Search Results for: Oh se can you see

Posted in English

Oh Se Can You See (Version 4)

Posted on by Colin Lusk

This is an updated version of my brainstorm about the four intractable problems (“4 evil exes”) I identified before my first B2 exam, trying to wrestle with the subject by putting it into a post, because explaining something to someone else is usually a pretty good way of learning it yourself. Since I wrote the first version, and then my second my understanding as developed a bit so I thought I’d update this to solidify that knowledge. Just ignore version 3 – it was just like 2 but with some new mistakes. In fact, in general, remember I’m writing this mainly as a way of helping my own understanding and you’d be crazy to believe anything I say. If you’re confused, go and ask a proper teacher.

Quite often in Portuguese, the word “Se” crops up in unexpected places, hanging around verbs, and it isn’t always clear what it’s doing there. Here is a breakdown of its possible uses,

As a word meaning “If”

This is the odd one out, really, and the easiest one to spot. In this case, the word happens to be hanging around the sentence and maybe the verb will have to change as a result but in this case it’s not really strongly interacting with the verb, so you can just translate it in your had as “if” and move on. If you’re at B2 level and don’t already know about the subjunctive imperfect, go and have a read. Otherwise, forget it.

Não sei se na vossa casa sobrou muito chocolate dos ovos de Páscoa?

Or

Se tivesse dinheiro o suficiente, eu encheria a casa de livros

As a reflexive pronoun

Se is one of the pronouns used in the construction of reflexive verbs. Reflexive verbs. Reflexive verbs are just verbs in which the subject and the object can be the same thing. For example, “I can dress myself”. I am the one who is doing the dressing, and I am the one being dressed, so it’s a reflexive verb. In Portuguese and other romance languages, reflexive verbs seem a bit counter-intuitive.Sometimes they are used in situations you wouldn’t expect and sometimes they mean “each other” instead of “oneself”.

Of course, it’s not always “se”. The complete set of pronouns looks like this:

  • me
  • te
  • se
  • nos
  • vos
  • se

Here are some examples of reflexive verbs:

 Standard Meaning Reflexive Meaning
 lembrar to remind lembrar-se to remember
amar to love amar-se to love one another
 apaixonar to fall in love apaixonar-se to fall in love with each other
 deitar to lay (something) down deitar-se to lie down
 levantar to lift levantar-se to get up
 beijar to kiss beijar-se to snog each other
 banhar to bathe (someone) banhar-se to have a bath
 chamar to call (someone) chamar-se to be called/named
 lavar to wash something lavar-se to have a wash
 sentar* to put someone in a sitting position? sentar-se to sit down
 sentir  to sense something  sentir-se to be conscious of something
 voltar  to turn, return, re-do  voltar-se to turn around
 servir to serve servir-se to help oneself to
 vestir to dress someone vestir-se to get dressed
 ** suicidar-se to kill oneself
 cortar cut cortar-se to cut oneself
 achar to find achar-se to find oneself

*sentar apparently exists but it’s not used often

**When I first wrote this article I confidently said that “suicidar” couldn’t exist in a non-reflexive form since you can’t suicide someone else. However, you’ll occasionally come acorss this sort of thing:

https://twitter.com/OhFazFavor/status/774212893189496832?s=09

which my teacher tells me is just crap grammar.

And here are a few that need pronouns with them (to call back to this post)

Infinitive Meaning
aproveitar-se de to take advantage of
convencer-se de to convince oneself about
lembrar-se de to remember about
esquecer-se de to forget about
queixar-se de to complain about
rir-se* de to laugh about
decidir-se a to decide
dedicar-se a to dedicate oneself to
acostumar-se com to get familiar with
parecer-se com to resemble
surpreender-se com to be surprised by

*surprisingly, rir is supposed to be reflexive most of the time. You’re not laughing something, you’re just laughing. There’s nothing on the receiving end of the verb. People often use it non-reflexively but that’s an informal use.

Reflexive pronouns usually go after the verb in european portuguese (but there are exceptions such as negatives, questions and after words like “que”. In Brasil they just whack it in front of the verb, the dirty beasts.

If it’s a compound verb, you have options. With ir+infinitive, the pronoun can attach either to the stem or to the auxiliary

Ele vai-se encontrar com ela.

Ele vai encontrar-se com ela.

but with ter+participle it has to go after the auxiliary

Ele tinha-se separado de sua namorada.

Ele tinha separado-se de sua namorada.

Note that we usually think of reflexive verbs as “bouncing back” to the subject, so the subject and the object are the same person, like when we say in english “I’ve wet myself” instead of “I’ve wet the baby’s head”. This isn’t always true as we can see from the list above, and we can also think of it as having some sort of mutuality

Pedro e Maria deram-se as mãos.

They held each other’s hands, not their own hands.

As an impersonal pronoun

When discussing a generalised situation – like the english “one”, described in this Portuguese grammar article as “sujeito indeterminado” (unknown subject)

One shouldn’t drink too much

It’s not used very often these days because it’s usually felt to sound a bit pretentious, so people will usually use “you”

You shouldn’t drink too much

which of course sounds as if the speaker is admonishing their listener directly to lay off the booze. This is a bit of a loss to the english language, because being able to speak in general terms is useful and avoids a lot of misunderstandings.

The Portuguese haven’t made this mistake and use “se” as an impersonal pronoun, which makes more sense, I think.

Here’s an example that really threw me because it was used with the verb “ser”

Há uma frase inglesa que está sempre presente: “I had to smile“. Significa que se foi obrigado a sorrir

Se foi means “one was”. Some person was obliged to smile.

Similarly

Sabia que é preciso pagar para se ser santo?

I was confused because it looks like “Saint” is a noun and it’s the object of the verb so it shouldn’t need the se, but santo is more like a condition – an adjective. “Did you know that you need to pay to be [holy]” not “Did you know that you need to pay to be [a saint]” Now this seems to be a bit subtle but it seems to be a way of amphasising the verb as a verb. It’s optional, in other words, but it sounds better. Bloody hell…

Ou lá o que se faz no Facebook

Or whatever happens on facebook.

Here’s a nice example that’s a lot harder to translate but pretty.

O êxito do celebre poema de Florbela Espanca deve-se à maneira como trata o verbo amar como intransitivo. Ama-se como chove. Perguntar: “Mas amar quem?” é como perguntar: “Chove quem?”

autorid01231OK, I said it would be hard to translate but I’ll have a go. Amar is normally a transitive verb (X loves Y.) but here Miguel Esteves Cardoso praises  Florbela Espanca for the way she uses it intransitively (X loves.) and he uses “se” to talk about how people in general love.

The success of the well-known poem of Florbela Espanca is owed to the way in which she treats the verb “to love” as an intransitive. One loves like it rains. To ask “but love who” is like asking “rain who?”

Um… well, I hope I’m not too far off the mark there. Incidentally, I think this is the poem he means.

