Learn about a preposition that will help you express where you are going
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sílvia: Bom dia! Bem-vindo ao PortuguesePod101.com! |
| Braden: Upper Beginner Season 1, Lesson 8, Inquiring After Someone's Health in Portuguese. Hello and welcome to PortuguesePod101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Portuguese. |
| Sílvia: I’m Sílvia and 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, you’ll be learning about the Portuguese preposition “a.” |
| Sílvia: Where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Braden: This conversation takes place mid afternoon at the lanchonete, and it’s between Juninho and Clara. |
| Sílvia: What’s the formality level? |
| Braden: It’s a continuation of our last lesson, so they’re both friends, so it’s pretty informal. |
| Sílvia: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Juninho: Ta bom mãe, vou chegar às dezoito horas, tá? Beijo, tchau. |
| Clara: Como está sua mãe? |
| Juninho: Está bem. Ainda está um pouco fraca por causa da cirurgia. |
| Clara: Sei. Espero que ela melhore logo. |
| Juninho: Também. Então você está pronta? Já comeu? |
| Clara: Já. E você, já tá pronto? |
| Juninho: Comi pão em casa. Vou so pedir um café para acordar. |
| Clara: Ótimo! Aí vamos a praia. |
| Braden: One time slowly. |
| Juninho: Ta bom mãe, vou chegar às dezoito horas, tá? Beijo, tchau. |
| Clara: Como está sua mãe? |
| Juninho: Está bem. Ainda está um pouco fraca por causa da cirurgia. |
| Clara: Sei. Espero que ela melhore logo. |
| Juninho: Também. Então você está pronta? Já comeu? |
| Clara: Já. E você, já tá pronto? |
| Juninho: Comi pão em casa. Vou so pedir um café para acordar. |
| Clara: Ótimo! Aí vamos a praia. |
| Braden: One time fast, with translation. |
| Juninho: Ta bom mãe, vou chegar às dezoito horas, tá? Beijo, tchau. |
| Juninho: Okay mom, I'll be home at six o'clock, okay? Kiss, bye-be. |
| Clara: Como está sua mãe? |
| Clara: How's your mother? |
| Juninho: Está bem. Ainda está um pouco fraca por causa da cirurgia. |
| Juninho: She's good. Still a bit weak because of the surgery. |
| Clara: Sei. Espero que ela melhore logo. |
| Clara: I understand. I hope she gets better soon. |
| Juninho: Também. Então você está pronta? Já comeu? |
| Juninho: Me too. So, are you ready? Have you finished eating? |
| Clara: Já. E você, já tá pronto? |
| Clara: Yes. And you, are you ready? |
| Juninho: Comi pão em casa. Vou so pedir um café para acordar. |
| Juninho: I ate bread at home. I'll just order some coffee to wake up. |
| Clara: Ótimo! Aí vamos a praia. |
| Clara: Great! Then we'll go to the beach. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Braden: Something I wanna talk about here is a little bit about café. |
| Sílvia: Brazil has been a major coffee producer since the 1800s. For a long time, coffee was a major Brazilian export generating great deal of weight and political power for the owners of the coffee plantations. |
| Braden: And the largest and most powerful plantations were in what- today is São Paulo. And today, São Paulo still remains the business center of Brazil, because of these roots laid down by the coffee barons or… |
| Sílvia: Barões do café. Brazilian coffee has been such an important deal here in Brazil that in the 1920’s, when you guys had the recession in the United States… |
| Braden: Oh, during The Great Depression? |
| Sílvia: Yes. |
| Braden: Yeah. |
| Sílvia: Our coffee production here was affected as well because we usually export, and the government had to support the coffee plantations to keep it going, you know. |
| Braden: Didn’t know that. So the government even had to step in because it was such a big deal, such a huge part of the economy that probably would have destroyed the Brazilian economy, had it fallen. |
| Sílvia: Yes, they had huge stocks and couldn’t sell them. |
| Braden: And also, a lot of the immigrants that now live in Brazil came to Brazil to work on the coffee plantation. Italians came, Japanese people came, Chinese people came. A lot of the mixture that exists in São Paulo State and São Paulo city is caused by this original coffee plantation. Okay, so, let’s take a look at the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Braden: The first word we’ll look at is… |
| Sílvia: galera [natural native speed] |
| Braden: group of friends, friends |
| Sílvia: galera [slowly - broken down by syllable] galera [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: pronto [natural native speed] |
| Braden: ready |
| Sílvia: pronto [slowly - broken down by syllable] pronto [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: cereal [natural native speed] |
| Braden: cereal, grains |
| Sílvia: cereal [slowly - broken down by syllable] cereal [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: café [natural native speed] |
| Braden: coffee |
| Sílvia: café [slowly - broken down by syllable] café [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: acordar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to wake up |
| Sílvia: acordar [slowly - broken down by syllable] acordar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: só [natural native speed] |
| Braden: just, only |
| Sílvia: só [slowly - broken down by syllable] só [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: por [natural native speed] |
| Braden: by, for |
| Sílvia: por [slowly - broken down by syllable] por [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: por causa de [natural native speed] |
| Braden: because of |
| Sílvia: por causa de [slowly - broken down by syllable] por causa de [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: para [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to, for |
