Learn how to talk about the past using the imperfect tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Paloma: Olá! I’m Paloma! Welcome back to PortuguesePod101.com! |
| Gina: And I’m Gina! This is Upper Beginner Season 2 Lesson 20 - Running Into An Old Friend in Brazil. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about the past using the imperfect tense. |
| Paloma: The conversation is between Daniela and Adriana, and it takes place at the supermarket. |
| Gina: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Portuguese. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Paloma: Getting married in Brazil is not dramatically different from most European-based cultures. However, there are several things to remember. |
| Gina: Usually, in Brazil, marriage is done in two different stages. There is the legal stage and then the religious stage. |
| Paloma: In Brazil, they say casamento legal and casamento religioso. |
| Gina: The first one is usually the legal marriage or wedding. |
| Paloma: That’s where the couple will set a date with the cartório or “courthouse” to get married legally. This will often be a small ceremony with the couple and maybe the parents and a few witnesses. |
| : |
| Gina: The "religious marriage" is usually done at a church and with a religious figure there. And it really depends on the religion, but since most Brazilians are Catholic, it’s usually a Catholic priest. |
| Paloma: Lots of people are invited, including family, friends, coworkers, etc. There is also a reception or celebration that happens right after. |
| Gina: For the religious wedding, people will often rent large halls or churches where they will have the wedding ceremony. |
| Paloma: In general, Brazilian weddings are very solemn. But, the celebration that happens after the wedding is usually not solemn at all. (laughs) |
| Gina: And of course! Celebrations are supposed to be happy so there’s dancing, food, music, pictures, and many other things. |
| Paloma: Right, anything that the happy couple wants! |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Paloma: The first phrase were going to look at is irmã mais nova. |
| Gina: “Younger sister". |
| Paloma: Now, you may sometimes hear the phrase irmã mais jovem which is “sister more young" but of course is understood as "younger sister". |
| Gina: However, this is probably the less common of the two phrases. |
| Paloma: Throughout most of Brazil, the phrase irmã mais nova is more often heard. If you want to talk about your younger brother, it would be irmão mais novo. |
| Gina: What about "older sister" and "older brother"? |
| Paloma: Good question! Those would be irmã mais velha and irmão mais velho, respectively. |
| Gina: Great. Okay so, what’s our next phrase? |
| Paloma: The next phrase is fim de semana which means "weekend". |
| Gina: The interesting thing about this phrase is that there’s an alternate version. |
| Paloma: That’s right. And that is final de semana. |
| Gina: Both ways are correct and accepted. Although the first version is accepted as more correct, you shouldn’t be afraid to use the other one as well. |
| Paloma: Yes, that’s right. Okay, so now, onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Paloma: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about the past using the imperfect tense. |
| Gina: Basically the past imperfect tense in Portuguese talks about some kind of action that happened in the past over a period of time. |
| Paloma: Right, and usually these actions were not completed, or the end is not defined. In English, it is usually translated in the progressive form or as “used to”. For example eu cozinhava. |
| Gina: “I was cooking” or “I used to cook” depending on the context. Great! So first, let’s see the conjugations for the imperfect tense for the singular persons. |
| Paloma: Right. So, when conjugating "AR" verbs, we drop the "R" and add "VA". For example, the verb cantar, “to sing”becomes cantava. |
| Gina: Right. It can be used with I, you or he and she. |
| Paloma: Correct. Remember that in Brazil we mostly use você, instead of tu. But we’ll include the tu and vós conjugations in the Lesson Notes in case you want to learn those too. |
| Gina: Now with "ER" verbs, drop the "ER" and add "IA”. |
| Paloma: So the verb obedecer , “to obey” would be conjugated as obedecia. |
| Gina: And, "IR" verbs follow the same pattern. Drop the "IR" and add "IA" to the end. |
| Paloma: The verb servir, “to serve”, for example, becomes servia. |
| Gina: Now, these are only the singular conjugations for the verbs. Let’s now see the plural conjugations. Luckily, it is the same pattern for the 3 groups. |
| Paloma: Right. When talking about "we", add an acute accent on the “a” or “i” and add “mos”. |
| Gina: Yes, for example, how do you say “we were sleeping”? |
| Paloma: “To sleep” is dormir. So we drop the “IR” and add “íamos”. So it would be Nós dormíamos. |
| Gina: Nice. And when talking about “you” or "they", just add an "M" at the end. Paloma, how can we say "they were sleeping"? |
| Paloma: You take the verb dormir, drop the "IR" and add "IAM." So you get the phrase Eles dormiam. |
| Gina: Oh, one thing to always remember is that the tonic syllable - or the stressed syllable - from the singular form is preserved in the plural form. |
| Paloma Good point! For example, the verb falar, “to talk”, becomes falava in the singular form. When you change it to the plural tense, you get falávamos, not falavamos. Can you hear how the tonic syllable is the same? falava; falávamos |
| Gina: Okay, before we finish, let’s hear some other sentences. |
| Paloma: Great idea! In the dialogue we heard Eu pensei que você morava em Belém! |
| Gina: Which we translated as "I thought you were living in Belém!" The past tense is the "were" and the idea that action was continuing. |
| Paloma: Right. Another example would be Estava chovendo às duas. |
| Gina: “It was raining at two.” Excellent! Listeners, please be sure to check the Lesson Notes! |
| Paloma: Definitely! There you can find the conjugation for all the regular verbs! |
Outro |
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| Gina: Thanks for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Paloma: Até mais! Tchau! |
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