Notice that he also uses “deve-se”, and that brings me onto the next type of se:

As part of a sentence in the passive voice

Passive voice is when you use a phrase like “it was done”, “mistakes were made”, “a murder was committed” instead of the more direct “He did it”, “We made a mistake” or “Someone committed murder”. I quite like this form of words and use it in writing but some people find it vague and evasive, and for that very reason it’s popular in political speech and PR briefings.

O êxito do […] poema […] deve-se… means “The poem’s success is owed…” [or “is due to”]

“O livro publicou-se” means “the book was published”

Em Portugal bebe-se muito café (A lot of coffee is drunk in Portugal)

or

Fala-se Inglês (English is spoken here)

and in the negative…

Não se fala Espanhol no Brasil

One context that will be familiar to a lot of portuguese learners is this from the introduction to some of the Diálogos in the Practice Portuguese Podcast:

As conversas que se seguem são baseadas em factos verídicos

“The conversations that follow are based on true facts.”

But which one is it?

Now, it’s not always clear whether a phrase like

Em Portugal bebe-se muito café

should be translated as “a lot of coffee is drunk” (passive voice) or “one drinks a lot of coffee” (imperonal pronoun) but, really, is there a lot difference?

Apparently the key is whether you can replace it with Ir+participle. Passive verbs described in the presvious section are known as “passiva sintética” to distinguish it from “passive analítica” which is where you say something like “Muito café é bebido em Portugal” and that works, so this is a passive voice construction. The only difference it seems to make is that in passive voice, the verb changes with the subject

“Muitos pasteis são comidos em Portugal” => “Comem-se muitos bolos no Brasil”

…which means it’s reflexive, so if many cakes are eaten, it needs to be comem-se, not come-se.

But in the example given on the web page….

“Trabalha-se muito por aqui” can’t easily be transformed in the same way without changing the meaning “É trabalhado muito por aqui.” It doesn’t really work. So it won’t ever need to become “Trabalham-se muito por aqui” or “Trabalhas-te muito por aqui”. We don’t know who the subject is so we won’t ever make the verb agree with the subject.

I think in the more ambiguous cases, it’s best not to worry about translating and just read it as it is, and not think of it as directly equivalent to either english form. The upshot of both sentences is that an awful lot of coffee drinking goes on in Portugal. This is a good way of training yourself not to automatically translate everything into english but instead just try and absorb the meaning from the portuguese words.

For Emphasis?

I’t’s not quite clear how phrases like “Vou-me embora” fit into this. The subject is known and it’s not really passive. My teacher said it’s to do with emphasis, and the fact that it’s intransitive (ie, it’s a verb that just happens without needing to happen to something) probably helps too.

Posted in English

Oh Se Can You See (Version 3)

Posted on by Colin Lusk

This is an updated version of my brainstorm about the four intractable problems (“4 evil exes”) I identified before my first B2 exam, trying to wrestle with the subject by putting it into a post, because explaining something to someone else is usually a pretty good way of learning it yourself. Since I wrote the first version, and then my second my understanding as developed a bit so I thought I’d update this to solidify that knowledge.

Quite often in Portuguese, the word “Se” crops up in unexpected places, hanging around verbs, and it isn’t always clear what it’s doing there. Here is a breakdown of its possible uses,

As a word meaning “If”

This is the odd one out, really, and the easiest one to spot. In this case, the word happens to be hanging around the sentence and maybe the verb will have to change as a result but in this case it’s not really strongly interacting with the verb, so you can just translate it in your had as “if” and move on. If you’re at B2 level and don’t already know about the subjunctive imperfect, go and have a read. Otherwise, forget it.

Não sei se na vossa casa sobrou muito chocolate dos ovos de Páscoa?

As a reflexive pronoun

Se is one of the pronouns used in the construction of reflexive verbs. Reflexive verbs. Reflexive verbs are just verbs in which the subject and the object can be the same thing. For example, “I can dress myself”. I am the one who is doing the dressing, and I am the one being dressed, so it’s a reflexive verb. In Portuguese and other romance languages, reflexive verbs seem a bit counter-intuitive.Sometimes they are used in situations you wouldn’t expect and sometimes they mean “each other” instead of “oneself”.

Of course, it’s not always “se”. The complete set of pronouns looks like this:

  • me
  • te
  • se
  • nos
  • vos
  • se

Here are some examples of reflexive verbs:

 Standard Meaning Reflexive Meaning
 lembrar to remind lembrar-se to remember
amar to love amar-se to love one another
 apaixonar to fall in love apaixonar-se to fall in love with each other
 deitar to lay (something) down deitar-se to lie down
 levantar to lift levantar-se to get up
 beijar to kiss beijar-se to snog each other
 banhar to bathe (someone) banhar-se to have a bath
 chamar to call (someone) chamar-se to be called/named
 lavar to wash something lavar-se to have a wash
 sentar* to put someone in a sitting position? sentar-se to sit down
 sentir  to sense something  sentir-se to be conscious of something
 voltar  to turn, return, re-do  voltar-se to turn around
 servir to serve servir-se to help oneself to
 vestir to dress someone vestir-se to get dressed
 ** suicidar-se to kill oneself
 cortar cut cortar-se to cut oneself
 achar to find achar-se to find oneself

*sentar apparently exists but it’s not used often

**When I first wrote this article I confidently said that “suicidar” couldn’t exist in a non-reflexive form since you can’t suicide someone else. However, you’ll occasionally come acorss this sort of thing:

https://twitter.com/OhFazFavor/status/774212893189496832?s=09

which my teacher tells me is just crap grammar.

And here are a few that need pronouns with them (to call back to this post)

Infinitive Meaning
aproveitar-se de to take advantage of
convencer-se de to convince oneself about
lembrar-se de to remember about
esquecer-se de to forget about
queixar-se de to complain about
rir-se* de to laugh about
decidir-se a to decide
dedicar-se a to dedicate oneself to
acostumar-se com to get familiar with
parecer-se com to resemble
surpreender-se com to be surprised by

*surprisingly, rir is supposed to be reflexive most of the time. You’re not laughing something, you’re just laughing. There’s nothing on the receiving end of the verb. People often use it non-reflexively but that’s an informal use.

As an impersonal pronoun

When discussing a generalised situation – like the english “one”

One shouldn’t drink too much

It’s not used very often these days because it’s usually felt to sound a bit pretentious, so people will usually use “you”

You shouldn’t drink too much

which of course sounds as if the speaker is admonishing their listener directly to lay off the booze. This is a bit of a loss to the english language, because being able to speak in general terms is useful and avoids a lot of misunderstandings.

The Portuguese haven’t made this mistake and use “se” as an impersonal pronoun, which makes more sense, I think.

Here’s an example that really threw me because it was used with the verb “ser”

Há uma frase inglesa que está sempre presente: “I had to smile“. Significa que se foi obrigado a sorrir

Se foi means “one was”. Some person was obliged to smile.

Similarly

Sabia que é preciso pagar se ser santo?