| Sílvia: para [slowly - broken down by syllable] para [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: chegar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to arrive |
| Sílvia: chegar [slowly - broken down by syllable] chegar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: cirurgia [natural native speed] |
| Braden: surgery |
| Sílvia: cirurgia [slowly - broken down by syllable] cirurgia [natural native speed] |
| Braden: And our last word is... |
| Sílvia: fraco [natural native speed] |
| Braden: weak |
| Sílvia: fraco [slowly - broken down by syllable] fraco [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Braden: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases in this lesson. |
| Sílvia: The first phrase we’ll look at is beijo, tchau. |
| Braden: When saying “goodbye,” Brazilians often say beijo, tchau. Brazilians really like to kiss, don’t they? |
| Sílvia: I can't say I know too many people from any culture who don't like to kiss though. |
| Braden: Brazilians like to kiss so much actually that they kiss when they greet and when they say goodbye. |
| Sílvia: Yes, but girls kiss girls, and guys kiss girls, but guys don't kiss guys. |
| Braden: And that’s important. This little phrase that we’re talking about, this beijo, tchau, most often happens over the telephone. When you can’t actually give the kiss or give the hug or whatever, the physical contact, you just say it. It’s just another way to say “goodbye.” |
| Sílvia: Yes. |
| Braden: Kiss, hug. Could you break it down for us? |
| Sílvia: beijo, tchau |
| Braden: And one time fast. |
| Sílvia: beijo, tchau |
| Braden: Notice the intonation, that’s important, da…, da, da. What’s our next phrase? |
| Sílvia: The next phrase we’ll look at is por causa de. |
| Braden: Okay, por causa de literally translates to "for the cause of" or "for the reason of.” However, it's used almost exactly like porque or just “because." |
| Sílvia: The tip is that when you need to give an explanation, you use porque, but when you're just giving a short reason like "my job," you use por causa de. |
| Braden: Could you give us an example of that? |
| Sílvia: You can say, “I got late because of the traffic.” “Cheguei atrasada por causa do trânsito” |
| Braden: And notice the contraction in there. She said por causa do. |
| Sílvia: Yes, it’s de plus “o” which equals do because trânsito is a masculine word. |
| Braden: Last tip here, every so often, you’re gonna hear a native Brazilian say something like por causa que to mean the exact same thing. Meaning wise, identical, but grammatically, this is completely wrong, but natives will say it. Don’t be mean and try and correct them. Just know that it should be por causa de. Is there any open or closed here? |
| Sílvia: Por has a closed O. Causa has two open A’s. Oh, D here is closed, de or de. |
| Braden: Could you break it down real quick? |
| Sílvia: por causa de |
| Braden: And one time fast. |
| Sílvia: por causa de |
| Braden: Okay, so let’s take a look at the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Sílvia: The focus of this lesson is the prepositions a. In the dialogue, we heard the phrase - Ótimo! Aí vamos a praia. |
| Braden: Which we translated as, “Great! Then we'll go to the beach.” |
| Sílvia: The preposition “a” means "to," and just like em and de, “a” contracts when followed by the articles “a” and “o.” |
| Braden: That’s right! So, to say “to the,” we use the following contractions. |
| Sílvia: a + o = ao (preceding a masculine noun); for example - ao homem. |
| a + a = à (with a crase) (preceding a feminine noun); for example - à mulher. |
| Braden: The preposition “a” is used and the preposition para both to mean "to." What’s the difference between “a” as a preposition and para? |
| Sílvia: They have the exact same meaning, to me, at least, gives the idea you’re moving from a place to another, you’re going somewhere. |
| Braden: Just like vamos para a praia. |
| Sílvia: Yes, I say vamos a praia or vamos para a praia. |
| Braden: “a” is for shorter term things, so typically, vamos a praia “let’s go to the beach,” because you’re probably gonna go there, spend a few hours and then come home, or maybe spend the day. But if you say vamos para a praia, typically, that’s a long-term thing, you’re going to go stay, maybe spend the night at the beach, or it’s kind of a longer term thing. Could you give us just a few examples of how this kind of work together? |
| Sílvia: Sure. Ele vai ao quarto. “"He is going to the bedroom." Ela vai sair à festa. |
| "She is going out to the party." |
| Braden: Okay, so what’s the difference between these two, as far as the preposition “a”? |
| Sílvia: On the first sentence - Ele vai ao quarto, the preposition is followed by the article “o” because quarto is a masculine word, so we have “ao quarto.” In the second sentence, we have the “à” (with a crase) because it’s the preposition “a” plus the article “a” for the feminine word festa. |
| Braden: Anytime you see that “à” with that little crase, that little kind of backward tick, kind of line going up to the left, that means “to the.” It has both meanings built into it, not just one. |
| Sílvia: Correct. |
| Braden: Okay, how about a few more examples? |
| Sílvia: Ela foi à cama. Ela foi para a cama. |
| Braden: Any difference between these two? |
| Sílvia: The meaning is the same. |
| Braden: So, just bringing everything kind of back together here at the end, “a” means “to” and so does para. They both mean “to,” and they have very, very similar meanings, so similar that it’s- they’re almost indistinguishable from each other. |
Outro |
| Braden: Well, that just about does it for this lesson! Thanks for listening! |
| Sílvia: Até mais! |
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