Learn the all-important phrase "How do you say this in Portuguese?"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| In this lesson, we will learn a question that will help you improve your Portuguese vocabulary without carrying a dictionary with you.“How do you say [something] in Portuguese?” Is a question that will replace your pocket dictionary. |
| Portugal is famous for its wine, so let’s assume that you want to buy some, but have no idea what to call it in Portuguese! |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| “How do you say ‘wine’ in Portuguese?” is |
| Como se diz “wine” em português? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Co-mo se diz “wine” em por-tu-guês? |
| Once more: |
| Como se diz “wine” em português? |
| The first word, como means, “how”. |
| (slow) co-mo. |
| como. |
| This is followed by se diz, a verb translated in English as “to say”. |
| (slow) Se diz. |
| se diz. |
| Then we have the word in English, “wine” in this case. |
| And at the end of the question there is em português translated as “in Portuguese”. |
| (slow) em por-tu-guês. |
| em português. |
| Altogether, we have |
| Como se diz "wine” em português? |
| Literally, this means, “How to say wine in Portuguese?” |
| Remember that we’ve already covered the word “wine” in our previous lessons, in Portuguese it’s vinho. |
| You can also use this expression without using any English. To accomplish this, you can use the expression “How do you say this in Portuguese?” In Portuguese, “this” is isto. |
| (slow) is-to. |
| isto. |
| So in Portuguese “How do you say this in Portuguese?” is |
| Como se diz isto em português? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Co-mo se diz is-to em por-tu-guês? |
| Once again: |
| Como se diz isto em português? |
| The structure is exactly the same as the previous sentence, except that instead of “wine” we have the word isto, which is the neutral form of “this” in Portuguese. |
| One more time, it is: |
| Como se diz isto em português? |
| While asking this question, you can point at the specific something that you are curious about. |
| ・ |
| To ask, “How do you say that in Portuguese?” simply substitute the word isto with isso, which means “that”. |
| (slow) is-so. |
| isso. |
| The phrase will sound like this: |
| Como se diz isso em português? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) como se diz is-so em por-tu-guês? |
| Once more: |
| Como se diz isso em português? |
| isso is the neutral form for “that” in Portuguese. |
| ・ |
| Let’s say that you are invited to a birthday, in which case, you need to know how you say “Happy birthday” in Portuguese. The question sounds this way: |
| Como se diz “Happy birthday” em português? |
| “How do you say ‘happy birthday’ in Portuguese?” |
| (slow) co-mo se diz Ha-ppy birth-day em por-tu-guês? |
| Como se diz “Happy birthday” em português? |
| Remember our first sentence from this lesson? Como se diz “wine” em português? |
| We just changed the English word here. |
| By the way, “happy birthday” in Portuguese is “feliz aniversário!” |
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