I was confused because it looks lihe “Saint” is a noun and it’s the object of the verb so it shouldn’t need the se, but santo is more like a condition – an adjective. “Did you know that you need to pay to be [holy]” not “Did you know that you need to pay to be [a saint]” There isn’t really a thing or an object on the receiving end of the verb.

Ou lá o que se faz no Facebook

Or whatever happens on facebook.

Here’s a nice example that’s a lot harder to translate but pretty.

O êxito do celebre poema de Florbela Espanca deve-se a maneira como trata o verbo amar como intransitivo. Ama-se como chove. Perguntar: “Mas amar quem?” é como perguntar: “Chove quem?”

autorid01231OK, I said it would be hard to translate but I’ll have a go. Amar is normally a transitive verb (X loves Y.) but here Miguel Esteves Cardoso praises  Florbela Espanca for the way she uses it intransitively (X loves.) and he uses “se” to talk about how people in general love.

The success of the well-known poem of Florbela Espanca is owed to the way in which she treats the verb “to love” as an intransitive. One loves like it rains. To ask “but love who” is like asking “rain who?”

Um… well, I hope I’m not too far off the mark there. Incidentally, I think this is the poem he means.

Notice that he also uses “deve-se”, and that brings me onto the next type of se:

As part of a sentence in the passive voice

Passive voice is when you use a phrase like “it was done”, “mistakes were made”, “a murder was committed” instead of the more direct “He did it”, “We made a mistake” or “Someone committed murder”. I quite like this form of words and use it in writing but some people find it vague and evasive, and for that very reason it’s popular in political speech and PR briefings.

O êxito do […] poema […] deve-se… means “The poem’s success is owed…” [or “is due to”]

“O livro publicou-se” means “the book was published”

Em Portugal bebe-se muito café (A lot of coffee is drunk in Portugal)

or

Fala-se Inglês (English is spoken here)

and in the negative…

Não se fala Espanhol no Brasil

But which one is it?

Now, it’s not always clear whether a phrase like

Em Portugal bebe-se muito café

should be translated as “a lot of coffee is drunk” (passive voice) or “one drinks a lot of coffee” (imperonal pronoun) but, really, is there a lot difference? I think in the more ambiguous cases, it’s best not to worry about translating and just read it as it is, and not think of it as directly equivalent to either english form. The upshot of both sentences is that an awful lot of coffee drinking goes on in Portugal. This is a good way of training yourself not to automatically translate everything into english but instead just try and absorb the meaning from the portuguese words.

Posted in English

Oh Se Can You See (Version 2)

Posted on by Colin Lusk

This is an updated version of my brainstorm about the four intractable problems (“4 evil exes”) I identified before my first B2 exam, trying to wrestle with the subject by putting it into a post, because explaining something to someone else is usually a pretty good way of learning it yourself. Since I wrote the first version, my understanding as developed a bit so I thought I’d update this to solidify that knowledge.

Quite often in Portuguese, the word “Se” crops up in unexpected places, hanging around verbs, and it isn’t always clear what it’s doing there. Here is a breakdown of its possible uses,

As a word meaning “If”

This is the odd one out, really, and the easiest one to spot. In this case, the word happens to be hanging around the sentence and maybe the verb will have to change as a result but in this case it’s not really strongly interacting with the verb, so you can just translate it in your had as “if” and move on. If you’re at B2 level and don’t already know about the subjunctive imperfect, go and have a read. Otherwise, forget it.

Não sei se na vossa casa sobrou muito chocolate dos ovos de Páscoa?

As a reflexive pronoun

Se is one of the pronouns used in the construction of reflexive verbs. Reflexive verbs. Reflexive verbs are just verbs in which the subject and the object can be the same thing. For example, “I can dress myself”. I am the one who is doing the dressing, and I am the one being dressed, so it’s a reflexive verb. In Portuguese and other romance languages, reflexive verbs seem a bit counter-intuitive.Sometimes they are used in situations you wouldn’t expect and sometimes they mean “each other” instead of “oneself”.

Of course, it’s not always “se”. The complete set of pronouns looks like this:

  • me
  • te
  • se
  • nos
  • vos
  • se

Here are some examples of reflexive verbs:

 Standard Meaning Reflexive Meaning
 lembrar to remind lembrar-se to remember
amar to love amar-se to love one another
 apaixonar to fall in love apaixonar-se to fall in love with each other
 deitar to lay (something) down deitar-se to lie down
 levantar to lift levantar-se to get up
 beijar to kiss beijar-se to snog each other
 banhar to bathe (someone) banhar-se to have a bath
 chamar to call (someone) chamar-se to be called/named
 lavar to wash something lavar-se to have a wash
 sentar* to put someone in a sitting position? sentar-se to sit down
 sentir  to sense something  sentir-se to be conscious of something
 voltar  to turn, return, re-do  voltar-se to turn around
 servir to serve servir-se to help oneself to
 vestir to dress someone vestir-se to get dressed
 ** suicidar-se to kill oneself
 cortar cut cortar-se to cut oneself
 achar to find achar-se to find oneself

*sentar apparently exists but it’s not used often

**When I first wrote this article I confidently said that “suicidar” couldn’t exist in a non-reflexive form since you can’t suicide someone else. However, you’ll occasionally come acorss this sort of thing:

which my teacher tells me is just crap grammar.

And here are a few that need pronouns with them (to call back to this post)

Infinitive Meaning
aproveitar-se de to take advantage of
convencer-se de to convince oneself about
lembrar-se de to remember about
esquecer-se de to forget about
queixar-se de to complain about
rir-se de to laugh about
decidir-se a to decide
dedicar-se a to dedicate oneself to
acostumar-se com to get familiar with
parecer-se com to resemble
surpreender-se com to be surprised by

As an impersonal pronoun

When discussing a generalised situation – like the english “one”

One shouldn’t drink too much

It’s not used very often these days because it’s usually felt to sound a bit pretentious, so people will usually use “you”

You shouldn’t drink too much

which of course sounds as if the speaker is admonishing their listener directly to lay off the booze. This is a bit of a loss to the english language, because being able to speak in general terms is useful and avoids a lot of misunderstandings.

The Portuguese haven’t made this mistake and use “se” as an impersonal pronoun, which makes more sense, I think.

Here’s an example that really threw me because it was used with the verb “ser”

Há uma frase inglesa que está sempre presente: “I had to smile“. Significa que se foi obrigado a sorrir

Se foi means “one was”. Some person was obliged to smile.

Here’s a nice example that’s a lot harder to translate but pretty.

O êxito do celebre poema de Florbela Espanca deve-se a maneira como trata o verbo amar como intransitivo. Ama-se como chove. Perguntar: “Mas amar quem?” é como perguntar: “Chove quem?”

autorid01231OK, I said it would be hard to translate but I’ll have a go. Amar is normally a transitive verb (X loves Y.) but here Miguel Esteves Cardoso praises  Florbela Espanca for the way she uses it intransitively (X loves.) and he uses “se” to talk about how people in general love.

