Learn about the different levels of school in Brazil and the difference between two verbs that are easily mixed up
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sílvia: Olá! Bem-vindo ao PortuguesePod101.com! |
| Braden: Upper Beginner Season 1, lesson 16, A Welcome Break from School in Brazil. Hello and welcome back to PortuguesePod101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Portuguese. |
| Sílvia: I’m Sílvia. Thanks again for being here with us for this Upper Beginner Season 1 lesson. So Braden, please tell us what we’ll be learning in this lesson. |
| Braden: In this lesson, we’ll compare the ser and estar verbs and their uses. |
| Sílvia: Where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Braden: This conversation takes place in the early afternoon, at school, and it’s between Laís, Laís's father, and a woman at the school. |
| Sílvia: What’s the formality level? |
| Braden: Well, part of it is formal and part of it is informal. |
| Sílvia: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Pai: Com licença, estou procurando Laís Santos, você conhece? |
| Mulher: (hesitante) Laís… |
| Pai: Sim, Ela é morena, baixinha.. Eu acho que está de camisa vermelha. Ela é muito bonita! |
| Mulher: Ah! Eu conheço ela. Ela está ali na sala com a professora. |
| pai: Obrigado. |
| Pai: Com licença... |
| Laís: Pai! |
| Pai: Surpresa! |
| Braden: One time slowly. |
| Pai: Com licença, estou procurando Laís Santos, você conhece? |
| Mulher: (hesitante) Laís… |
| Pai: Sim, Ela é morena, baixinha.. Eu acho que está de camisa vermelha. Ela é muito bonita! |
| Mulher: Ah! Eu conheço ela. Ela está ali na sala com a professora. |
| pai: Obrigado. |
| Pai: Com licença... |
| Laís: Pai! |
| Pai: Surpresa! |
| Braden: One time fast, with translation. |
| Pai: Com licença, estou procurando Laís Santos, você conhece? |
| Pai: Excuse me, I'm looking for Laís Santos, do you know her? |
| Mulher: (hesitante) Laís… |
| Mulher: (hesitant) Laís… |
| Pai: Sim, Ela é morena, baixinha.. Eu acho que está de camisa vermelha. Ela é muito bonita! |
| Pai: Yes, she's dark, short... I think she's wearing a red shirt. She's very pretty. |
| Mulher: Ah! Eu conheço ela. Ela está ali na sala com a professora. |
| Mulher: Oh! I know her. She's there in that room with her teacher. |
| pai: Obrigado. |
| pai: Thank you. |
| Pai: Com licença... |
| Pai: Excuse me... |
| Laís: Pai! |
| Laís: Dad! |
| Pai: Surpresa! |
| Pai: Surprise! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Braden: What can you tell us about schools in Brazil and how they are? |
| Sílvia: The school system in Brazil is similar to other system of most European countries. There is the primeiro grau, which is roughly equivalent to elementary school. And in the primeiro grau, there are eight series or breaks. |
| Braden: And after that, the lessons move to the “segundo grau”, where they have the primeiro, segundo and terceiro anos or 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years. |
| Sílvia: These are roughly equivalent to freshmen, sophomore, and junior years in American high schools. Most Brazilians graduate at 17 because they have one less year of high school than in the United States, and that’s why there are so many senior age exchange students at your high school. |
| Braden: It’s exactly right. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Braden: The first word we’ll look at is… |
| Sílvia: conhecer [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to know |
| Sílvia: conhecer [slowly - broken down by syllable] conhecer [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: ser [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to be |
| Sílvia: ser [slowly - broken down by syllable] ser [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: estar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to be |
| Sílvia: estar [slowly - broken down by syllable] estar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: moreno [natural native speed] |
| Braden: brown, dark skinned |
| Sílvia: moreno [slowly - broken down by syllable] moreno [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: bonito [natural native speed] |
| Braden: pretty, beautiful |
| Sílvia: bonito [slowly - broken down by syllable] bonito [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: sala [natural native speed] |
| Braden: room |
| Sílvia: sala [slowly - broken down by syllable] sala [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: professora [natural native speed] |
| Braden: female teacher |
| Sílvia: professora [slowly - broken down by syllable] professora [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: surpresa [natural native speed] |
| Braden: surprise |
| Sílvia: surpresa [slowly - broken down by syllable] surpresa [natural native speed] |
| Braden: And our last word is… |
| Sílvia: procurar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to search |
| Sílvia: procurar [slowly - broken down by syllable] procurar [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Braden: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Sílvia: The first word we’ll look at is morena. |
