Uau, vi este vídeo no insta e chamou-me a atenção. Não sabia quem era aquele homem com um ar tão desconfortável; até achava que fosse um político que ela culpava por isto tudo, mas não é, é um académico chamado Ricardo Ferreira Reis. A senhora falou bem. O seu nome é Adriana Cardoso e ela é fundadora da empresa Próxima Geração. Há homens da minha idade nos comentários do vídeo a queixar-se dos jovens “materialistas”, mas não é justo. Todos nós temos de crer num futuro estável, e estou feliz por ver que ela quer um país com mais oportunidades no qual construir este futuro. É melhor do que desesperar, não é? Então calai-vos*, homens da minha idade! Não sou especialista em política portuguesa (claro!) mas não vejo nada de errado neste vídeo curto.
Se este discurso representa a opinião dos jovens, as legislativas do próximo Março vão ser um terramoto.
Na sexta feira passada, fui ver um espetáculo do humorista Luís Franco-Bastos no Teatro Leicester Square. Acabou tarde e tive de imitar Fernão de Magalhães para chegar no meu covil porque parte da rede de transportes públicos estava com atrasos por causa dum acidente.
Mas valeu a pena! Gostei da sensação de ouvir duas horas de comédia e de entender quase tudo. Ao contrário do Manuel Cardoso, (cuja fala é composta exclusivamente de consoantes) Luís Franco-Bastos é um profissional treinado no uso de vogais também, o que torna as suas piadas mais fáceis de perceber. Havia anedotas sobre o seu novo carro, a sua tentativa de ser pai recorrendo à inseminação artificial, classes pré-parto, e os seus pais, entre outros assuntos. Perdi o fio à meada de vez em quando porque me fez lembrar cenas da minha própria vida, mas efetivamente, quando escutei com atenção, percebi tudo, até os palavrões (dos quais havia muitos!) e soltei umas boas gargalhadas, sobretudo quando imitou o treinador de pré-parto.
Gostaria de ver mais humoristas portugueses quando houver hipótese.
Translation Time! I got interested in this song because of the audiobook I’m listening to. It’s a non-fiction book about a road-trip through Portugal. The writer pulls up in a town where there’s a big party in full swing and Tony Carreira is playing. He mentions this song being “The seventh encore” and says it is a huge favourite of emigrantes. OK, well, my curiosity is piqued.
(Edit) OK, I just finished the translation and I am sold. OK, I know it’s a bit sentimental, but I don’t care. It’s got heart, it’s got singalongability. What’s not to like?
Portuguese
English
Lembro-me de uma aldeia perdida na beira A terra que me viu nascer Lembro-me de um menino que andava sozinho Sonhava vir um dia a ser
I remember a lost village on the margin The land that saw my birth I remember a little boy who walked alone He dreamed one day he’d become
Sonhava ser cantor de cantigas de amor Com a força de Deus venceu Nessa pequena aldeia O menino era eu
He dreamed of being a singer of love songs With God’s strength, he won through In that little village I was that little boy
E hoje a cantar em cada canção Trago esse lugar no meu coração Criança que fui e homem que sou E nada mudou
And today singing each song I carry that place in my heart Child that I was, and man that I am And nothing has changed.
E hoje a cantar não posso esquecer Aquele lugar que me viu nascer Tão bom recordar aquele cantinho E os sonhos de menino
And today, singing, I can’t forget That place that saw my birth Its so good to remember that little place And the dreams of the little boy
Tenho a vida que eu quis Nem sempre feliz, mas é a vida que eu escolhi Infeliz no amor, mas, no fundo, cantor A vida deu-me o que eu pedi
I have the life that I wanted Not always happy but it’s the life I chose Unlucky in love but at heart a singer Life gave me what I asked for
Se eu pudesse voltar de novo a sonhar Faria o mesmo, podem crer E aquele menino Eu voltaria a ser
If I could go back to the dream again I’d do the same, believe me And that little boy I would be again
E hoje a cantar em cada canção Trago esse lugar no meu coração Criança que fui e homem que sou E nada mudou
And today singing each song I carry that place in my heart Child that I was, and man that I am And nothing has changed.