The success of the well-known poem of Florbela Espanca is owed to the way in which she treats the verb “to love” as an intransitive. One loves like it rains. To ask “but love who” is like asking “rain who?”

Um… well, I hope I’m not too far off the mark there. Incidentally, I think this is the poem he means.

Notice that he also uses “deve-se”, and that brings me onto the next type of se:

As part of a sentence in the passive voice

Passive voice is when you use a phrase like “it was done”, “mistakes were made”, “a murder was committed” instead of the more direct “He did it”, “We made a mistake” or “Someone committed murder”. I quite like this form of words and use it in writing but some people find it vague and evasive, and for that very reason it’s popular in political speech and PR briefings.

O êxito do […] poema […] deve-se… means “The poem’s success is owed…” [or “is due to”]

“O livro publicou-se” means “the book was published”

Em Portugal bebe-se muito café (A lot of coffee is drunk in Portugal)

or

Fala-se Inglês (English is spoken here)

and in the negative…

Não se fala Espanhol no Brasil

But which one is it?

Now, it’s not always clear whether a phrase like

Em Portugal bebe-se muito café

should be translated as “a lot of coffee is drunk” (passive voice) or “one drinks a lot of coffee” (imperonal pronoun) but, really, is there a lot difference? I think in the more ambiguous cases, it’s best not to worry about translating and just read it as it is, and not think of it as directly equivalent to either english form. The upshot of both sentences is that an awful lot of coffee drinking goes on in Portugal. This is a good way of training yourself not to automatically translate everything into english but instead just try and absorb the meaning from the portuguese words.

Posted in English

Oh Se Can You see?

Posted on by Colin Lusk

This is the second of my brainstorms about the four intractable problems I identified last week, trying to wrestle with the subject by putting it into a post, because explaining something to someone else is usually a pretty good way of learning it yourself.

Quite often in Portuguese, the word “Se” crops up in unexpected places, hanging around verbs. In some cases, it just means “if” and that’s easy enough to spot, but when it’s acting as some sort of pronoun things get a little weirder. Here’s a breakdown of some of the related grammar:

As a word meaning “If”

As I said, this is the odd one out, really. In this case, the word happens to be hanging around the sentence and maybe the verb will have to change as a result but in this case it’s not really strongly interacting with the verb, so you can just translate it in your had as “if” and move on. If you’re at B2 level and don’t already know about the subjunctive imperfect, go and have a read. Otherwise, forget it.

As a reflexive pronoun

Se is one of the pronouns used in the construction of reflexive verbs. Reflexive verbs. Reflexive verbs are just verbs in which the subject and the object can be the same thing. For example, “I can dress myself”. I am the one who is doing the dressing, and I am the one being dressed, so it’s a reflexive verb. In Portuguese and other romance languages, reflexive verbs seem a bit counter-intuitive.Sometimes they are used in situations you wouldn’t expect and sometimes they mean “each other” instead of “oneself”.

Of course, it’s not always “se”. The complete set of pronouns looks like this:

  • me
  • te
  • se
  • nos
  • vos
  • se

Here are some examples of reflexive verbs:

 Standard Meaning Reflexive Meaning
 lembrar to remind lembrar-se to remember
amar to love amar-se to love one another
 apaixonar to fall in love apaixonar-se to fall in love with each other
 deitar to lay (something) down deitar-se to lie down
 levantar to lift levantar-se to get up
 pentear to comb pentear-se to comb oneself
 banhar to bathe (someone) banhar-se to have a bath
 chamar to call (someone) chamar-se to be called/named
 lavar to wash something lavar-se to have a wash
 sentar* to put someone in a sitting position? sentar-se to sit down
 sentir  to sense something  sentir-se to be conscious of something
 voltar  to turn, return, re-do  voltar-se to turn around
 servir to serve servir-se to help oneself to
 vestir to dress someone vestir-se to get dressed
 ** suicidar-se to kill oneself
 cortar cut cortar-se to cut oneself

*sentar apparently exists but it’s not used often

**suicidar doesn’t seem to exist as a non-reflexive verb, for reasons that are probably pretty obvious….

—update—

Of course, by sod’s law, within hours of publishing this post, I see this:

…and now I’m ready to suicidar(-me) too.

—update to the update–

My teacher says it’s just bad grammar. What lessons do we learn from this? Don’t trust Twitter for lessons in correct use of language. 

———————-

————-

And here are a few that need pronouns with them (to call back to this post)

Infinitive Meaning
aproveitar-se de to take advantage of
convencer-se de to convince oneself about
lembrar-se de to remember about
esquecer-se de to forget about
queixar-se de to complain about
rir-se de to laugh about
decidir-se a to decide
dedicar-se a to dedicate oneself to
acostumar-se com to get familiar with
parecer-se com to resemble
surpreender-se com to be surprised by

As some other kind of pronoun

Hm… Now I was going to write a whole section on “se” being used as another kind of pronoun but I had a look at the examples and decided that they were all specimens of  either those ones *points up* or these ones *points down*. OK, cool, well that’s one piece of confusion that has been expelled by writing this post, so… bonus!

As part of a sentence in the passive voice

Passive voice is when you use a phrase like “it was done”, “mistakes were made”, “a murder was committed” instead of the more direct “He did it”, “We made a mistake” or “Someone committed murder”. I quite like this form of words and use it in writing but some people find it vague and evasive, and for that very reason it’s popular in political speech and PR briefings.

In portuguese there are two ways of writing the passive voice and one of them looks a lot like the reflexive verbs I mentioned above:

“O livro publicou-se” means “the book was published” but you could equally read it as a reflexive verb “the book published itself” which it didn’t of course, but you can see how the connection is made. Another way of expressing the same thing in Portuguese looks much more like an English construction: “O livro foi publicado”

  • Em Portugal bebe-se muito café (A lot of coffee is drunk in Portugal)
  • Fala-se Inglês (English is spoken here)

and in the negative…

  • Não se fala Espanhol no Brasil

 

Posted in Portuguese

Rating Portuguese Rock

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Li uma conversa no Reddit sobre os melhores álbuns de Rock portugueses. O “OP” (a pessoa que fez a pergunta, na lengalenga daquele site) colocou esta colagem no topo do texto para ilustrar alguns candidatos. Muitos escolheram opções da lista, mas outros sugeriram outros discos. Gosto de encontrar novas bandas, portanto decidi ouvi-las todas para avaliar quais são os diamantes entre os calhaus*. Além de quanta loiça é que partem, vou dar uma avaliação sobre quão fácil é cada um para um estrangeiro ouvir as letras. Somos estudantes, não é, portanto isso importa muito!

