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Saturday, March 3, 2018

How to Remember Basic Brazilian Portuguese Words




Problem
It's easy enough to see that o menino is a boy and mulher is mother when I am reading, but how do I remember the Portuguese when I want to say something?

I learned these words six months ago. It's a lot quicker this time. But I still have to remind myself the first time I do the exercise and get it all wrong, or take ten second to think. When you are talking, you want the words to flow out automatically, not keep people waiting whilst you hunt for words and construct a sentence.

Answers
At first I had trouble remembering which endings went with which word, feminine and masculine. But it's pretty easy. The prepositions and adjective match the nouns. Think of it like matching colour on a string of beads. All the blues for boys on one side for one bracelet, all the pinks for girls on the other side for another bracelet. One you have got an o or a ending for the first word, the next word matches it.

o menino - boy , like the Buddy Holly song, "Oh, boy, oh boy ..."
a menina - girl

Oh - boy.
Ah - a girl. Girl may be written with the letter I, but the sound is a or er.

Portuguese - English
o homen - man ( I remember: Oh, ho, men. No just one man.)
a menina - girl
o menino - boy
a mulher - woman (looks like mother, every woman is a mother, but how do I remember U L? You love every woman?
voce - you (like the French vous which is you plural or you formal to a stranger)

English - Portuguese
boy - o menino
bread - o pao
girl - a menina
man - o homen
milk -
woman - mulher

you - voce

STOP - I haven't finished this post or put in the accents. I'll come back later. Go to next post!

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

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