Greetings

Olá! Bom dia! It's time to learn portuguese greetings.

Olá	Hello
Bom dia	Good morning
Boa tarde	Good afternoon
Boa noite	Good evening Good night
Prazer em conhecê-lo(a)	Nice to meet you
Desculpe	Sorry
Com licença	Excuse me
Até logo	See you later
Tchau	Bye
Adeus	Good bye
Até amanhã	See you tomorrow
Até hoje a noite	See you tonight

Bom dia - it's the most common greeting. It's used from dawn 'til noon. You can also say "Tenha um bom dia" (have a nice day) in any part of the day.

Boa tarde - It's used from noon 'til nightfall.

Boa noite - It's used both as good evening and good night. Use this from nightfall 'til dawn.

Prazer em conhecê-lo(a) - When you're talking to a man (or a boy), you'll say "Prazer em conhecê-lo". If your're talking to a woman (or a girl), then you'll say "Prazer em conhecê-la". What if you're talking to more than one person from both sex? Well, then you're gonna say "Prazer em conhecê-los".

Com licença - You're probably thinking: 'what in the world is the ç letter?!'. Don't worry about it, pronounce it as a double 's' in portuguese or as 's' in the english word 'salt'.

Até amanhã - The 'é' is pronounced as 'e' in the english word 'hotel'. The 'ã' is pronounced exactly as the first 'u' in the english word 'uncut'.

Lot of doubts, huh? Don't stay in ignorance, ask your question in the comments section and I'll be glad to help you. Soon, I'll explain how to pronounce the letters with accent, like 'ã', 'é', 'á', etc.

Nouns - Substantivos

The nouns - or 'substantivos' - in portuguese are not so easy to learn for one simple reason: genres. Differently than english, in portuguese all words has genres: masculine or feminine. The masculine words are preceded by the article 'o', meanwhile the feminine words are preceded by the article 'a'. There's no magic to learn and remember most of them, but there are a few rules that can help us in this journey.

1. Nouns ending in '-a' are generally feminine words! ex.: a casa (house), a camiseta (t-shirt), a caneta (pen), a vida (life), a terra (land). Exceptions: o dia (day), o problema (problem), o sistema (system), o programa (program/software), etc.
2. Nouns ending in '-o' are generally masculine words! ex.: o ano (year), o tempo (time), o estado (state), o trabalho (work/job), o mundo (world). Exceptions: a mão (hand), a função (function), a direção (direction). Note that all this exceptions are nouns ending in '-ão'. See rule #4.
3. Words of greek origin ending in '-ema' are masculine. ex.: o problema (problem), o sistema (system), o cinema (movies), o poema (poem).
4. Nouns ending in '-ão' are generally feminine words. ex.: a tensão (tension), a confusão (confusion), a mão (hand), a plantação (plantation). Exceptions: o chão (ground), o cão (dog), o pão (bread) and many many others.

These are the rules I remember right now.

TIP: Study each noun along with its article, so you'll have less chances to commit a mistake.

Check this out:

	Masculino	Feminino
Artigo	O	A
Artigo (plural)	Os	As
Numeral	Um, dois, três, quatro...	Uma, duas, três, quatro...

Examples:

O carro é verde. The car is green.

Os carros são verdes. The cars are green.

A mulher é gorda. The woman is fat.

As mulheres são gordas. The women are fat.

Eu tenho um carro. I have a car.

Eu tenho uma camiseta. I have a t-shirt.

Let's exercise!

1) Complete with 'o' or 'a':

a) - carro é azul. (the car is blue)

b) - casa é grande. (the house is big)

c) - homem é magro. (the man is thin)

d) - mulher é alta. (the woman is tall)

e) - pai é baixo. (the father is short)

f) - mãe é bonita. (the mother is beautiful)

2) Complete with 'um' or 'uma':

a) Eu tenho - carro. (I have a car)

b) Eu tennho - camiseta. (I have a t-shirt)

c) Você tem - programa. (You have a program)

d) Você tem - mão. (You have a hand)

e) Ele tem - irmã. (He has a sister)

f) Ela tem - irmão. (She has a brother)

Comment your answer! Good lucky!

Verb to be - Verbo Ser/Estar

The english verb 'to be' corresponds to two different verbs in portuguese (as in spanish and so on). The first verb in 'Ser', wich is used for permanent conditions. The second is 'Estar', wich is used for temporary conditions. For example:

Eu estou doente.
I am sick.

In this example the verb 'estar' is used because being sick is a temporary condition. I am not always sick, but I'm sick now. Easy to understand, right?

