QUICK PORTUGUESE LEARNING TUTORIAL

QUICK PORTUGUESE LEARNING TUTORIAL
By Gors – 2.014


This tutorial’s purpose is to teach very basic Portuguese to those who enjoy languages and want a starting point for learning Portuguese. This will cover the Brazilian variant of Portuguese spoken in the ‘interior’ of São Paulo, so accents may differ.

Portuguese is a Romance Language, which means it was derived from Latin, an old language spoken by ancient Romans. If you don’t know Latin, know that words such as ‘circus’, ‘arena’ and ‘flammable’ comes from Latin!

It is mainly written with a slightly modified alphabet, as shown:



Notice the lack of K, W and Y: those are considered foreign letters, and while they were re-added into the alphabet in the 2009 spelling reform, they are not used at all in normal words, appearing only in loanwords and given names.

Pronunciation is easy, as Portuguese was tailored to be a straight-forward language. This means, even if a person never saw the word before, they would be able to read it correctly. This is achieved with solid grammar rules and accentuation. However, there are some words that require attention when writing and reading!


ACCENTS

When studying English, I hated the fact that the O in ‘women’ sounded like I. “How am I supposed to know that?” Fortunately, in Portuguese, these sound shifts are marked with accents, which lessen the numbers of weird inaccuracies.

The accents not only change the sound of the vowel, but it also marks the strongest syllable of the word. This means that a word CAN NOT have more than one accent, as no word can have two or more strong syllables.

The accents are:

AGUDO (acute) – Represented with a ´ over the vowel. It changes the vowel’s sound to be ‘ABERTO’ (open).
CRASE (grave) – Represented with a `. It can only happen with the letter A.
CIRCUNFLEXO (circumflex) – Represented with a ^. Can only be combined with the vowels A, E and O; I and U are excluded. It changes the vowel’s sound to be ‘FECHADO’ (close).
TIL (tilde) – Represented with a ~. Can only be combined with the vowels A and O; E, I and U are excluded. It gives a nasal sound to the vowel. It's not considered an accent, because it doesn't mark the strong syllable.

Here are the vowels with its equivalent sound in English below:




CONSONANTS

Consonants change sounds depending on their place in the word, but they follow guidelines similarly to English.

C:

• The letter C will sound like ‘K’ if before A, O, U or consonant.
o Caco, Cume, Couve, Facção.
• Otherwise, it will sound like ‘S’.
o Cenoura, Cimento.
• If the letter C sounds like ‘S’ before A, O and U, it becomes a cedilha (Ç).
o Aço, Açu, Maçã.
• NOTE: The cedilha never starts a word!

D:

• The syllable ‘di’ sounds like ‘gee’.
o Da, De, Di, Do, Du -> Dah, Deh, Gee, Doh, Doo.

G:

• Similarly with ‘C’, the letter G Will have a hard sound before A, O, U or consonant.
o Gago, Gol, Magma.
• Otherwise, it will sound like the ‘S’ in treasure, pleasure.
o Ágil, Gesso, Gina.

H:

• Starting ‘H’ is always silent. It’s kept for etymology purposes.
o ‘Hálito’ sounds just like ‘Álito’ when read aloud.
• ‘CH’ is always read as ‘SH’.
o Cheque, Chamar, Chumaço.
• ‘LH’ is read as ‘LL’ in Spanish ‘Paella’.
o Malha, Calha, Alho.
• ‘NH’ is read as ‘Ñ’ in Spanish ‘Mañana’.
o Manhã, Sonho.

J:

• The letter J will always sound like the ‘S’ in treasure, pleasure.
o Jambo, Juba, Molejo.

R:

• The letter R will sound like English starting H (as in ‘hole’) if it starts a word.
o Rato, Rei, Roxo, Rude.
• Otherwise, it will sound like ‘TT’ in ‘Better’, ‘Little’ (American English).
o Maravilha, Areia, Árido, Ouro.
• If the letter R is doubled, it will be read as starting H altogether.
o Arroz, Arremate.

S:

• The letter S will sound like ‘S’ if it starts a word, or is before a sonsonant.
o Sábado, Sempre, Silo, Soja, Sultão, Mastro.
• Otherwise, it’ll sound like ‘Z’.
o Casa, Quase, Osório, Casual.
• If the letter S is doubled, it will be read as ‘S’ altogether.
o Massa, Passe, Osso.

T:

• Similarly with ‘D’, the syllable ‘ti’ will sound like ‘chee’ in ‘Cheese’.
o Ta, Te, Ti, To, Tu -> Tah, Teh, Chee, Toe, Too.

