Facts About Portuguese Grammar Use
Learning a new language is not easy. Because with every language, knowing the words is not enough. There are certain rules associated with the correct usage. Similarly, when you are thinking about mastering Portuguese, you can’t leave the Portuguese grammar out of the equation.
And it may seem intimidating to you but trust us, we have found the ways through which you can learn the rules and ultimately get fluent in Portuguese. In this article, we’ll be giving you some essential tips on how you can perfect your language skills. Whether you are a student who is looking to study in Brazil or a researcher writing on an interesting topic that involves Portuguese, the points below will help you immensely.
Go with The Apps
The world is going crazy over apps. Every day is a new day for mobile app developers. Luckily, linguistic help is also available through interactive and useful ways of learning. There are even apps that can help you with your personalized needs too.
So, first thing’s first, pronunciation is undeniably the most important part of any language. While these apps try to perfect your skills through great content and practical exercises, they will also help you in learning the grammatical rules. Duolingo, Babbel, and Google Translate are great apps to start with. Download them today.
Use Online Tutorials and Videos
If you spend most of your time on your mobile device just like the rest of the world, then you can utilize one hour daily to perfect your grammatical knowledge of the Portuguese language.
Youtube videos, language tutorials, and social media pages often share daily content for different languages. For those who are looking to improve their formal writing, reading online journals with their translation and going through popular essays will surely help you.
Online Language Courses and Podcasts
These two ways are the hottest trends. Language programs are great for your vocabulary building and verbs usage. They also help you in polishing your grammatical knowledge. So, choose a program that goes well with your requirements and be consistent in your learning spree.
Go Oldschool
Take some time off of your social media and go with the traditional way. Nothing beats a good textbook encompassing all the Portuguese grammar rules in detail. These books come with examples, tell you about the usages in different situations, and can prove to be extremely helpful in passing your exams or perfecting your verbal skills.
The tables, that give your ideas on how you can use the right form of Portuguese verb and adverb are like a bonus for you. These textbooks give you phrases, let you practice through question answers, and clear your concepts about nouns and pronouns. So, this is why you must fix some hours and stick to that routine. That’s the key.
Set Your Priorities Straight
Another crucial point is to analyze your need. Is learning Portuguese grammar a requirement? Maybe you’re moving to Brazil and you’ll be spending the next many years of your life there.
Or is it just for the sake of some assignment? Your professor asked you to write an essay on Portuguese verbs and books.
In the former case, you’re supposed to learn the informal variant in a better and more fluent way. However, if you are going with the academic requirements, finding a more formal lesson is more than necessary. Once you have checked that aspect well, moving on to finding the right option will be easier for you.
About Portuguese Grammar
We are sure that the abovementioned tips will prove really helpful in your Portuguese learning journey. But the fun part about its grammar is hidden in its rules and facts. And we believe that these facts will not only surprise you but will also help you along the way.
Personal Pronouns Differ
Even though Portuguese is an official language in nine countries, the most popular versions are European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. And in both these versions, the use of personal pronouns is different.
Yes, that’s right. The more popular form, spoken in Brazil is considered gentler to the ears. Perhaps the same reason why the pronoun “you” is different here. In Brazil, the formal pronoun used for third-person singular is voce, and it is almost always used for “you”.
Whereas in the European version of Portuguese, the term tu is used for “you”. The interesting thing to note here is that European Portuguese also used voce for you but only for formal usage.
They use Voce when they are addressing an elder or someone who holds a prestigious place in the community. In Brazil, masculine and feminine terms are used for you. O Senhor for a man and A Senhora for a woman. A gente is also used for “us” when it is also a third-person singular form.
Portuguese Articles Are Gender-Based
A definite article is used with something specific, just like we use “the” for specific things. In Portuguese, the article depends on gender. For the masculine, it’s always O, and for the feminine, it’s always A.
For instance, O Homem, means the man. A mulher, means the woman. Even if they are plural, definite articles will still be following gender. O homen means The Men and A mulheres means The Women.
You’d be thinking that indefinite articles would be different, but no, they are the same too. For example, they say Uma Casa which means A home, and home is feminine in Brazil. Um Emprego means A job which could be any job but the job is masculine in Portuguese.
Gender Rules
No, we are not talking about some social science rule or a demographic stat. We are here to tell you that masculines in Portuguese almost always end with an o, whereas feminine always ends with a. Like in this example here, A Cadeira which means a chair is feminine, O Carro which means the car is masculine.
Well, there are exceptions of course, just as in programa, systema, and problema, a is used but they are all masculine. More interestingly, words ending in ao can be either feminine or masculine.
Some examples include Ocaracao which means heart, and Oportao which means gate and they are both masculines. A mao which means hand, and O Sulaco which means an answer or a solution, are both examples of ao feminine words.
Same thing for the words ending with e Uma Semente means A seed which is a feminine word whereas Os Dentes means the teeth which are masculine plural. Even when an adjective is added to a word, its gender is always considered before inclusion.
So, weren’t these interesting? If you want to learn more about grammatically correct writing and usage, you can take all these into account and see how much they’ll help you. The best way to become proficient in Portuguese grammar usage is by practicing it with others. You can join a community where you can benefit from other students.
If you are in a college or a university, see if you can find the people who belong to Brazil or any other Portuguese speaking country. Try conversing with them, make note of the errors they point to. Surely, you can’t reach their level in a day or two but it will certainly improve over time.