Censurados – Censurados

Este disco lembrou-me da obra dos Stiff Little Fingers. O ritmo da música é rápido e agressivo, como nos primeiros anos do movimento Punk. Foi lançado em 1990, quando aquele género de música estava prestes a fazer um ressurgimento com bandas como os Green Day, os Offspring e os Blink-182 a nascer nas vésperas da década de 1980 e os primeiros anos da década de 1990. As canções são interessantes para quem gosta do Punk e, apesar do cantor gritar sempre, não é assim tão difícil entender as letras. Depende da canção mas, na verdade, é mais fácil do que dezenas de bandas anglófonas!

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Silence Becomes It – Silence 4

Tenho de desqualificar este disco porque quase todas as faixas se cantam num idioma estrangeiro chamado “inglês” que ninguém sabe falar. É uma pena, a sério, porque a música é boa. O género é rock/pop, muito bem realizado. Tocam uma versão de uma canção de Erasure, o que nos dá uma pista sobre os artistas que influenciaram a sua música, e uma das duas canções portuguesas é uma colaboração com Sérgio Godinho.

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? 💩💩💩💩💩

Cai o Carmo e a Trindade – Amor Electro

Esta é uma escolha esquisita porque acho que é composto principalmente por covers. Reconheci o “Barco Negro” (de Amália), “Capitão Romance” (dos Ornatos) e “Estrela da Tarde” (de Carlos do Carmo) e acho que Sete Mares também é um empréstimo dos Sétima Legião. Sem fazer uma pesquisa, apostaria que não são os únicos exemplos. A cantora canta bem, e a música é muito suave. Fez-me pensar em várias bandas esquecíveis dos anos noventa. É perfeitamente agradável mas não me agarrou a atenção.

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

10000 Anos Depois Entre Vénus e Marte – José Cid

Sem dúvida, este tem o melhor título de todos! E uau, esta escolha é fora da caixa. O disco foi lançado em 1978, na época do álbum conceptual. Lembrou-me álbuns como “Close to the Edge” dos Yes, a banda sonora do “Jesus Christ Superstar” e…. Hum… Ouso mencionar o “Rocket Man”? Acho que José Cid é comparado muitas vezes a Elton John mas ele acha-o uma “ataque” por qualquer motivo… Vejo porquê tantas pessoas gostam: é um projeto ambicioso e bem produzido, mas não é um género de que gosto assim tanto e soa muito antiquado em 2024! Ainda por cima, não é nada fácil entender o que está a cantar por causa dos efeitos auditivos.

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐

O Monstro Precisa de Amigos – Ornatos Violeta

Já traduzi uma canção deste álbum: Ouvi Dizer, que é um clássico, e adoro que a banda tenha convidado Gordon Gano, um dos meus músicos preferidos de sempre, para colaborar com eles no Capitão Romance. E o seu sotaque é incrível apesar de ser americano; o cantor é um exemplo que nós estudantes todos devemos seguir! O álbum foi gravado em 1999 e a atmosfera é ligeiramente semelhante aos álbuns daquela altura, tal como o “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” do Wilco ou o “Peloton” dos Delgados, é até os álbuns dos Violent Femmes da mesma época, mas não é uma cópia: a banda tem um som distinto.

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐

Mingos e os Samurai – Rui Veloso

Ouvi** a música de Rui Veloso anteriormente e achei-o muito influenciado pelo blues, mas este disco tem mais diversidade de estilos e emoções. Estou curioso sobre as letras e penso fazer uma tradução de uma canção no futuro.

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Mutantes S.21 – Mão Morta

Cada faixa tem o nome de*** uma cidade: Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdão, Lisboa. É muito Punk. A música é ótima mas infelizmente não gosto dos gritos do cantor, como um bêbado à porta de uma tasca após a hora de fecho.

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐

Ar do Rock – Rui Veloso

Ouvi este álbum depois do outro do mesmo artista e achei-o melhor realizado em termos musicais, mas depois voltei ao primeiro e mudei de opinião. Ambos têm o seu próprio estilo. Ar do Rock é mais pesado, e está a enfatizar os elementos de rock. É semelhante a Eric Clapton em vez das influências brasileiras…? Ou pelo menos achei assim, mas talvez precisasse de ouvir mais.

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cão – Ornatos Violeta

Ornatos Violeta, assim como Rui Veloso, tem dois álbuns na lista, mas este tem um sabor muito diferente de “O Monstro Precisa de Amigos” o título da primeira faixa é “Punk Modo Funk” o que assinala a direção deste lançamento: tem mais em comum com a obra dos Red Hot Chilli Peppers ou os Fishbone. O tom é mais animado e mais acessível.

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Eis uma seleção das sugestões da seção comentários: qualquer coisa que soou interessante e cujo título não era em inglês. Vou ouvir apenas as primeiras canções de cada um para dar um resumo, e se gostar, pode ficar na minha playlist

Casa Ocupada – Linda Martini

Fixe!

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Pharmácia Ananaz – Comme Restus

Rock muito pesado. Escondi-me atrás do sofá. Não entendi nada das letras e não só por causa das almofadas a tapar os meus ouvidos.

Qualidade ⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐

Capitão Fausto Têm os Dias Contados – Capitão Fausto

Chato

Qualidade ⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐

Virou – Diabo na Cruz

A primeira faixa soa como uma música folclórica, mas se odiares aquele género, não desesperes já – fia-te na virgem e não corras****, porque o resto do álbum é incrível. É rock, pois, mas há outras influências mais tradicionais também, que dão um tom inédito ao seu estilo. Acho que vou voltar a este álbum e aos outros discos da mesma banda no futuro. Infelizmente, o cantor canta rápido, portanto às vezes, torna-se ligeiramente difícil entender o que está a dizer.

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐

Ao Vivo (1988) – Xutos e Pontapés

Sinto-me disposto a gostar dos Xutos, ainda que não conheça bem a sua obra. São trabalhadores (lançaram um álbum chamado “40 Anos a Dar no Duro” e aquele disco já tem cinco anos!), o seu cantor chama-se Tim, e deram à luz o hino não oficial do país, (eu sei que é um cover mas não me importa: já pertence a eles). Este disco é mais velho e contém muitos clássicos dos avôs do Rock português. Claro que gosto, mas acho que seria mais fácil ouvir as letras num álbum gravado num estúdio.

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐

Rock Radioativo – Mata-Ratos

Não é mau mas não me agarrou a atenção

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐

In Vivo – GNR

Hum…. Não consigo justificar esta opinião mas acho que a música dos GNR é um gosto adquirido. A voz do cantor é fraca e desafinada, mas tem um certo fascínio, e é claro que o público que está na sala de concertos os adoram, apesar dos integrantes serem velhos após de tantos anos a virar frangos. Não gostei assim tanto mas posso imaginar que, ao longo do tempo, podia aprender a apreciar a sua obra

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐

Cairo – Taxi

A música dos Taxi é o que nós chamamos “ska”, e lembrou-me de várias bandas inglesas da mesma época (1982). A canção mais famosa (tanto quanto sei) é Chiclete, que nem sequer está neste disco, mas as faixas todas têm a mesma “vibe”… eh pá, que batota… está bem, têm a mesma atmosfera.