X:

• Arguably the most complicated letter in Portuguese, it has all those possible readings:
• CH
o Usually at the start of words: Xamã, Xilofone, Xogum.
o Words that start with EN, except ‘Encher’ and its derivatives: Enxame, Enxada, Enxugar.
• Z
o Usually after E: Êxodo, Exato, Hexágono.
• S
o Usually after E: Extensão, Extra.
• KS
o Always at the end of the word: Tórax, Hálux, Xérox.
o Usually after vowels A, I and O: Axônio, Íxion, Paradoxo.

OBS: Etymologically mute letters (such as ‘P’ in Psicologia, Pterodáctilo; ‘T’ in Hábitat, Déficit; ‘G’ in Cognato etc) are read aloud as a short syllable.


VERBS AND PRONOUNS

Portuguese verbs have many conjugations, a trait inherited from Latin. This way, you can just say ‘Estou comendo’ instead of ‘Eu estou comendo’: the verb already implies that it’s conjugated for the pronoun ‘Eu’.

Verbs are action-describing words, much like English. Here, you will find 3 types of verbs: Primeira Conjugação (First type), Segunda Conjugação (Second type) and Terceira Conjugação (Third type). There’s an exceptional case of the Second Type verb, which I’ll dub “Special Type”.

The following table will display only the essentials for an everyday talk, without all the pronouns and possibilities.



“Tu” and “Vós” are not used colloquially, that is, in spoken Portuguese. Those are usually limited to serious written documents (such as official documents and the Bible), but they may appear in some dialects, such as the Southern dialect and European Portuguese.

In order to keep this tutorial short, these will be ignored, but I strongly suggest you to give it a check later.

VERBAL TIMES

INFINITIVO (Infinitive) - The verb’s default form. The other conjugations stem from here.

INDICATIVO (Indicative) - This verbal time is used for certain things. It is further divided into other times:
• PRESENTE (Present) - for actions happening right now.
• PRETÉRITO PERFEITO (Perfect Past) - for actions that already happened.
• PRETÉRITO IMPERFEITO (Imperfect Past) - for actions that are still happening.
• PRETÉRITO MAIS-QUE-PERFEITO (More Than Perfect Past) - for actions that happened before an action that already happened.
• FUTURO (Future) - Actions that are yet to happen.
• FUTURO DO PRETÉRITO (Future of the Past) - for actions that would happen in the future, but didn’t because of a past action.

SUBJUNTIVO (Subjunctive) - This verbal time is used when you are not certain of it happening. Basically, if you are unsure, this is the verbal time to use. It is further divided into other times:
• PRESENTE (Present) - for actions that may happen right now.
• PRETÉRITO IMPERFEITO (Imperfect Past) - for actions that did not happen, but it’s said as a condition.
• FUTURO (Future) - for actions that may happen in the future.

GERÚNDIO (Gerund) - A special verbal time, equivalent to ‘-ING’ in English.

PARTICÍPIO (Participle) - A verbal time, equivalent to Past Participle in English.

IMPERATIVO (Imperative) - A verbal time used for giving orders. Can be Negative. This Verbal Time doesn’t have a conjugation for the pronoun ‘EU’ as you cannot give an order to yourself.


Observation: I will use a Simplified version of verb conjugation in order to make it similar to English, but again, I suggest you to check out the Complete conjugation later.

AUXILIAR VERBS

These verbs are important, as combining them with the main verb will yield different verbal times. Those have special conjugations that must be memorized.

SER/ESTAR

In Portuguese, the English verb ‘to be’ can be translated into two different auxiliary verbs: SER and ESTAR.

SER:
Gerúndio: Sendo Particípio: Sido



ESTAR:
Gerúndio: Estando Particípio: Estado



SER is used when the described thing is always like that, and ESTAR, for things that could change. Confusing? Let me explain:

If a car is rubbish and always runs slowly, you can say “O carro É lento”. But when the car is normally fast, but for some reason it is slow today, you can say “O carro ESTÁ lento”.

This small detail can and will change the meaning of the sentence if you mix those verbs!

IR

Another auxiliary verb, IR means ‘to go’, and much like English, it’s used as an auxiliary verb.

IR:
Gerúndio: Indo Particípio: Ido



FIRST TYPE VERB (Simplified)

First Type Verbs are verbs that end in ‘AR’. It’s by far the most common type in Portuguese.

EXAMPLE: AMAR
Gerúndio: Amando Particípio: Amado



SECOND TYPE VERB (Simplified)

Second Type Verbs are verbs that end in ‘ER’.

EXAMPLE: COMER
Gerúndio: COMENDO Particípio: COMIDO



SPECIAL TYPE VERB (Simplified)

Special Types end with ‘OR’. All those verbs are related and conjugated similarly.
EXAMPLE: PÔR
Gerúndio: PONDO Particípio: POSTO



THIRD TYPE VERB (Simplified)

Third Type Verbs end with ‘IR’.
EXAMPLE: SAIR
Gerúndio: SAINDO Particípio: SAÍDO