Learn a few important things about reflexive verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Camila: Hello everyone! I'm Camila, and welcome to PortuguesePOD101.com. |
| Braden: With us, you'll learn to speak Portuguese with fun and effective lessons. |
| Camila: We also provide you with cultural insights... |
| Braden: ...and tips you won't find in a textbook. |
| Thássia: So Braden, please tell us what we will be learning in this lesson. |
| Braden: In this lesson, you'll be learning about reflexive pronouns. |
| Thássia: Where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Braden: This conversation takes place a long time ago in the Amazon. |
| Thássia: What's the formality level? |
| Braden: Well, it'll be in a formal story-telling structure. |
| Thássia: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Narrador: Há muito tempo, na região Amazônica, vive uma sereia chamada Iara. |
| Narrador: Muitos dizem que ao sair da água ela se transforma em uma linda india com longos e lindos cabelos negros. |
| Narrador: Ela hipnotiza os homens com o seu canto e com o seu olhar e os atrai para as águas. |
| Narrador: Ao ouvirem seu canto, os homens lançam-se nas águas para irem ao seu encontro e na maioria das vezes acabam morrendo afogados. |
| Narrador: Ela sai da sua casa no fundo do mar, ou do lago ou do rio, geralmente no final da tarde e surge linda e sedutora a procura de um companheiro. |
| Narrador: É difícil um homem resistir ao seu canto hipnotizador ou à sua beleza. |
| Narrador: Por isso meninos, se encontrarem com a Iara tapem os ouvidos e procurem não olhar para ela. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Narrador: Há muito tempo, na região Amazônica, vive uma sereia chamada Iara. |
| Narrador: Muitos dizem que ao sair da água ela se transforma em uma linda india com longos e lindos cabelos negros. |
| Narrador: Ela hipnotiza os homens com o seu canto e com o seu olhar e os atrai para as águas. |
| Narrador: Ao ouvirem seu canto, os homens lançam-se nas águas para irem ao seu encontro e na maioria das vezes acabam morrendo afogados. |
| Narrador: Ela sai da sua casa no fundo do mar, ou do lago ou do rio, geralmente no final da tarde e surge linda e sedutora a procura de um companheiro. |
| Narrador: É difícil um homem resistir ao seu canto hipnotizador ou à sua beleza. |
| Narrador: Por isso meninos, se encontrarem com a Iara tapem os ouvidos e procurem não olhar para ela. |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Narrador: Há muito tempo, na região Amazônica, vive uma sereia chamada Iara. |
| Braden: For a long time, in the Amazonian region, there lives a mermaid called Iara. |
| Narrador: Muitos dizem que ao sair da água ela se transforma em uma linda india com longos e lindos cabelos negros. |
| Braden: Many say that as she leaves the water she transforms into a beautiful Indian with long and beautiful black hair. |
| Narrador: Ela hipnotiza os homens com o seu canto e com o seu olhar e os atrai para as águas. |
| Braden: She hypnotizes the men with her song and eyes and attracts them to the water. |
| Narrador: Ao ouvirem seu canto, os homens lançam-se nas águas para irem ao seu encontro e na maioria das vezes acabam morrendo afogados. |
| Braden: When they hear her song, men throw themselves in the water to meet with her and in most cases they end up drowning. |
| Narrador: Ela sai da sua casa no fundo do mar, ou do lago ou do rio, geralmente no final da tarde e surge linda e sedutora a procura de um companheiro. |
| Braden: She leaves her home at the bottom of the sea, or lake or river, usually in the evening and emerges beautiful and seductive, looking for a companion. |
| Narrador: É difícil um homem resistir ao seu canto hipnotizador ou à sua beleza. |
| Braden: It's difficult for a man to resist her hypnotizing song or her beauty. |
| Narrador: Por isso meninos, se encontrarem com a Iara tapem os ouvidos e procurem não olhar para ela. |
| Braden: Because of this, young boys, if you ever encounter Iara, cover your ears and try not to look at her. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| (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.) |
| Braden: The story of Iara is a traditional Amazonian tribal story. |
| Thássia: Yes. There are many of these and we'll be going over some of them in this series. This is one of the most famous stories and has been made into a TV program and even a movie. |
| Braden: You'll probably meet women named Iara if you travel much in Brazil, especially in the northern region of Brazil. |
| Thássia: These stories are interesting to us but from the tribal perspective these are as important as the Mother Goose stories. |
| Braden: They exist to teach some kind of moral. Do you know what moral was being taught in this story? |
| Thássia: Please tell us in the comments. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Braden: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Camila: lagoa [natural native speed] |
| Braden: lagoon, pond |
| Camila: lagoa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Camila: lagoa [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Camila: afogado [natural native speed] |
| Braden: drowned |
| Camila: afogado [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Camila: afogado [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Camila: cintura [natural native speed] |
| Braden: waist |
| Camila: cintura [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Camila: cintura [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Camila: sereia [natural native speed] |
| Braden: mermaid, siren |
| Camila: sereia [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Camila: sereia [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Camila: atrair [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to attract, to entice |
| Camila: atrair [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Camila: atrair [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Camila: lançar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to throw, to release |
