Portuguese for foreigners
Sandra Ferreira dos Santos Ribeiro
PORTUGUESE FOR FOREIGNERS
Sandra Ferreira dos Santos Ribeiro
(Aluna do Curso de Secretariado Executivo Trilíngüe da Universidade Estácio de Sá)
At this section of RESET magazine, people from all over the world will find some
relevant tips related to correct usage of the oral formal variety of Brazilian Portuguese (BP).
These tips were selected to help foreign people who intend to travel to Brazil for any reason to
keep communication with Brazilian native speakers. For this first number of RESET
magazine we’ve chosen to talk about some important grammar structures for our visitors
interested in triggering and keeping understandable communication through BP.
1. The possibility of contraction of a preposition and an article in some situations,
like before the name of countries, cities or avenues. There are some places names which
require the contraction because they are determined by an article (o, a, os, as). For example:
a) Moro na Inglaterra (I live in England) (na = em + a)
b) No dia 3 de Junho estarei em São Paulo. (By June, 3, I will be in São Paulo)
(no contraction)
Note that in example (a) the name Inglaterra requires the article a, so the contraction
is mandatory. In example (b) there is no contraction because the name São Paulo doesn’t
require an article. Therefore, it’s necessary to get in touch with the language in a regular basis
to know exactly when a place names requires or not the article and preposition contraction
(see box below).
Countries
Cities
Streets, avenues and bairros
O Brasil
Brasília
A Av. Presidente Vargas
A Argentina
Buenos Aires
A Rua do Rosário
A China
Pequim
A Alameda São Boaventura
O Japão
Tóquio
A Praça da Bandeira
A Alemanha
Berlim
A Travessa das Iglesinhas
Os Estados Unidos
Washington
A Conde de Bonfim
A França
Paris
A Marquês de São Vicente
A Itália
Roma
A Praça General Osório
RESET – Revista Eletrônica do Secretariado Executivo Trilíngüe; 2006 V.1, N.1 : 31 - 33
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Portuguese for foreigners
Sandra Ferreira dos Santos Ribeiro
O Canadá
Otawa
A Inglaterra
Londres
Copacabana
Portugal
Niterói
Ipanema
Guiné Bissau
A Visconde de Pirajá
O Amazonas
Laranjeiras
O Arizona
Botafogo
Angola
O Texas
Nilópolis
Cabo Verde
O Pará
Petrópolis
São
Tomé
e
Príncipe
Contractions using preposition em:
Preposition
Article
Contraction
em
o
no
em
a
na
em
os
nos
em
as
nas
Contractions using preposition de:
Preposition
Article
Contraction
de
o
do
de
a
da
de
os
dos
de
as
das
2. Special functions of verb to be in BP.
Verb to be (ser or estar) has different functions in BP. Beyond it’s most common
usage, there are some other meanings it may express in some contexts. Like:
a) To indicates someone’s possession:
Este carro é do Roberto. (This car belongs to Roberto)
b) Chronological time:
Agora é inverno. (It’s Winter now)
RESET – Revista Eletrônica do Secretariado Executivo Trilíngüe; 2006 V.1, N.1 : 31 - 33
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Portuguese for foreigners
Sandra Ferreira dos Santos Ribeiro
Hoje é dia 20. (Today is 20)
c) Occupation:
Eles são jornalistas. (They are reporters)
d) Position:
Ele é presidente da empresa. (He is the president of the Company)
e) Religion:
Nós somos católicos. (We are Catholics)
f) In some sentences with verb-subject (VS) inversion :
É importante falar Chinês. (It´s important to speak Chinese)
São necessárias 30 pessoas para a realização do projeto. (It will be necessary 30
people for the project)
RESET – Revista Eletrônica do Secretariado Executivo Trilíngüe; 2006 V.1, N.1 : 31 - 33
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