INTRODUCTION |
In the previous lessons, we introduced you to some phrases you can use when you’re in Portugal, and this is the last lesson of the series dedicated to learning from the people around you. In this lesson, we are going to cover “How do you read this?” |
GRAMMAR POINT |
In Portuguese “How do you read this word?” is |
Como se lê esta palavra? |
Let’s break it down: |
(slow) Co-mo se lê es-ta pa-la-vra? |
Once more: |
Como se lê esta palavra? |
The first word, como, means “how.” |
(slow) Co-mo. |
Como. |
Next we have se lê, which is translated in English as “to read”. |
(slow) Se lê. |
Se lê. |
Then we have esta, the feminine form for “this”. |
(slow) es-ta. |
esta. |
At the end we have palavra, which means “word”. |
(slow) palavra |
palavra |
The entire sentence again is: |
(slow) Como se lê esta palavra? |
Como se lê esta palavra? |
You might also like to ask, “How do you pronounce this word?”. In Portuguese, that’s Como se pronuncia esta palavra? |
Let’s break it down: |
(slow) Como se pro-nun-ci-a es-ta pa-la-vra? |
Once more: |
Como se pronuncia esta palavra? |
The new word in this question is pronuncia which is a form of the verb translated as “to pronounce”. |
(slow) Pro-nun-cia |
Pronuncia. |
Again, it is: |
Como se pronuncia esta palavra? |
The literal translation is: “How is pronounced this word”. |
・ |
When you want to find out the meaning of the word or phrase, ask: |
O que significa isto? |
“What does this mean?” |
Let’s break it down: |
(slow) O que sig-ni-fi-ca is-to? |
Once again: |
O que significa isto? |
The first words, O que, mean “what”. |
(slow) O que. |
O que. |
Next we have significa, which is “means” in English. |
(slow) sig-ni-fi-ca. |
significa. |
At the end we have isto, which means "this." |
Altogether, we have |
O que significa isto? |
Or, “What does this mean?” |
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