E hoje a cantar não posso esquecer Aquele lugar que me viu nascer Tão bom recordar aquele cantinho E os sonhos de menino
And today, singing, I can’t forget That place that saw my birth Its so good to remember that little place And the little boy dreams
E hoje a cantar em cada canção Trago esse lugar no meu coração Criança que fui e homem que sou E nada mudou
And today singing each song I carry that place in my heart Child that I was, and man that I am And nothing has changed.
E hoje a cantar não posso esquecer Aquele lugar que me viu nascer Tão bom recordar aquele cantinho E os sonhos de menino
And today, singing, I can’t forget That place that saw my birth Its so good to remember that little place And the little boy dreams
E hoje a cantar em cada canção Trago esse lugar no meu coração Criança que fui e homem que sou E nada mudou
And today singing each song I carry that place in my heart Child that I was, and man that I am And nothing has changed.
E hoje a cantar não posso esquecer Aquele lugar que me viu nascer Tão bom recordar aquele cantinho E os sonhos de menino
And today, singing, I can’t forget That place that saw my birth Its so good to remember that little place And the little boy dreams
E os sonhos de menino Meus sonhos de menino
And the little boy dreams My little boy dreams
In the first version of this I somehow confused my Carreiras and said David Carreira sang this. There is actually a singer with that name, but it’s a different guy!
What could be more basic than whether to say “The dog”, “A dog” or just “Dog”? It doesn’t get much simpler than that. The words “The” and “A” (or “An”) are called articles in grammar, and their portuguese equivalents are used in a roughly similar way, but there are a few areas where you can get tripped up if you’re not paying attention. So today’s blog post is one of those broccoli-and-good-intentions posts where I’m going to try and concentrate into one post everything I know (or think I know) about the use of articles.
OK, ground rules: I’ve copied the basic outline of this italki article to make sure I don’t miss anything. I’ve rewritten it though and given my own examples and ended up adding so many bits into it that even that outline is more-or-less unrecognisable. Point 6 was the hardest to rewrite because I think it’s a blind-spot for english speakers so I’ve gone off on a long digression, trying to tease it out and it’s been a very helpful exercise!
Introduction
First of all, what do we mean by definite and indefinite articles?
Definite
A definite article is used to signal that we are talking about a specific subject that is already known to the listener. If I say “the dog buried a bone”, it’s probably because you and I both know what dog we’re referring to. If not, you’d be thinking “ummm… what dog?”
Indefinite
An indefinite article is used when we’re discussing just some random thing – so in the example above, “the dog buried a bone“. So it’s just some random bone. If I’d already mentioned the bone but I referred to it as “a bone” again 10 seconds later, you’d be thinking “eh? What happened to the original bone?”
Neither
Words that don’t have an article at all are usually general ideas or generic categories of things like “love”, “humanity” or “animals”.
How is Portuguese Different from English?
The most obious way is that they are more variable because they tell you the gender and number of the noun:
Definite – Os homens, o homem, as mulheres, a mulher
Indefinite – Uns homens, um homem, Umas mulheres, uma mulher
Both types of article can be contracted with prepositions like de and em and por of course, and I’m not going to get into that but you can have a look at Mia Esmeriz’s video on the subject if that’s news to you.
When to Use Indefinite Articles in Portuguese
We use indefinite articles when:
1 Talking About Some Non-Specific Thing
Uma gaivota devorou as minhas batatas fritas
There are lots of seagulls. We’re not talking about specific one, or at least we couldn’t tell it apart from the others, it was just a casual acquaintance.
2 Mentioning The Thing For The First Time
Um homem caminhava ao longo da estrada.
The first time the man is introduced he’s just one of a mass of humans so he’s introduced as a man, “um homem”. Arguably, this isn’t really different from the first example, but in this case we’re singling out one example that will go on to be referred to using definite articles later on, whereas in the first example it’s just a passing event.
When to Use Definite Articles
3 Talking about specific things
I’m going to break this into three sections because I think there are different types here:
3a Where the Noun has Already Been Introduced or it’s Known Anyway
Um homem caminhava ao longo da estrada. O homem estava a ouvir um audiolivro
O Estado Novo foi uma ditadura
3b Possessives
This is the first difference between english and portuguese so far. Unlike in english you cant say “my dog” you have to say “the my dog”
O meu cão fala latim
Tenho de pagar uma multa à minha professora por causa das minhas erros de concordância*.
