarters" Instead of I'm thirsty. |
| Thássia: This is one of the more difficult ones because there is no writing or spelling difference for you to identify. just sound. sêde vs séde. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Braden: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Thássia: convite [natural native speed] |
| Braden: invitation |
| Thássia: convite [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: convite [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: empresa [natural native speed] |
| Braden: company, business |
| Thássia: empresa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: empresa [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: tu [natural native speed] |
| Braden: you |
| Thássia: tu [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: tu [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: vós [natural native speed] |
| Braden: the, thou, ye |
| Thássia: vós [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: vós [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: ótimo [natural native speed] |
| Braden: great |
| Thássia: ótimo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: ótimo [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: ótimo [natural native speed] |
| Braden: great |
| Thássia: ótimo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: ótimo [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Thássia: sede [natural native speed] |
| Braden: headquarter, head office |
| Thássia: sede [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: sede [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Braden: 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 "Hoje em dia" |
| Braden: In the dialogue, Joaquim used the expression “hoje em dia.” “Hoje em dia” literally translates to “today in day,” but it means “nowadays.” |
| Thássia: The expression “hoje em dia” is a good expression to use when talking about what’s happening currently. |
| Braden: Another expression used in the dialogue was “de graça.” “De graça” literally translates to “of grace,” but it means “for free.” |
| Thássia: So, the sentence “É de graça” means “it’s for free.” |
| Braden: Joaquim also used the word “óptimo.” |
| Thássia: This is a great example of the difference between Brazilian and Portuguese dialects. |
| Braden: In both countries, “óptimo” means “great,” but in Brazil, it is written and pronounced Ó-T-I-M-O (without the P). |
| Thássia: We have a great chart in the Lesson notes for this lesson of 5 more words that are different between Brazilian Portuguese and Portugal Portuguese. |
| Braden: So be sure to check that out. |
| Thássia: Lastly Vinícius used the verb “conhecer” in the sentence, “É um convite da empresa para conhecer todas as cidades sede da copa de 2014!” |
| Braden: which we translated as “It's an invitation from the company to visit all the cities of the 2014 World Cup.” |
| Thássia: Here, he used the verb “conhecer” to mean “to visit" or "become familiar with.” |
| Braden: “Conhecer” literally translates as “to know” but it’s more like ‘to get to know” or “to become familiar with” and not “to know” as in “know how to play soccer.” |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Braden: okay Thássia, what is the focus of this lesson? |
| Thássia: The focus of this lesson is subject pronouns in Portuguese. |
| Braden: In the dialogue, Tiago said, Nós cinco! |
| Thássia: Which we translated as "Us five!” |
| Braden: Okay so, Pronouns are words that replace nouns. There are several types of pronouns in Portuguese. |
| Thássia: In this lesson, we'll talk mostly about subject pronouns. Subject pronouns replace nouns that are the subject of a sentence. |
| Braden: So what are the subject pronouns in Portuguese? |
| Thássia: Well, first we have "eu" which means "I." "eu" "eu" |
| Braden: Okay |
| Thássia: Then we have "você" which means "you." "vo-cê" "você" |
| Braden: Okay. |
| Thássia: Then we have "ele" which means "he" and "ela' which means "she." "ele" "ela" |
| Braden: What's next? |
| Thássia: Then we have "nós" which means we. "nós" "nós" |
| Braden: Then we have? |
| Thássia: Vocês which means "you" in a plural sense, like "y'all." "Vo-cês" "vocês" |
| Braden: And last we have… |
| Thássia: Eles and elas which both mean "they" but "eles" is masculine and "elas" is feminine. |
| Braden: and elas is used when the individuals or items involved are exclusively feminine, right? |
| Thássia: Right. Braden how do you use "it" in Portuguese? |
| Braden: Right. Because Portuguese doesn't have an "it." "It” as a subject pronoun (“It is pretty”) is almost always inferred in Portuguese. They just say “É bonito” or "is pretty" |
| Thássia: What if a pronoun is needed for clarity? |
| Braden: Then either “ela” or “ele” (or their respective plural forms) is used. The catch is that these must agree with the gender of the subject they are replacing. That's pretty advanced stuff but we'll go over it more in later lessons. For now, just leave off "it." |
| Thássia: Now we have a special situation the with Tu and Vós, right? |
| Braden: Right. The terms “tu” and “vós” are all but extinct in Brazil but in Portugal, they are still in common use. |
| Thássia: For our listeners that are studying Portugal Portuguese you need to learn how to use "tu" and "vós." |
| Braden: From a Brazilian perspective, “tu” and “vós” sound very old, kind of like “thee” and “thou.” |
| Thássia: That's true. Many verb charts for Brazilian Portuguese don’t include the conjugations for “tu” and “vós.” |
| Braden: For example, in English, we say "you are." In Brazil they say "você está" |
| Thássia: but in Portugal, they say "tu estás." but they all have the same meaning. |
| Braden: Some isolated dialects of Brazil still use “tu” but do not conjugate the verb correctly. For example, many people from the Tocantins area say “tu fala” instead of the correct “tu falas.” |
| Thássia: Correct verb conjugation is important in Brazil but not with the subject pronoun "tu." |
| Braden: And no one in Brazil uses "vós" except priests, pastors, and the Bible. So you can ignore "vós," unless you're going to Portugal. |
| Thássia: Check out the lesson notes for some great tables with more examples and a bonus explanation about how to use "o senhor" and "a senhora." |
| Braden: So how important are subject pronouns in Portuguese? |
| Thássia: Very. Without them, the verb conjugations don't make sense. |
| Braden: Review these a lot because we are going to come back to it over and over. |
Outro |
| Braden: That just about does it for today. |
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| Braden: See ya later! |
| Thássia: Até mais! |
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