LESSON NOTES

Absolute Beginner S1 #4
Brazilian Reading Difficulties

CONTENTS

Dialogue - Portuguese
Main
English
Vocabulary
Sample sentences
Vocabulary phrase usage
Grammar
Cultural insight

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DIALOGUE - PORTUGUESE
MAIN

1. Naiara : Eu sou brasileira. E você?

2. Michael : Não, não sou brasileiro, sou americano.

3. (virando para o Alessio) E você?

4. Alessio : Não, eu sou italiano.

5. Naiara : Vou para Salvador com meu namorado.

6. Michael : Você tem namorado?

7. Naiara : Sim, eu tenho um namorado. É ele. (apontando para o Alessio)

8. Michael : Foi um prazer conhecê-la.

9. Naiara : O prazer foi nosso!

ENGLISH

1. Naiara : I am Brazilian. And you?

2. Michael : No, I'm not Brazilian. I'm American.

3. (turning to Alessio) And you?

4. Alessio : No, I'm Italian.

5. Naiara : I'm going to Salvador with my boyfriend.

6. Michael : You have a boyfriend?

7. Naiara : I do. It's him. (pointing to Alessio)

8. Michael : It was a pleasure meeting you.

9. Naiara : The pleasure was ours!

VOCABULARY

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Portuguese English Class Gender

brasileiro Brazilian noun masculine

americano American noun masculine

italiano (Brazilian) Italian noun masculine

namorado (Brazilian) boyfriend noun masculine

japonês Japanese noun masculine

prazer (Brazilian) pleasure noun masculine

nosso our, ours possessive feminine

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Ela é brasileira. Meu amigo é americano.

"She is Brazilian." "My friend is American."

Eu não sou americano. Sou americana.

"I am not an American." "I'm American."

No Brasil poucas pessoas falam italiano. Aonde vão aqueles italianos?

"In Brazil, few people speak Italian." "Where are those Italians going?"

namorado rico A mulher está abraçando o seu namorado.

rich boyfriend The woman is hugging her boyfriend.

namorado charmoso Eu ganhei uma aliança de compromisso do meu

namorado.
good looking boyfriend
"I won a promise ring from my boyfriend."

Eu tenho namorado. Ele não é japonês.

"I have a boyfriend." "He isn't Japanese."

Foi um grande prazer. Prazer em te conhecer.

"It was a great pleasure." "Pleasure to meet you."

Eu sou João Ferreira. Prazer em conhecê-la. Nossos pés estão sujos.

"I am João Ferreira. Nice to meet you." "Our feet are dirty."

Cadê nosso táxi?

"Where's our taxi?"

VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE

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The words we'll learn today are nationality words. The dialogue contained the words americano,
brasileira, and italiano. These mean "American" (man), "Brazilian" (woman), and "Italian" (man),
respectively.

"English" Portuguese (male) Portuguese (female)

"American" americano americana

"Brazilian" brasileiro brasileira

"Italian" italiano italiana

Some other examples are japonês, which means "Japanese," chinês, which means "Chinese," and
alemão, which means "German." We can pluralize all nationalities, and we do so by adding an -s or an -es
at the end of the word.

"English" Portuguese (male) Portuguese (female)

"Americans" americanos americanas

"Brazilians" brasileiros brasileiras

"Italians" italianos italianas

Also, most change according to gender. If a Chinese man were speaking, he would say sou chinês. If a
woman were speaking, she would say sou chinêsa.

"English" Portuguese (male) Portuguese (female)

"Chinese" chinês chinesa

"Canadian" canadense or canadiano canadense or canadiana

"Japanese" japonês japonesa

GRAMMAR
The Focus of This Lesson is Asking about Nationality
Oi, você é japonês?
"Hello, are you Japanese?"

In the dialogue, we heard how to ask about someone's nationality. To ask the question, you simply state
Você é Americano, which means "You are American," with a rising tone at the end. That rising tone is
how you ask questions in Portuguese. The rising tone changes the simple statement, você é americano,
into a question: Você é americano?

To respond to an inquiry about your nationality, you say Não, não sou japonês. To negate a verb, as in
"go" versus "not go," you simply place the word não in front of the verb. In Portuguese, double and even
triple negatives are normal and do not cancel each other out as they do in Standard English.

Always remember that when talking about nationalities, Brazilians do not use capital letters. In English,
you write "Italian," but in Portuguese you write italiano, all in lowercase.

CULTURAL INSIGHT
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Restarting Old Portuguese Writing

Recently, the official Portuguese orthography changed. Or better, it's changing.

Orthography is the writing system of a language. Over the past fifty years or so, Brazil and other
countries have altered their writing system a number of times in an attempt to have a universal
Portuguese writing system. Reading a book published more than fifty years ago can be very difficult.
Even if you learned Portuguese long ago, it's a good idea to restart here with the Absolute Beginner
series because we will answer many of your questions.

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