Learn how to ask "Can you speak English?"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| In this lesson we’ll cover another extremely important phrase: "Do you speak English?" Using this phrase is important for many reasons. For one, if the party you’re speaking to doesn’t understand English, at least they’ll be able to understand what you’re asking. Furthermore, it shows a lot of respect on your part, because you’ve made an effort to learn even a little bit of the language. For these reasons and many more, we’re going to cover this very important phrase. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| In Portuguese, "Do you speak English?" is |
| Você fala inglês? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Vo-cê fa-la in-glês? |
| Once more: |
| Você fala inglês? |
| Você, as you might already know, is the formal way to say “you” |
| Fala is a form of the verb falar, which in English is translated as “to speak” or “to talk.” |
| (slow) Fa-la. |
| Fala. |
| And the last word, inglês, means “English” |
| (slow) in-glês |
| inglês |
| To young people or people you already know, you can feel free to use informal language. You can say: |
| Falas inglês? |
| As you already observed, the difference between the two expressions Você fala inglês? and Falas inglês? is small, but you have to pay attention because it completely changes the formality level. |
| Let’s break the whole phrase down: |
| (slow) Fa-las in-glês? |
| Once more: |
| Falas inglês? |
| Now for a change, let's try different languages that are frequently taught in Portuguese schools |
| “Do you speak French?" is |
| Você fala francês? |
| The word for “French" is |
| Francês. |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow)Fran-cê-s. |
| Francês. |
| The whole phrase is: |
| (slow) Vo-cê fa-la fran-cês? |
| Você fala francês? |
| Now let’s try with German. The word for German in Portuguese is alemão |
| (slow)a-le-mão |
| alemão |
| So the full sentence will be: |
| Você fala alemão? |
| (slow) Vo-cê fa-la a-le-mão? |
| Você fala alemão? |
| When you ask the question “Do you speak English?” in Portuguese, there is a big possibility that you’ll get the answer in Portuguese. |
| Here are few ways of answering this question. |
| “Yes, I speak English” would be |
| Sim, eu falo inglês. |
| Let’s hear that slowly now: |
| (slow) Sim, eu fa-lo in-glês, |
| And one more time at natural native speed: |
| Sim, eu falo inglês. |
| The first word, sim, means “yes.” |
| (slow) Sim. |
| Sim. |
| After this comes eu falo which means “I speak”. |
| (slow) eu fa-lo |
| eu falo |
| Finally, we have inglês, which means “English.” |
| (slow) in-glês. |
| Inglês. |
| All together, that’s |
| (slow) Sim, eu fa-lo in-glês. |
| Sim, eu falo inglês. |
| This phrase could be made shorter, just by saying “Sim”: |
| Sim. |
| If the answer is negative, Portuguese people might say “No, I don’t speak English”: |
| Não, eu não falo inglês. |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: |
| (slow) Não, eu não fa-lo in-glês. |
| And again at natural native speed: |
| Não, eu não falo inglês. |
| The first word, não, means “no”. |
| (slow) Não. |
| Não. |
| Next we have eu não falo which is our form for “I don’t speak”. |
| (slow) eu não fa-lo |
| eu não falo |
| And finally the word inglês, which means “English.” |
| All together, that’s |
| (slow) Não, eu não fa-lo in-glês. |
| Não, eu não falo inglês. |
| Sometimes, people will answer only with “no”, which in Portuguese is: |
| Não. |
| (slow) Não. |
| Não. |
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