Learn how to use question words and question phrases
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Paloma: Olá! Eu sou a Paloma! |
| Gina: Gina here! Welcome back to PortuguesePod101.com. This is Upper Beginner Season 2 Lesson 2 - Are You Always Short of Money in Brazil? In this lesson you’ll learn about question words and question phrases. |
| Paloma: This conversation takes place during lunch break at school. |
| Gina: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Portuguese. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Paloma: The Brazilian economy is a very intriguing mystery to most foreigners. Throughout Brazil’s history, extremely high inflation rates have plagued us constantly. |
| Gina: Yeah, I read that only in the past twenty-five years or so, Brazil has been able to put the brakes on their extremely high inflation rate. |
| Paloma: Exactly. Most people over the age of thirty have vivid memories of crazy inflation and how prices could change from one morning to the next. |
| Gina: Yes, and to put the brakes on inflation, the Brazilian government invented a number of financial markers, checks, and measurements to monitor the Brazilian economy. |
| Paloma: That’s right. They’ve also created many taxes and tariffs they can increase or decrease in various areas, to keep this inflation rate down. |
| Gina: Even though the large number of tariffs and taxes is a burden to the Brazilian economy, it’s much less so than high inflation rates. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What’s first? |
| Paloma: First, we have nunca... pra nada. |
| Gina: It's an interesting phrase that means “never enough for anything.” |
| Paloma: Right. This is a very useful phrase in Portuguese which can be used in many different ways. |
| Gina: It can even be used all by itself particularly when referring to things you don’t have enough of. But it’s probably most frequently used in connection with phrases that talk about having something. |
| Paloma: That’s right. For example, Ele nunca têm tempo pra nada. |
| Gina: “He never has enough time for anything.” |
| Paloma: In Brazilian Portuguese though, the word “enough” is inferred and isn’t something you need to say explicitly. |
| Gina: Okay. Next we’re going to talk about a verb, right Paloma? |
| Paloma: Yes, that would be the verb “falar”. |
| Gina: Although we usually translate it as “to speak”, it can also mean “to tell” depending on the situation. |
| Paloma: For example, in the dialogue you heard, Você já falou com a professora? |
| Gina: Right, and that literally translates to “You already spoke with your professor?” But it means “Have you told your professor yet?” |
| Paloma: We also have “dizer” that can also mean “to tell”. But Brazilians tend to use “falar” more often. |
| Gina: That’s a nice tip, Paloma. Okay, what’s next? |
| Paloma: Our last phrase is deixa pra lá. |
| Gina: It can have several meanings. One of those is “I don’t want to talk about it.” |
| Paloma: Yes, which is the way it was used in the dialogue. Deixa pra lá could also be used to mean something like “never mind” or “don’t worry about it.” |
| Gina: That’s a very useful phrase. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn about question words and question phrases. |
| Paloma: Right. Our first two question words are o que and quem... |
| Gina: ...which mean “what” and “who”, respectively. These words are used almost the same way as in English. |
| Paloma: Yes, and when used in a question, these words will usually be the first words of the sentence. |
| Gina: That’s right, but you can also find them at the end of a sentence. |
| Paloma: For example, Quem é ele? |
| Gina: “Who is he?” |
| Paloma: Vocês estão fazendo o quê? |
| Gina: “What are all of you doing?” |
| Paloma: Other question words are quando, “when”, como, “how”, quanto, “how much” or “how many”, and por que, “why”. |
| Gina: Great. How about some examples? |
| Paloma: For sure! Quando você vai vir? |
| Gina: “When are you coming?” |
| Paloma: Como você faz isso? |
| Gina: “How do you do that?” The dialogue had three interesting phrases that can be used with these question words. What were these, Paloma? |
| Paloma: Ah yes. These phrases are o que que tá, o que, and por que você. |
| Gina: Let’s look at them one by one. |
| Paloma: Ok, the first one is the phrase o que que tá. |
| Gina: It’s frequently used by Brazilians in many different situations and contexts, but it usually means “what’s”. |
| Paloma: For example, O que que tá no porta-malas? |
| Gina: “What’s in the trunk?” |
| Paloma: Yes. Next is the phrase o quê, which is often used by itself, and usually in reaction to something that someone else has said or done. |
| Gina: In the dialogue, Carlos comes in yelling about something that’s very irritating and when his friend asks him what’s wrong he says “I don’t want to talk about it.” |
| Paloma: And to this his friend answers O quê? |
| Gina: “What?” I see! Ok and the last one? |
| Paloma: The last phase we’ll look at is por que você. This is a very useful phrase. |
| Gina: It means “why you”. This question phrase has a kind of formula that you can follow, right Paloma? |
| Paloma: Right! It can be used to make similar phrases for different situations. Just remember: por que, plus the person, plus action phrase. For example we could say, Por que ela está aqui? |
| Gina: Which translates to “Why is she here?” |
| MARKETING PIECE |
| Paloma: Listeners, can you understand Brazilian TV shows, movies or songs? |
| Gina: How about friends and loved ones’ conversations in Portuguese? |
| Paloma: If you want to know what’s going on, we have a tool to help. |
| Gina: Line-by-line audio. |
| Paloma: Listen to the lesson conversations Line-By-Line, and learn to understand natural Portuguese fast! |
| Gina: It’s really simple. |
| Paloma: With a click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation. |
| Gina: Listen again and again, and tune your ear to natural Portuguese. |
| Paloma: Rapidly understand natural Portuguese with this powerful tool. |
| Gina: Find this feature on the lesson page in the Lesson Materials section at PortuguesePod101.com. |
Outro |
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| Gina: Excellent work, everybody. That’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Paloma: Até mais!l tool. |
| Gina: Find this feature on the lesson page in the Lesson Materials section at PortuguesePod101.com. |
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