Learn the basic rules of Portuguese sentence structure
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Intro |
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| Michael: How are sentences structured in Portuguese? |
| Ana Clara: And are the rules rigid? |
| Michael: At PortuguesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. Here is a typical scenario: Ben Lee, a foreign-exchange student, is walking with his friend, Paula Pereira, in central Rio de Janeiro. Ben thinks he sees a famous Brazilian volleyball player, and says, |
| "I know him! That's Bernardinho!" |
| Ben Lee: Eu conheço ele! É o Bernardinho! |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: Eu conheço ele! É o Bernardinho! |
| Paula Pereira: Eu também conheço ele! |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: Eu conheço ele! É o Bernardinho! |
| Michael: "I know him! That's Bernardinho!" |
| Paula Pereira: Eu também conheço ele! |
| Michael: "I know him, too!" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In the conversation, Ben and Paula use two very simple sentences: "I know him" and "I know him, too!" |
| Michael: But did you notice the particular word order when these sentences are said in Portuguese? |
| Michael: In the conversation, Ben Lee says, |
| Ana Clara: Eu conheço ele! É o Bernardinho! |
| Michael: "I know him! That's Bernardinho!" |
| Michael: to which Paula responds, |
| Ana Clara: Eu também conheço ele! |
| Michael: "I know him, too!" |
| Michael: Notice that Paula adds the word, |
| Ana Clara: também |
| Michael: which means "also" or "too." Altogether, the phrase |
| Ana Clara: Eu também conheço ele! |
| Michael: means, "I know him too." However, when placed in its literal order, the phrase directly translates to "I too know him!" Notice that the adverb placement is slightly different in Portuguese than it is in English. |
| Michael: In this lesson, we'll focus on Portuguese sentence structure. Like English, Portuguese is a Subject, Verb, Object, or S-V-O, language, but Portuguese tends to be more lenient than English in its word order in that subjects, verbs, and objects can often be rearranged while retaining their meaning. |
| Michael: Although Portuguese language learners can rely on this basic word order in most situations, let's take a closer look at the different types of sentences that you're likely to encounter where the word order can become a bit more complex. |
| Michael: Let's start by looking at the most basic type of sentence: a statement. As the S-V-O acronym implies, most statements will include a subject, a verb, and an object, in that order, but a phrasal complement or prepositional phrase are also very common, and these are usually placed at the end of the sentence. |
| Michael: Take, for example, the sentence |
| Ana Clara: Ele tem uma casa no Rio de Janeiro. |
| Michael: "He has a house in Rio de Janeiro." |
| Michael: Here, we have the subject, |
| Ana Clara: Ele, "He" |
| Michael: the verb, |
| Ana Clara: tem, "has" |
| Michael: and the object, |
| Ana Clara: uma casa, "a house" |
| Michael: plus the phrasal complement, |
| Ana Clara: no Rio de Janeiro. "In Rio de Janeiro." |
| Michael: Keep in mind that in Portuguese, as in many other Romance languages, the subject is often omitted because a conjugated verb form reflects the object that it modifies. In this case, although the subject isn't omitted, the conjugated verb is seen as a set: subject + verb. |
| Michael: Another type of sentence we may see in Portuguese is a statement-question. As in English, these are easy to identify because of their end punctuation: a question mark. In fact, the end punctuation is critical in Portuguese because statements and statement-questions use identical word order. In English, these are the types of questions that rely on auxiliary verbs like "do," "have," and "can." In Portuguese, however, these types of verbs aren't needed. |
| Michael: For example, |
| Ana Clara: Ele tem uma casa no Rio de Janeiro? |
| Michael: "Does he have a house in Rio de Janeiro?" |
| Michael: Did you notice that the only difference from our last example was the end punctuation? This makes forming questions in Portuguese especially easy to do. Don't forget that inflection is key when reading or speaking aloud since tone alone will indicate whether it is a statement or question. |
| Michael: A third type of sentence which we will now mention is a direct question. In English, these are our "Who," "What," "Where," "When," "Why," and "How" questions. As with direct questions in English, direct questions in Portuguese must begin with an appropriate question word, which is then followed with the typical S-V-O word order. |
| Michael: Consider, for example, the sentence |
| Ana Clara: O que (é que) ele faz no Rio de Janeiro? |
| Michael: "What does he do in Rio de Janeiro?" |
| Michael: or the sentence, |
| Ana Clara: Onde (é que) ela lavou a roupa? |
| Michael: "Where did she wash her clothes?" |
| Michael: A fourth type of sentence which we will now talk about is one which shows negation. To create this type of sentence, we must add |
| Ana Clara: não, |
| Michael: meaning "no" or "don't," |
| Ana Clara: nunca, |
| Michael: meaning "never," or |
| Ana Clara: nem, |
| Ana Clara: meaning "nor." |
| Michael: The word order is nearly identical to the previous types of sentences, however, in this case, we must add the negative word form before the verb, as in |
| Ana Clara: Eles não vão almoçar em casa. |
| Michael: "They are not going to have lunch at home." |
| Michael: As a final comment on Portuguese sentence structure, we'd like to point out that, just like in English, although many sentences include an object, they don't have to in Portuguese. The only requirement is that a sentence must have a subject and a verb. You can see this in the sentence |
| Ana Clara: A casa grande é bonita. |
| Michael: "The big house is beautiful." |
| Michael: By the way, in addition to not having an object, did you notice how the adjective meaning "big," |
| Ana Clara: grande, |
| Michael: comes after |
| Ana Clara: casa, |
| Michael: "house?" |
| Michael: Unlike in English, in Portuguese, the adjective comes after the noun that it's modifying. |
| Michael: So there you have it! Basic word order and sentence structure in Portuguese is quite simple. Just follow the standard S-V-O word order and take it from there. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review the conversation in detail. Try to respond to the following prompts by saying their Portuguese translation out loud. Ana Clara will then model the correct answer. Try to repeat after her with the focus on your pronunciation. |
| The first prompt is, "I know him! That's Bernardinho!" |
| Ana Clara: Eu conheço ele! É o Bernardinho! |
| Michael: Did you get it right? Listen to Ana Clara again and repeat after her. Remember to focus on your pronunciation. |
| Ana Clara: Eu conheço ele! É o Bernardinho! |
| Ana Clara: Eu conheço ele! É o Bernardinho! |
| Michael: The next prompt is, "I know him, too!" |
| Ana Clara: Eu também conheço ele! |
| Michael: Listen to Ana Clara again and repeat after her. |
| Ana Clara: Eu também conheço ele! |
| Ana Clara: Eu também conheço ele! |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: Bernardinho, or Bernardo Rocha de Rezende, is a Brazilian volleyball coach and former professional player. With over 45 medals to his name, including a gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he is considered the most successful team sport coach of all time. |
| Ana Clara: The Brazilian teams he has coached in both men's and women's volleyball have won dozens of major titles, making him the most successful volleyball coach in history. |
| Michael: You may not have known that soccer is not the only popular sport in Brazil. |
| Ana Clara: Brazil also has one of the greatest volleyball teams in the world! |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Ana Clara: Até a próxima! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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