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Lambe-Botas – Tara Perdida

Terminamos com um dos meus favoritos deste conjunto: este Lambe-botas nunca para de entregar música acelerada. O baterista é a estrela do disco. Tocar tão rápido deve ser um bico de obra.

Qualidade ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Compreensível? ⭐⭐⭐⭐

O meu Top 3:

  • Virou – Diabo na Cruz
  • Lambe-Botas – Tara Perdida
  • Casa Ocupada – Linda Martini

Mas o primeiro está muitíssimo distante do segundo!

*Not a portuguese expression – “separar o trigo do joio” would be better but I like my made up version so I am sticking with it.

**I used “experimentei” here, aiming to say I sampled his music, without putting any effort into it, but it didn’t seem to be understood so I guess that’s not a thing in portuguese.

***Changed from “é nomeado para” which doesn’t mean ‘is named after”, but more like “is appointed to”

****Is it obvious I just found this randomly while looking up a different expression for another review and liked it so much that I decided I had to crowbar it in somewhere?

Thanks as always to Cristina of Say It In Portuguese for the corrections.

I am shocked at how many obvious mistakes I miss on proofreading my own stuff. My brain obviously skips over some real howlers because it already knows what I was trying to say so can’t see what I actually did say.

Posted in English, Portuguese

Casei Com Uma Velha

Posted on by Colin Lusk

This song is actually by Maximiano de Sousa (aka “Max”) but I don’t think there’s a video of him performing it so I went with this cover by Raul Solnado instead. Max is from Funchal, and he says his wife is from Ponta do Sol, a few miles up the south coast. Another nearby town – Camacha – is mentioned too.

As you can see – or maybe you can’t – Solnado is wearing a hat that I recognise as a Maderian style, and I think the clothes are specific to the island too. The set shows a traditional house and I’m pretty sure the musical instruments the guys at the back are using are Brinquinhos*. Solnado is a mainlander from Lisbon so this is definitely cultural appropriation and he would be cancelled if he did this today. Quite right too. Throw him in jail!

I am publishing this on the 3rd of February to commemorate the birthday of another island girl – my wife. Since my birthday is on the 6th of May, she is numerically an older woman for the next 3 months. Feliz Aniversário, velha linda!

PortugueseEnglish
Casei c’uma velha
Da ponta do sol
Deitei-a na cama e o raio da velha rasgou-me o lençol
Tornei-a a deitar
Tornou a rasgar
Perdi a cabeça e atirei co’a velha de perna p’ró ar		I married an old lady
From Ponta do Sol
I laid her in bed but that blasted old lady
Tore my sheet**
I laid her down again
She ripped the sheets again
I lost my head and threw the old lady and she landed upside down
A tua mãe foi às lapas
O teu pai aos caranguejos
Ficaste sozinha em casa, fui*** dar-te abraços e beijos
Ó menina da Camacha
Diz de mim o que quiseres
Menos que não tenho jeito p’ra agasalhar as mulheres		Your mother went to the limpets
Your dad to the crabs
You stayed at home alone, I went to give you hugs and kisses
Oh girl of Camacha
Tell me what you want from me
Unless I’m just don’t have the knack of taking care of women

*More about traditional Madeiran instruments here if you’re interested.

**I had a little trouble following the action here: When he says “rasgou-me o lençol” did she actually make a hole in the sheets or just tear them away from him? I checked on r/portuguese just to be sure and it’s the former. And then how am I supposed to understand “atirei (com a) velha“? Is he throwing himself on her? No, apparently not. “Atirar com” isn’t in my handy guide to verbs with prepositions, but “atirar-se a” is, and that means to throw yourself at someone in an attack. No, my informant told me atirei com means that he just threw, shoved or otherwise propelled the old lady away. The “com” emphasises the force and “brusquidão” of the “sova” or “arremesso” he gave her (3 new items in the word hoard!), so she ended up “de pernas para o ar” – upside down. Probably not literally, but it wasn’t a graceful landing. Hmm… I think it’s one of those songs that’s really fun to listen to but just try not too hard to think about what it is he’s actually describing.

UPDATE – Well, i was joking about the violence and really imagining it as a kind of slapstick scene, but I am told I should consider it might be much more suggestive. That the legs in the air and the ripping of sheets and the warming up of the women could all be interpreted as taking about his sexual prowess, broadcast in an age when you couldn’t really say this sort of things directly. OK, well, that gives a whole new spin on things!

***Online lyrics say “foi” but I think that’s a typo because it doesn’t make any sense. Oh wait, it says fui in the subtitles doesn’t it! Oh well, glad to know I was right about that!

Posted in English

Sérgio Godinho

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Sérgio Godinho, singer, writer and all-round renaissance man, has been working for 50 years now and Radio Comercial produced this really nice video of other musicians covering one of his best known songs. Of course, this sort of ensemble cast has been besmirched by that Imagine song in 2020, but they go a long way toward redeeming it.

I don’t recognise all the participants but I’ve definitely mentioned A Garota Não, António Zambujo, Miguel Araújo, Tiago Bettencourt, Ana Bacalhau, Claudia Pascoal, Tim from Xutos e Pontapés. I’m a little surprised I’ve never mentioned Camané apart from a couple of passing references. His eyebrows alone deserve their own blog post. And I’d been thinking of doing something about Os Quatro e Meia, but hadn’t got around to it yet

Aside from playing spot the celebrity, there’s a lot to look at in the video: there are shots taken in front of A Ponte D Luís in Porto, the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, and a mural by Vhils. You should also be able to spot where they’ve tried to mock up some of his album covers too. Compare this discography – I can see a couple (Samuel Úria and David Fonseca), but I feel like I’m probably missing some because a few of the scenes look so staged that they seem like the director is trying to set up the shot – like at 2.02 Diogo Piçarra is sitting on a park bench and as he sings the line he puts his elbow up on the backrest, then 7 seconds later at 2.09 João Só does the exact same thing but on the other side. That’s not a coincidence! Likewise the weird quantum superposition of Rita Redshoes on the same bench at 1:56 looks like it’s not just random.