This ciberdúvidas article gives some exceptions, but these are all super-fancy and not the sort of thing that will come up every day.
Where the possessive goes after the noun, behaving like an adjective – ‘Aguardo notícias tuas‘
Where it forms part of a “forma de tratamento – ‘Sua Excelência’
When it’s part of a vocative (in other words, someone is calling to someone or trying to get their attention) – ‘meu amo’
When it’s part of a fixed expression – ‘por minha vontade’
When it follows a demonstrative pronoun – ‘Mostra-me esse teu sorrisotransparente.’
3c In Front of Ordinary Names (First) Names
O João é um humorista
There are lots of Joãos, but we’re talking about a specific one. And for the sake of completeness:
O João é um humorista?
This time I’m talking to João and asking if he’s a comedian.
Very famous people like Colombo (the sailor, not the detective), Jesus and Maria don’t need the article because they’re above all that.
Jesus é o meu co-piloto
You’ll also use them in front of certain forms of address
O senhor
A Sra Dona Amália Costa
4 Ahead of Continents, Rivers, Islands, Most Countries
A Madeira
O Tamisa
A Europa
5 In Front of Days of the Week
Odeio As Segundas-Feiras
6 When Talking About Generic Nouns
According to the article I started with, this is a straightforward case – where you’re talking about a generic class of something, you use a definite article. He gives the following examples
Os leões vivem em África.
O álcool é mau para a saúde
Note that we are not referring to specific lions here – this isn’t a discussion about Geoff the Lion and Timmy the Lion, and nor is he saying that the alcohol in the bottle in front of him is the only alcohol that’s bad for him. He’s talking about lions in general and alcohol in all its delicious but naughty forms.
It’s sheer hubris for me to disgree with a native speaker, but I am going to do it anyway: I don’t think it’s as simple as this. I’m sure the two examples are correct, but I don’t think he’s thought through every situation where these kinds of words arise. “Os leões vivem em África” is correct, but the Wikipedia page for “Leão” includes the sentence “Leões vivem por volta de 10-14 anos na natureza, enquanto em cativeiro eles podem viver por até 30 anos.” Why no definite article there? It seems like the exact same kind of sentence. And there are dozens of examples of the word appearing without a preposition to chaperone it, so what’s going on?
Checking my favourite grammar book, I find it says to drop the article “when you’re generalising” and gives two contrasting examples
“Eu adoro flores” and “au adoro as flores perfumadas”.
That’s more like what I was expecting, but it’s a textbook and it’s not very clear on what constitutes generalising. How can we differentiate these two things
This Ciberdúvidas article tries to explain using the examples of “Ricardim gosta de música popular” and “Ricardim gosta da música popular“. Using “de” makes it a generalisation; you’re just saying what he thinks of pop music. The second one is more focused though, and it might be the answer to a question like “what’s his favourite kind of music?” You need to pick out a genre from among many, and that makes it concrete enough that it needs an article. Whew! That’s not really a distinction that exists AT ALL in english grammar.
There’s a very similar example about horror films in this Ciberdúvidas article and a couple of slightly different ones that might help illustrate the difference further:
‘Adoro desportos.’ is a generic statement about my opinion of sports that can be used in any situation, but ‘Adoro os desportos e as atividades intelectuais.’ is a more concrete statement, maybe implying that of all the possible activities, those two are being singled out.
‘Odeio pessoas arrogantes.’ is just an opinion about arrogant people in general, but ‘Odeio as pessoas arrogantes como a Rita.’ sounds more like a judgement of some annoying people among a group.someone being catty about someone in their social circle.
In found a home-grown example in this post. The title is “Ansiedade de fimde ano” (End of year anxiety). That’s a mood that can arise at any end of any year. But in the first line I talk about being “perto do final do ano” – Close to THE end of THE year, ie, the current one.
So, returning to our lions, I think “Os leões vivem na África” would work in some situations, but “Leões vivem na África e comem turistas” seems like an acceptable sentence too.