Eu sou um homem.
I am a man.

Now I've used the verb 'ser', because it defines a permanent condition. I am always a man. It's totally wrong to say 'Eu estou um homem'!

More examples:

Eu sou bonito. I am handsome.	Eu estou em casa. I am at home.
Eu sou bonita. I am beautiful.	Eu estou louco. I am crazy.
Eu sou alto. I am tall.	Eu estou lendo. I am reading.

Conjugation in simple present (presente do indicativo):

Verb 'Ser'

Eu sou	I am
Você é	You are
Ele é Ela é	He is She is
Nós somos	We are
Vocês são	You are (plural)
Eles são Elas são	They are (masc.) They are (fem.)

Verb 'Estar'

Eu estou	I am
Você está	You are
Ele está Ela está	He is She is
Nós estamos	We are
Vocês estão	You are (plural)
Eles estão Elas estão	They are (masc.) They are (fem.)

As you can note, the verb 'ser' is irregular, but the verb 'estar' is regular.

These two verbs are the most important verbs you must know in order to speak portuguese. Once you understand the differences between them, it becomes really easy to conjugate and create phrases.

Let's exercise!

1) Complete with 'ser' for permanent or 'estar' for temporary conditions:

a) Eu - baixo. (I am short)

b) Eu - negro. (I am black)

c) Você - americano. (You are american)

d) Você - gordo agora. (You are fat now)

e) Ele - bonito hoje. (He is handsome today)

f) Ela - magra. (She is thin)

g) Nós - orgulhosos esta noite. (We are proud tonight)

h) Eles - amigáveis. (They are friendly)

i) Eu - com medo. (I am scary)

2) Translate to portuguese:

a) You are fat today.

b) You are tall.

c) We are short.

Try solving this little exercises without using Google Translator or something like that. You can leave a comment and I'll check it out. Good lucky!

Pronouns - Pronomes

Let's take a look in brazilian portuguese's pronouns:

Eu	I
Você	You
Ele	He
Ela	She
-	It
Nós	We
Vocês	You (plural)
Eles	They (masculine)
Elas	They (feminine)

As you can see, there's no pronoun in portuguese that works exactly what english's 'it' means. That happens because there's no neutral genre in portuguese. All nouns in portuguese are masculine or feminine, there's no other genre! For example:

Eu tenho um carro. Ele é muito rápido.

I have a car. It is very fast.

Car (carro) in portuguese is a masculine word. So, the correct pronoun to refer to the car is 'Ele'.

Eu tenho uma casa. Ela é grande.

I have a house. It is big.

House (casa) in portuguese is a feminine word. So, the correct pronoun to refer to house is 'Ela'.

It's almost like referring to an object as a person. Strange? Not at all! It happens the same way in spanish, french, italian and other latin-related languages.

Another thing I must say: there are two other pronouns in portuguese (specially Portugal's portuguese and formal portuguese). Those are 'Tu' (You) and 'Vós' (You plural) but we will keep distance from those! And we're gonna do that for one reason: no one uses those in Brazil. It's complicated to conjugate verbs with 'tu' and 'vós', but it's easy to conjugate with 'você' and 'vocês', so let's just forget those two from now on.

You're probably thinking: "how do I pronounce these words". Well, you'd probably enjoy the video below. It's not me in the video, obviously (I'm a man and I'm not so cute). This is the end of our first lesson!

Why is it important to learn Portuguese?

First of all, welcome to my blog "Wanna learn Brazilian Portuguese".

This first post will list the main reasons why you should be learning portuguese right now, so let's see:

• Brazil hosted an amazing Fifa World Cup this year. It was one of the most incredible WCs ever! If you came to Brazil to watch the games without knowing a word in portuguese, you probably didn't get the best our country has to offer.
  
  
• In 2016 Rio de Janeiro is gonna host the Summer Olympic Games. This is the biggest event in the world, for sure!
  
• Brazil's economy isn't going so well, but still it's not a tragedy! If you want to somehow invest or work in Brazil you MUST speak portuguese. Otherwise, you'll get totally lost.
• Learning a new language is a lot of fun! I can say that because, meanwhile I'm teaching you guys some portuguese I'm also learning english and german. I guess I couldn't be spending my time in a better way!
• Learning a new language develops and maintains your mental fitness. It's good for all ages! The guy in this picture below is probably studying languages...
  

Well, these are just a few reasons. There are a lot of other good reasons, but we must concentrate in learning some brazilian portuguese right now, so let's get started!

M. Cristi

Teacher