A lot of them I’d never heard of before, or heard of but never sat down and listened to, so I picked on a few who took my interest:

  • Capicua is quite interesting – she’s one of the first on screen. She’d broken the dress code by just turning up in normal clothes instead of being in her finery. I am not a rap aficianado, so I wasn’t really moved by her stuff, but her videos are quite interesting and worth a look. My favourite actual song is “Maria Capaz“, which is obviously a wordplay on Maria Rapaz, and I like that she’s turned it around and made it a good thing like that. Very good!
  • I feel like there’s split in the genders of the singers: Most of the guys are showbiz veterans like Palma, Abrunhosa and Ribeirinho, all grizzled and weatherbeaten. Then there are people like Zambujo and Araújo in the next generation down, younger than me but not exactly spring chickens; and there is a fair sprinkling of young dudes in there too. The women, on the other hand, are almost all young, hot and immaculately groomed. I don’t really see any female fadistas of that older generation, coming out of retirement. I wonder if they were asked. The only woman I noticed who looks like she had done the hard miles and approaching his level of seniority was Mafalda Veiga, who is straight after Capicua. She seems to have done quite a lot of duets with the other musicians in the video (here) and I liked that there was someone there representing for us grown-ups.
  • Buba Espinho is the least rock star-looking person I’ve ever seen and I checked out a video of his and it’s charming because he acts like a big ol’ doofus as well. His music’s Ok though and I don’t hold it against him that he isn’t trying to be super-cool in the american style. There are videos of him doing more straightforward Fado too and he looks more at home there.
  • Carolina Deslandes is also fine but I didn’t feel the need to buy all her music. That’s a shame because she has an amazing voice.
  • Rui Ribeirinho seems like an interesting guy. He’s from a band called GNR – not to be confused either with Guns ‘n’ Roses or with the Banda da Guarda Nacional Repúblicana. They’ve been around since the eighties and they’re still rockin’. HOLD THE PHONE – My wife’s just told me she met him at a party once! What the actual fuck?
  • Rita Redshoes is someone I’d heard of but never paid much attention to. I quite liked this video where she is surrounded by Caretos… wait, why don’t I have any posts about Caretos? I could have sworn I’d written about them a few months back but I can’t find it now. Oh well, add it to the to-do list. Rita Redshoes has a very diverse back catalogue. There are some in english, this children’s show and even some relaxing white noise to send you to sleep!
  • Pedro Abrunhosa is another name I know but I’ve never listened to. I can’t say I was that interested to be honest. Sorry, Pedro. He’s been around a long time though. I might put him on my Spotify for a while and see if I can find something I like. Listen to the crowd on this video – they love him!
  • Sara Correia has a cracking set of pipes – she really belts it out, sailing that line between fado and more commercial pop, a bit like Ana Moura. She and Abrunhosa have collaborated before in the past on a fundraiser for Ukraine and it’s really powerful. Better when she’s singing than him, it must be said, but powerful all the same. Oh and she’s singing at Cadogan Hall in February – right, get that one in the diary!

Let’s do the lyrics, shall we? Lots of passive voice here: it’s going to be difficult to render it into english without sounding affected but I’ll do my best.

PortugueseEnglish
A principio é simples, anda-se sozinho
Passa-se na rua bem devagarinho
Está-se bem no silêncio e no borburinho
Bebe-se as certezas num copo de vinho
E vem-nos à memória uma frase batida
Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida
Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida		At first it’s simple, walk alone
It happens in the road, nice and slowly
It’s OK in the silence and the noise
Certainties are drunk in a glass of wine
And a well-worn phrase comes to mind
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
Pouco a pouco o passo faz-se vagabundo
Dá-se a volta ao medo, dá-se a volta ao mundo
Diz-se do passado, que está moribundo
Bebe-se o alento num copo sem fundo
E vem-nos à memória uma frase batida
Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida
Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida		Little by little, the step becomes slow
One takes a turn to fear, a turn to the world
It’s said that the past is dying
Breath is drunk in a bottomless cup
And a well-worn phrase comes to mind
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
E é então que amigos nos oferecem leito
Entra-se cansado e sai-se refeito
Luta-se por tudo o que se leva a peito
Bebe-se, come-se e alguém nos diz bom proveito
E vem-nos à memória uma frase batida
Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida
Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida		And then friends offer a place to sleep
One enters tured and leaves refreshed
And fights for everything that’s taken to heart
Drinks, eats, and someone says “Enjoy!”
And a well-worn phrase comes to mind
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
Depois vêm cansaços e o corpo fraqueja
Olha-se para dentro e já pouco sobeja
Pede-se o descanso, por curto que seja
Apagam-se dúvidas num mar de cerveja
E vem-nos à memória uma frase batida
Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida
Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida		Afterwards comes tiredness and the body weakens
One looks inside, little remains
Asks for rest, no matter how short
Doubts are washed away in a sea of beer
And a well-worn phrase comes to mind
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
E enfim de uma escolha faz-se um desafio
Enfrenta-se a vida de fio a pavio
Navega-se sem mar, sem vela ou navio
Bebe-se a coragem até dum copo vazio
E vem-nos à memória uma frase batida
Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida
Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida		And in the end, a choice becomes a challenge
Life is confronted in its entirety
Navigating without a sea, without a sail or a ship
Courage is drunk from an empty cup
And a well-worn phrase comes to mind
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
E entretanto o tempo fez cinza da brasa
E outra maré cheia virá da maré vaza
Nasce um novo dia e no braço outra asa
Brinda-se aos amores com o vinho da casa
E vem-nos à memória uma frase batida
Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida
Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida		And meanwhile time turns the coal to ash
And another high tide follows a low tide
A new day is born, on the arm another wing
Loves are toasted with house wine
And a well-worn phrase comes to mind
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
Today is the first day of the rest of your life

Posted in English

Only a Gingeira Can Call Another Ginjeira Ginjeira

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Well, this is a bit worrying. I’ve just written a blog post about the expression “Conhecer de Ginjeira”. When I went to tag it, my WordPress site seemed to recognise the expression, so I looked it up and found I’d already written the same explanation just a few months ago, in July. I often feel like my memory is declining in my late middle age, which is a cause for concern in a lot of ways, and definitely makes learning a language an uphill struggle. But to have researched and written a blog post just 15 weeks ago and to have zero recollection of having done so… Oh lord, my braincells are an endangered species. Anyway, for what it’s worth, here’s the November version of July’s article.

I came across an expression I didn’t recognise today: Conhecer de ginjeira.

It seems like not very much is known about the origins. An answer on the always-reliable Ciberduvidas says that it’s usually mildly negative, maybe implying you know their tricks and won’t be taken in by the. It goes on to suggest it is probably a rural expression meaning you’ve known them since you were young enough to pick ginjas (sour cherries) together. Like a lot of -eira words – pereira, maceira, nogueira, bananeira – a ginjeira is the tree on which the fruit grows.

The origin doesn’t quite fit this case because the speaker is the mother of the person under discussion, but that’s fine, expressions often take on a life of their own.

Posted in English

Oh Lordy, it’s Eurovision Tonight!

Posted on by Colin Lusk

And I haven’t even heard the portuguese entry yet. Right, let’s get this up on screen and see what it’s like

Wow, it’s pretty good actually. I can’t see it winning – it’s no Amar Pelos Dois – but it’s better than the last few entries. There are some lyrics online, so here’s a translation.