If this all feels very unfamiliar, the last two paragraphs of the second Ciberdúvidas article offer some comfort:
Hoewever it’s said that, in everyday conversation, the speakers don’t usually associate the specific or general forms with the use or absence of an article. And besides, often a sequence of words with a definite article is interpreted as generic.
So we can conclude that this difference often depends on the preference of the speaker and with other variables that don’t always have anything to do with grammatical reasons.
We’ve already seen how some generic nouns sometimes go commando without a pronoun, but there are a few other cases to watch out for too:
7 Some Places On the Planet (Or Off It)
7a Most planets – but not the earth or the moon
Elon Musk quer viver em Marte
Infelizmente Elon Musk vive na Terra
7b A Few Countries
As it says in point 4, most countries DO need an article but there are some that don’t. Opinion seems divided on this one, but as far as I know the correct list is Portugal, Marrocos, Angola, Moçambique, Cuba, Israel. There are also a few where it’s optional: Espanha, Itália, França, Inglaterra
Lisboa é a capital de Portugal
Elas vivem na/em França
7c Most Towns
Most towns, on the other hand, DON’T need an article, unless they are names after some actual identifiable thing like O Porto (the Port) O Rio de Janeiro (The January River) O Funchal (the fennel patch)
Lisboa é a capital de Portugal
When is a town not a town? Well, sometimes it might be a football team. “Centenas de Adeptos Cantam Pelo Braga“. Why “Pelo” and not “Por”? Because Braga is a Clube as well as being a city, and Clube is masculine, so “o Braga” means The Football Club of Braga and that’s why it has the article.
And there’s another odd exception, given by Marco Neves in the course I took a few years ago: you can talk about “O Preston da minha adolescência” (The Preston of my youth), if you’re discussing a specific instance of the town at a point in time, for example. That’s a really niche use though and it won’t come up often.
7d Streets
Ainda há uma ciclovia na Avenida Almirante Reis?
8 When Talking About Academic Disciplines, Languages or an Instrument You Play
Falo português
O meu pai toca gaite de fole
A minha filha está a estudar informática
But if you’re talking about a specific object instead of a skill, it’s just like any other noun:
“Comprei uma gaita de fole.”
9 Means of Transport
Adoro andar de bicicleta
But of course if you’re talking about a specific vehicle, it’s just like any other noun:
Comprei uma bicicleta
10 Full Names
Since full names are more specific than first names, you don’t really need the article
Nuno Markl é o meu tio.
The grammar book says you can use an article if you want to be slightly disdainful and gives the example
O Gulbenkian tinha rios de dinheiro
11 After Other Words That Indicate Number
Words like “Qualquer” or “Vários” or just a number like “duas” usually (but not always) render the article unnecessary, just as they would in english. You don’t need to say “I’d like two the beers please” or “I drank some a beer earlier”
É provável que tenha feito vários erros neste post.
Oof, Well What a Palaver That Was!
Luckily, most of the weird stuff comes up very rarely, so don’t be put off by all the exeptions, but I am definitely going to look out for examples of abstract and generic nouns with or without articles.
Finally, I’d love to tell you that all the errors I have made have been the result of subtle linguistic distinctions like this, relating to abstract nouns, but I did an analysis and these are the facts:
* I think this is what’s called a self-fulfilling prophecy
Obrigada Cristina pelos correções, mas não corrigi o erro deliberada. 😉
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this app before but I’ve been using it much more consistently this year. I added it to my daily to do list and I’ve stuck to that as a habit along with my other wake up games, Termo and Quina. 20 questions per day until I have it down cold. I am trying to boost my knowledge of flags, boost my geography and of course learn the portuguese spellings of these places. Of course you’ll only get the portuguese lesson if you go into the settings and set the game language to portuguese. Impressively, you can choose between Portuguese Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese.
My flag knowledge is pretty terrible, but iI think I’m a lot better at geography. I have my weak points though. There are lots of little republics in Europe that I know exist but don’t know how they fit together. I learned the map of Europe by doing a Jigsaw of European countries at primary school but… Well, a lot of those wooden shapes have been cut up into mush smaller pieces now! Central Asia is a bit of a blur, and most of the western part of Africa is a mystery too. I’m OK on the rest of Africa, or at least I thought I was, but I was a bit embarrassed to realise Swaziland had changed its name to Eswatini. I know Rwanda is a country and Kigali isn’t. Therese Coffey, take note!