| Braden: Morena and moreno are the feminine and masculine forms for skin color in Portuguese. |
| Sílvia: Right. |
| Braden: It's a very large kind of gray area of exactly how dark or light moreno really is. |
| Sílvia: Exactly. Where the line is drawn is very much a matter of opinion. |
| Braden: There are people that I would probably call light, but somehow, they tend to classify as moreno or morena, depending on the person. And other people who would classify as black to me, but they, for some reason, were classified more as moreno even still. It’s really big, kind of catch-all kind of term. Could you break this down for us? |
| Sílvia: morena |
| Braden: And one time fast. |
| Sílvia: Morena. The last word we’ll look at is baixinha. |
| Braden: Baixinha or baixinho (in masculine) is the adjective used to describe someone who is short or not tall. The diminutive suffix is frequently added when describing someone's height, but not really as an insult. |
| Sílvia: Here, and in many other cases, the diminutive has little relation to any kind of size or quality. You could use the diminutive as an insult, but in this case, since it's Laís's father talking, it's certainly a sign of affection. |
| Braden: Could you break this down? |
| Sílvia: baixinha |
| Braden: And one time fast. |
| Sílvia: baixinha |
| Braden: Let’s take a look at the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Sílvia: The focus of this lesson is ser vs. estar. In the dialogue, we heard the phrase - Sim, Ela é morena, baixinha. Eu acho que está de camisa vermelha. Ela é muito bonita! |
| Braden: Which we translated as “Yes, she's dark, short... I think she's wearing a red shirt. She's very pretty." |
| Sílvia: It is often difficult to learn the differences between ser and estar. This lesson contains many tips and explanations that will help you know when to use ser and when to use estar. |
| Braden: We’ll get right to it and starting with the verb ser. |
| Sílvia: Ser must be used in telling time, day, date. |
| Braden: Could you give us some examples? |
| Sílvia: É uma hora. "It is one o'clock." |
| Braden: And one more. |
| Sílvia: A reunião é amanhã. "The meeting is tomorrow." |
| Braden: And one last one. |
| Sílvia: Hoje é sexta feira. "Today is Friday." |
| Braden: And this is for telling time, for dates, and for days of the week. Ser must also be used when talking about origin or possession or composition. Could you give us some examples of that. |
| Sílvia: Ele é de Mato Grosso do Sul. "He is from Mato Grosso do Sul." |
| Braden: How about another one? |
| Sílvia: A mesa é de madeira. "The table is made of wood." |
| Braden: One more. |
| Sílvia: Os sapatos são de João. "The shoes are John's." |
| Braden: Excellent. So, ser is also used in equative sentences. Could you give us some examples of those? |
| Sílvia: O homem alto é o dono. "The tall man is the owner." |
| Braden: One more. |
| Sílvia: Que horas são? "What time is it?" |
| Braden: How about one more? |
| Sílvia: Eu sou católico. "I am Catholic." |
| Braden: And our last one? |
| Sílvia: É uma escrivaninha. "It is a desk." |
| Braden: And last, ser is used in location of events. For example… |
| Sílvia: A reunião é na sala doze. "The meeting is in room twelve." A entrevista é no escritório do presidente. "The interview is in the president’s office." |
| Braden: Now, onto estar. Estar must be used to express the location of everything, except events and immovable objects. Could you give some examples of that? |
| Sílvia: Onde está meu mouse? "Where is my computer mouse?" |
| Braden: And another one? |
| Sílvia: Minha gravata está na gaveta. "My tie is in the drawer." |
| Braden: And one last one. |
| Sílvia: Estamos no centro? "Are we downtown?" |
| Braden: Here, talking about location of pretty much anything you can think of, except for big things like buildings or meetings or things like that. |
| Sílvia: Right. |
| Braden: And in those senses, you use the verb ser, but for everything else, like computer mouse, like keyboard, like couch, like car, myself, where am I, you use the verb estar. How do you say, “Where am I?” in Portuguese? |
| Sílvia: Onde estou? |
| Braden: The verb estar is also used in certain expressions. Could you give us some examples of those? |
| Sílvia: Estou com fome. "I am hungry." |
| Braden: Literally, the translation is “I am with hunger,” but it just means “I am hungry.” How about another example? |
| Sílvia: Está com calor? "Are you hot?" or “Are you with heat?” |
| Braden: One last one. |
| Sílvia: Eles estão com sede. "They are thirsty" or “They are with thirst.” |
| Braden: That’s a basic rundown of the differences between ser and estar. So, we have some great tables in the PDF with even more examples and explanations on how these two work. This is probably one of the most frequently aired that foreigners make in Portuguese. |
Outro |
| Braden: That just about does it for this lesson! Have fun studying! |
| Sílvia: Bons estudos! |
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