First of all, the name. It should just be “Oh heart” but that sounds weird so I’m going to randomly insert the word “my” to make it sound more natural

PortugueseEnglish
Ai, coração
Que não me deixas em paz
Não me dás sossego, não me deixas capaz
Tenho a cabeça e a garganta num nó
Que não se desfaz e nem assim tu tens dó
Sinto-me tonta, cada dia pior
Já não sei de coisas que sabia de cor
As pulsações subiram quase pra mil
Estou louca, completamente senil		Oh my heart
That doesnt leave me in peace
That doesn’t give me calm, leaves me incapable
I have my head and my throat in a knot
That won’t untie itself and you have no pity
I feel dizzy, worse every day
I don’t know thigs I used to know by heart*
My pulse is up to almost a thousand
I’m crazy, completely senile
O peito a arder, a boca seca, eu sei lá
O que te fazer, amor, pra mim assim não dá
Porque parece que nem sou mais eu
Ai, coração
Ai, coração
Diz-me lá se és meu		My chest burning, my mouth dry, i don’t know
What to do to you, it’s not working out like this
Because it seems like I’m not myself any more
Oh my heart
Oh my heart
Tell me if you are mine
As horas passam e o sono não vem
Ouço as corujas e os vizinhos também
O meu juízo foi-se e por lá ficou
Alguém me tire deste estado em que estou
O doutor diz que não há nada a fazer
‘Caso perdido’, vi-o eu a escrever
Ando perdida numa outra dimensão
Toda eu sou uma grande confusão		The hours pass and the sleep doesn’t come
I listen to the owls and the neighbours too
My judgement left and stayed away
Someone take me out of this state I’m in
The doctor says there’s nothing that can be done
“Lost cause” I saw him write about me
I’m lost in another dimension
I’m all in a muddle
O peito a arder, a boca seca, eu sei lá
O que te fazer, amor, pra mim assim não dá
Porque parece que nem sou mais eu
Ai, coração
Ai, coração
Ai, coração
Diz-me lá se és meu		My chest burning, my mouth dry, i don’t know
What to do to you, it’s not working out like this
Because it seems like I’m not myself any more
Oh my heart
Oh my heart
Oh my heart
Tell me if you are mine
O peito a arder, a boca seca, eu sei lá
O que te fazer, amor, pra mim assim não dá
Porque parece que nem sou mais eu
Ai, coração
Ai, coração
Ai, coração
Ai, coração
Diz-me lá se és meu		My chest burning, my mouth dry, i don’t know
What to do to you, it’s not working out like this
Because it seems like I’m not myself any more
Oh my heart
Oh my heart
Oh my heart
Oh my heart
Tell me if you are mine

*Why doesn’t “cor” mean colour here? Well, cast your mind back to this post a few weeks back. The lyrics of that one talk about knowing “letras de cor” – knowing them off by heart. So it’s just an old usage of cor, meaning the same as coração.

Posted in English, Portuguese

Exercises (p59)

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I’ve been stalled in my textbook for quite a while. It’s quite hard to get through because the exercises are so samey. For example, at the moment I am working through a section in which you have to fill in blanks with verb/preposition combos. The section is 58 pages long with about 20 per page so I era thousand questions of the same type. This would be OK if they gave examples or pointers to teach you something before you embark on the exercise, but it really expects you to go and find the answers from some other source (in my case, the Guia Prático de Verbos com Preposições, which I definitely recommend even if I don’t recommend the textbook!)

It’s pretty exhausting and doesn’t make me feel motivated at all. I think I probably need to switch because ploughing through this isn’t yielding results.

Anyway, let’s have a go – I’m just going to straight up do my homework on here and mark it in real time.

Condizer com = dar com
  • Chegamos no Porto, de manhã, fomos do comboio das sete e regressamos ao fim da tarde ✖️ Vamos ao/Vamos no = We are going to Porto. In the morning, we’re going by train at 7.0p and return at the end of the afternoon. This is a bad fail. The tenses are all wrong, even. I think if I’d gone back and checked this one I’d have spotted it but I didn’t.
  • A cor das cortinas dá-se com as tonalidades usadas na decoração da sala ✖️ dá com =The colour of the curtains matches the tones used in the decoration of the room. I guessed “dar-se com”, which usually means “to get in with” would also mean match, but “dar com” is the right answer. It has a few different meanings but “condizer com” (to match) is one.
  • O autocarro 31 vai para a cidade universitária? ✖️ Passa pela = Bus number 31 goes through the University town?
  • O Pedro deu-se pela janela do comboio para admirar a paisagem. ✖️ Chegou-se à = Pedro went close to the train window to admire the countryside.
  • A Maria andava completamente obcecada por uma colega: lançou-se em si, constantemente, a pensar nele e não conseguia concentrar-se no trabalho. ✖️ Dava por =Maria was completely obsessed with a colleague: she was aware of him at all times, thinking about him and she couldn’t concentrate on work.
  • Emagrecia de dia para dia: os médicos passaram a pensar que fosse cancro. ✖️ Chegaram a = she was getting thinner day by day: the doctors had reached the point of thinking it was cancer.
  • A mãe quando o viu partir, de tão comovida, pôs-se a chorar. ✔️ Good lord, I’m on question (g) and this is my first right answer???
  • Como a Laura quase nunca sorri, muitas vezes passa por antipática. ✔️
  • Depois de muitos desgostos e desilusões, a Marta, deprimida, deu em alcoólica ✔️
  • Todas as cenas do filme não passaram dum manicómio ✖️ se passam num = All the scenes take place in a madhouse. This is a really good example of me getting it wrong because I got the wrong idea about what they were trying to say. I thought it was a bad film and every scene was like a madhouse.

Oh god, I’m so lost…

  • Esse aparelho tão esquisito dá para quê? ✔️
  • Acho que há pouco comida, as sardinhas não chegam para tanta gente ✔️
  • Não posso ir a um café a meio de manhã ✖️ passar sem = I can’t do without a café at midmorning.
  • A Helena dá-se bem com todos os seus colegas de trabalho. Assim o ambiente é ótimo. ✔️
  • O cão-polícia lançou-se sobre ladrão e conseguiu dominá-lo ✔️

OK at this point I had some wine. Let’s see how my success rate changes

  • O Rui vai a frequentar concertos, desde que namora com aquela pianista ✖️ passou a = Rui started going to concerts ever since he started dating that pianist
  • Estamos fartos de tentar modos diferentes de resolver a equação matemática mas não conseguimos chegar à solução. ✖️ Dar com = We’re exhausted from trying different ways to resolve the maths equation but we can’t find a solution
  • A empregada pôs os pratos e os talheres sobre a mesa para o jantar dos patrões. ✔️
  • O deputado do partido “Os Verdes” foi ontem a Dublin, onde esteve dois dias e deu uma conferência. ✖️ Chegou de = The MP from the Green Party arrived yesterday from Dublin where he was for two days and gave a conference.
  • O António foi para Bruxelas com um contrato de trabalho de três anos. ✔️
  • Abriu a porta de repente e deu com o filho mais novo a fumar às escondidas. ✔️

Oof, pretty terrible. Maybe I need to keep ploughing on because I’m really not doing well with these! That’s what? 11/21? Even with a reference book to hand. Terrible!