| Camila: lançar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Camila: lançar [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Camila: sedutora [natural native speed] |
| Braden: seductive, seducer |
| Camila: sedutora [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Camila: sedutora [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Camila: hipnotizador [natural native speed] |
| Braden: hypnotizing |
| Camila: hipnotizador [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Camila: hipnotizador [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Camila: rio [natural native speed] |
| Braden: river |
| Camila: rio [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Camila: rio [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Camila: tapar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to cover, to plug, to shut out |
| Camila: tapar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Camila: tapar [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Camila: tampar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to cover, to cork |
| Camila: tampar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Camila: tampar [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. |
| Thássia: The first phrase we’ll look at in this lesson is longos e lindos cabelos negros. Literally translating, this phrase means “long and beautiful hair black” and it shows the usage of multiple adjectives. |
| Braden: The phrase longos e lindos cabelos negros is an example of how Portuguese doesn’t string adjectives together, the adjective may come before or/and after the noun. |
| Thássia: The same phrase could be reestructured as in negros cabelos longos e lindos “black hair long and beautiful.” |
| Braden: There isn’t really a pattern to follow especially in a story-telling structure like this when poetical language is abundant. |
| Thássia: The next phrase we’ll look at is há muito tempo. Há muito tempo literally translates to “ there’s much time” but it actually means “for a long time” or “it’s been a long time since...” |
| Braden: Há muito tempo is not a phase exclusively used in story-telling structures, you will find this in everyday Portuguese. For example the sentence Estou esperando por você há muito tempo means “I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.“ |
| Thássia: Next we have the phrase muitos dizem. Muitos dizem literally translates to “many say” but it’s a structure used to indeterminate the subject. |
| Braden: In this case the story-teller doesn’t tell us who said that, but he/she wants to lead us to think that if many people say that, it must be true. For example, Muitos dizem que muita cafeína nao faz bem “Some people say that too much caffeine is not good for you.“ |
| Thássia: The last phrase we’ll look at in this lesson is ao seu encontro. In the story we saw the phrase para irem ao seu encontro which we translated as “to go to encounter her” Ao seu encontro means “to meet you/her/him.” |
| Braden: This is an example of the word “seu” being used in it’s traditional, more flexible form to mean “her” as in “her meeting” or a “meeting with her.” This is different than the colloquial day to day usage where seu almost always means “your.” |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Braden: What are we studying in this lesson? |
| Thássia: The focus of this lesson is an introduction to reflexive verbs. In the dilaogue we heard the phrase “Os homens lançam-se nas águas” |
| Braden: which we translated as "The men throw themselves in the water." This is an example of a reflexive verb. |
| Thássia: Technically defined, a reflexive verb is when the object of a verb refers to the same person or thing as the subject of the verb. |
| Braden: The subject of a verb is what is doing the action and the object of a verb is what is receiving the action. In Portuguese, these reflexive verbs have reflexive pronouns “attached” to them. These reflexive pronouns point your attention toward the verbs subject and are usually translated as myself, yourself, herself, etc. |
| Thássia: The reflexive pronouns in Portuguese are me – myself, te – yourself, se – himself, herself, itself, nos – ourselves, vos – thyselves, and se (plural) – yourselves or themselves |
| Braden: In the dialogue we heard this phrase “Ao sair da água ela se transforma.” Which we translated as "as she leaves the water she transforms herself." |
| Thássia: In English the “herself” has to come after the verb but in Portuguese it can precede or follow the verb without changing the meaning. |
| Braden: One example is the verb cortar which means to cut. The sentence Você cortou a corda. translates to you cut the rope. Here the direct object is “a corda.” not “você” so it isn’t a reflexive verb. think of reflexive more like reflection than reflexes. |
| Thássia: Good example, But in the phrase Você se cortou. the “se” indicates that it is a reflexive verb so the direct object, or the thing that was cut, is the subject “você.” |
| Braden: Other example sentences would be Ela chama João. which means She’s calling John. but Ele se chama João. means He calls himself John. |
| Thássia: Remember this from Absolute Beginner Series where we taught about the phrase “Eu me chamo” and how it’s used to tell someone what your name is. Eu me chamo joão is reflexive. |
| Braden: This is actually an upper intermediate topic so we won’t delve too deeply into it but we felt we should introduce it now because we know you are seeing and hearing it all the time. |
| Thássia: Also, remember that the examples we used are nice and pretty to teach the point without confusion but be aware that there are many Portuguese verbs whose reflexive nature cannot be translated to English. |
| Braden: That’s right. For example, Eu vou me casar! means “I’m going to get married.” Not “I’m going to marry myself.” |
| Thássia: Haha! that funny. |
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