Dialogue

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Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Hello and welcome to Portuguese Survival Phrases brought to you by PortuguesePod101.com, this course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Brazil. You will be surprised at how far a little Portuguese will go.
Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by PortuguesePod101.com and there, you will find the accompanying PDF. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.

Lesson focus
Once on the bus, the only clues you get about when to get off are visual: buildings, street lights, shopping malls, beaches, landmarks, etc. Road signs are few and far between so you can't use them and you will go by literally hundreds of stops that all look exactly the same, do not have names, and have no distinguishing marks. That means "that unless you are familiar with your destination, you'll probably miss it. You need to know the terrain...or ask for help.
In this lesson, we will learn exactly how to ask for help with the phrase, "Could you tell me when we arrive at the..." Only two people on that bus know all the stops on that route, the driver and the cobrador. Since the driver is busy taking you to your destination, I would suggest not asking him. That leaves the cobrador.
So, here we go! A quick trip to the Banco Central, or "Central Bank" in Brasília. The Banco Central is the headquarters of the Brazilian financial system, the Brazilian version of the Federal Reserve.
In Portuguese, "Please, could you tell me when we arrive at the Central Bank?" is Por favor, você poderia me falar quando chegar até o Banco Central?
Por favor, você poderia me falar quando chegar até o Banco Central?
Let’s break it down by syllable: Por favor, você poderia me falar quando chegar até o Banco Central?
Now let's hear it once again: Por favor, você poderia me falar quando chegar até o Banco Central?
The first part, Por favor, você poderia...you'll hear over and over in these lessons. It is the standard and courteous way of requesting something.
The next word is me. Not surprisingly, me in Portuguese means "me" in English, too!
The next word, falar, means "speak" or "tell."
falar
falar
This is followed by quando, which in English is "when."
quando
quando
So we have the request phrase Por favor, você poderia...followed by me falar quando.
This means, "Please, could you tell me when..."
Let's take a look at the next word, chegar
chegar
chegar
Chegar, which means "arrive."
The next word in the phrase is até.
até
até
In English, até means "until."
The last part of this phrase is the name of your destination, in this case, o Banco Central.
o Banco Central
o Banco Central
You can substitute this with the name of any other location or destination.
So all together, we have: Por favor, você pode me falar quando chegar até o Banco Central?
Literally, this translates to, "By favor, you could me tell when arrive until the Central Bank?"
As you can see, word order in Portuguese is a bit different from English but don't worry about that, in Portuguese, it is very polite.
This phrase means, "Please, could you tell me when we arrive at the Central Bank?"
CULTURAL INSIGHTS
A scary thing happened to my wife while she was in Rio de Janeiro.
One afternoon, she got on an over-full bus going toward Copacabana on her way back home. On the bus was a French family, father, mother, and two children. They looked completely lost and didn't know when to get off. They were in the back of the bus close to the exit door and the father moved forward to the front of the bus to ask the cobrador something. The only problem was that the Frenchman didn't speak Portuguese nor had he used Survivalphrases.com because the cobrador didn't understand anything. The Frenchman yelled something in French back to his wife and children. Someone gave the signal that they wanted to get off the bus and when the bus stopped the mother and children got off the bus with the father still inside. The bus was too full for him to get to the back door in time and the bus started moving again. The father started yelling something at the driver, I presume something like, "STOP!" The mother and children ran after the bus thinking it would stop but it didn't. At the next stop, the Frenchman got off and as the bus drove away my wife saw them reunite.
This story illustrates a few important points. First, a little bit of language goes a long way. Second, buses in Brazil can only stop at bus stops. By law they are not allowed to stop anywhere else so don't ask. Third, it is very difficult to move around inside a bus when it is full. This should be obvious but remember to think ahead. When your stop is coming, get to the back of the bus early. It's better to stand around a bit than miss your stop. Fourth, most bus stops in Brazil are not that far apart. The French family was able to walk to each other rather quickly. On a typical route, the bus will stop about every eight hundred meters so even if you miss your stop you can usually walk back quickly.

Outro
Okay, to close out this lesson, we'd like you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for saying it aloud. You have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so boa sorte!
"Please, could you tell me when we arrive at the Banco Central?" - Por favor, você poderia me falar quando chegar até o Banco Central?
Por favor, você poderia me falar quando chegar até o Banco Central?
Por favor, você poderia me falar quando chegar até o Banco Central?
"Is the terminal the next stop?" - O terminal é o próximo ponto?
O terminal é o próximo ponto?
O terminal é o próximo ponto?
Alright, that's going to do it for today. Remember to stop by PortuguesePod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.

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