Most of the spellings are pretty similar in portuguese, or they change in fairly predicatable ways. So for example, if you knew you wanted “Slovakia” but you didn’t know how to spell it in portuguese, you could make a fair guess: not many words begin with “S” followed by a consonant in portuguese, so it would probably have an E at the start (like “Espanha”).
Eslovakia.
Hm, well K isn’t very portuguese either so let’s lose that and put QU on its place.
Eslovaquia.
Close, but it wouldn’t be quite right either because it would be stressed on the penultimate syllable: eslovaQUIa. That would sound weird, so to make it right you’d need to whack an accent on the A.
Eslováquia. Boom!
Some are very different though. The most surprising one, for me, is Algeria which in portuguese is Argélia – the R and L swap places from one language to the other.
I’m really enjoying it. I grew up on Every Boy’s Handbook, before the Internet turned our brains to mush, and this sort of thing – flags and maps and all that boyscout stuff – seems like Proper Knowledge, and I’m glad there are apps that help me banish my ignorance. The fact that it’s building my Portuguese vocabulary is certainly a bonus.
Há muito tempo que não falo do Marco Neves, o linguista bem conhecido, autor, anfitrião de podcasts, bloguista, sábio e fornecedor de conteúdos do exame C1. Neste blog, fala da expressão “Beijinhos grandes” que os portugueses usam para se despedir dos amigos. Como em inglês, existem picuinhas que gostam de interpretar de forma muito literal expressões e conjunções de palavras e fazem deles um “ódio de estimação”. Neste caso, “beijinho” é um diminutivo**. Portanto a frase significa “grandes pequenos beijos”, que não faz o mínimo sentido, pois não?
Temos esta espécie de polémica no mundo anglófono, e eu sou fã da interação entre descritivistas como o John McWhorter*** e pessoas mais escrupulosas como o (falecido) escritor Kingsley Amis. O Neves tem mais em comum com o McWhorter: tem uma predileção por desmentir os desabafos dos pedantes.
So many artists’ work plundered and this is the best AI art can come up with in response to the prompt “big little kisses”. Horrifying!
O seu primeiro argumento trata da relatividade do tamanho. Por exemplo, uma criança brinca com dezenas de carrinhos, mas não são iguais. Há carrinhos maiores e menores.
Além disso, a palavra “beijinho” assumiu um novo significado, ligeiramente diferente: um beijinho não é simplesmente um beijo pequeno mas sim um tipo de beijo – geralmente no face ou no ar.
Nos últimos parágrafos, o linguista desvenda a raiz da questão: o diminutivo português transmite um sentido de carinho.
O seu ensaio é muito curto e vale mesmo a pena.
*Cumprimentar is the word he uses but more realistically, despedir-se is the more appropriate verb.
**Hum, pensando nisto, porque é que esta palavra termina com -o? Beijinho é uma (palavra) diminutiva não é?
***He’s very good generally, and his Great Courses Series is absolutely mind-blowing. I can’t recommend it enough. However, I would cheerfully crucify the man for this absolute travesty. Sorry, but I have my limits.
Thanks as always to Cristina of Say It In Portuguese for the help with proofreading
Não te preocupes, este blogue não tem nada a ver com sopa. Não assassinei mais uma receita tradicional. Trata do país, Cabo Verde!
O país de nascimento da minha esposa está a passar uma semana extraordinária! Ontem, a sua seleção (também conhecida como os Tubarões Azuis) venceu a da Gana num campeonato futebolístico, mas ainda melhor, há 4 dias o país foi certificado livre de paludismo (também conhecido por o Mosquito Azul. Não, estou a brincar: paludismo é também conhecido por malária!) segundo estas notícias do OMS.
Limar means to rub something with a lima – a file. I mean one of those scrapey things you use in metalwork class or in the nail bar.
Aresta can have a few different meanings, but in this context, it’s a pointy, sticky-out bit the corner or the edge of something.
So the general idea is you’re rubbing off the rough edges, polishing something or perfecting it.
According to Ciberdúvidas, it can also mean to conciliate a difficult person. That’s a very different idea, but you can see how they both make sense of you’re thinking of smoothing things over with someone.
Luso 