Learn about buying a phone card
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| 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 and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| While most people wouldn't or couldn't step outside without their cellphones, when visiting another country, sometimes it's a little too far for your local carrier. In recent years, you can get around this using GSM chips and prepaid phone cards, and we'll cover this in another lesson, but the good old pay phone is often the best option when you're traveling in Brazil. |
| Public phones in Brazil only take phone cards. The prices of the cards can vary greatly depending on where you are in Brazil and where you are buying the card. One 20-unit card could cost from 2 reals and 43 centavos to 4 reals. Cards of 40 units start at about 4 reals and 86 centavos, but can be as much as 6 reals. 60 unit cards start around 7 reals and 79 centavos and just go up from there. Quick tip, usually the cheapest cards are purchased at the Correios, but you can find them at convenience stores and padarias as well. |
| Now, before you start giving them money for the card, you may want to find out if they have cards. In Portuguese, "Do you have telephone cards?" is Tem cartão telefonico? |
| Tem cartão telefonico? |
| Let's break it down by syllable: Tem car-tão te-le-fo-ni-co? |
| Now, let's hear it once again: Tem cartão telefonico? |
| The first word tem means "is there." |
| tem |
| tem |
| We learned this in a previous lesson. The next word is cartão. |
| cartão |
| This word means "card." |
| Let's break down this word and hear it one more time: |
| car-tão |
| And cartão |
| This is followed by telefonico, which, in English, is "telephone." |
| te-le-fo-n-ico |
| telefonico |
| And telefonico |
| So all together, we have Tem cartão telefonico? Literally, this means "Do you have telephone cards?" |
| The answer to this will be "Yes," which is sim, or "No," which is não. In the case they have the cards, you'll want to ask for one of the denominations we talked about. |
| Let's start with a 20-unit card. |
| In Portuguese, "A 20 unit card, please." is Um cartão de vinte unidades, por favor. |
| Um cartão de 20 unidades, por favor. |
| Let's break it down by syllable: Um car-tão de vin-te uni-da-des, por favor. |
| Now, let's here it is once again: Um cartão de vinte unidades, por favor. |
| The first word um means "one," and we learned this word in our lesson on numbers. |
| Next, we have cartão, which means "card." |
| cartão |
| car-tão |
| cartão |
| Then, we have the word de, which means "of." |
| de |
| de |
| So we have um cartão de, which literally means "one card of." |
| The next word is vinte, which we learned in our lesson on numbers, and it means "twenty." |
| vinte |
| vin-te |
| vinte |
| This next word unidades is new, and it means "units." |
| Let's break down this word and hear it one more time: u-ni-da-des |
| And unidades |
| This is followed by por favor, which we learned in Lesson 3, and in English is "please." |
| So all together, we have Um cartão de vinte unidades, por favor. Literally, this means "A 20 unit card please." |
| Now, what if you want a 40-unit card? Or you want more than one? In Portuguese, "Five 40 unit cards, please." is Cinco cartões de quarenta unidades, por favor. |
| Cinco cartões de quarenta unidades, por favor. |
| Let's break it down by syllable: Cin-co car-tões de qua-ren-ta u-ni-da-des, por favor. |
| Now, let's hear it once again: Cinco cartões de quarenta unidades, por favor. |
| The first word, cinco, means "five." which we also learned in our lesson on numbers. Because of this change, we need to make cartão plural. The plural of cartão is cartões, which means cards. |
| car-tões |
| cartões |
| Then, we have the word de again, which means of. |
| de |
| de |
| So we have cinco cartões de, which literally means "five cards of." |
| The next word is quarenta, which means "forty." |
| qua-ren-ta |
| quarenta |
| This next word unidades means "units." |
| Let’s break down this word and hear it one more time: u-ni-d-ades |
| And unidades |
| This is followed by por favor, which means "please." So all together, we have Cinco cartões de quarenta unidades, por favor. Literally, this means "Five 40 unit cards, please." |
| A 60-unit card works the same way just change the 20 or 40 with 60. So this phrase would be Um cartão de sesenta unidades, por favor. Literally, this means "A 60 unit card, please." |
| Sometimes, they will be quick to the draw and ask you how many units you want by saying de quantas? which means "How many units?" This makes it easier for you because you just say how many units you want, vinte, quarenta, or sessenta. |
| CULTURAL INSIGHTS |
| You'll find pay phones everywhere you go, popularly known as the orelhão, which means big ear. This is not a strange reference to the ability to hear someone who is far away through the phone. It is simply because they were built and designed in such a way that they really look like big ears. |
| At a pay phone in Brazil, you can make local, national, and on some, international calls. Generally, the ones that can make international calls have a blue or red circle on the phone directly below where you insert card, immediately before the phrase chamada internacional, which means "international call." |
| Now to explain this thing about units, in Brazil, where you are calling determines how expensive it is. Calling to someone on the other side of the neighborhood will be very cheap, and a 60-unit card could last for well over an hour and a half. But if you are calling a cellphone, that same card would only last about 20 minutes, if that. And if you are calling internationally, each unit lasts about one second, so a 60-unit card will last about a minute. |
Outro |
| Okay. To close out today's lesson, we'd like for 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'll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so boa sorte! |
| "Do you have telephone cards?" - Tem cartão telefonico? |
| Tem car-tão te-le-fo-ni-co? |
| Tem cartão telefonico? |
| "A 20 unit card, please." - Um cartão de vinte unidades, por favor. |
| Um car-tão de vin-te u-ni-da-des, por favor. |
| Um cartão de vinte unidades, por favor. |
| "Five 40 unit cards, please" - Cinco cartões de quarenta unidades, por favor. |
| Cin-co car-tões de qua-ren-ta u-ni-da-des, por favor. |
| Cinco cartões de quarenta unidades, por favor. |
| All right. 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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