There’s something Portuguese speakers love to do more than anyone else on Earth: contractions. If “um” (article ‘a’) follows “de” (of), they make a fusion and say “dum” (of a).
And there’re lots of them. Here’s the list:
do da dos das dum duma duns dumas dele dela deles delas deste desta destes destas disto desse dessa desses dessas disso daquele daquela daqueles daquelas daquilo doutro doutra doutros doutras daqui daí dali daquem dalém donde ao à aos às àquele àquela àqueles àquelas àquilo aonde cum comigo contigo consigo conosco (or ‘connosco’ in Portugal) convosco no na nos nas num numa nuns numas nele nela neles nelas neste nesta nestes nestas nisto nesse nessa nesses nessas nisso naquele naquela naqueles naquelas naquilo pro pra pros pras prum pruma pruns pruma pronde pelo pela pelos pelas pelaí
And a last one without preposition: aqueloutro
Vocabulary:
de (of)
a (to) : a + a- = à- (example: a + aquele = àquele)
com (with) becomes co- or con- during a contraction
em (in) becomes n- during a contraction
para (for) becomes pr- during a contraction
per (by) becomes pel- during a contraction
o/a(s) (the)
um / uma / ums / umas (a)
ele/a(s) (he, she, they)
mim (me) becomes -migo during a contaction
ti (you) becomes -tigo during a contraction
si (oneself) becomes -sigo during a contraction
nós (we, us) becomes -nosco during a contraction
vós (plural you) becomes -vosco during a contraction
este/a(s) (this, these)
isto (it, this) [neutral]
esse/a(s) (that, those)
isso (it, that) [neutral]
aquele/a(s) (that, those) [for sth further]
aquilo (it, that) [for sth further] [neutral]
outro/a(s) (other)
aqui (here)
aí (there)
alí (there) [further]
aquém (within)
além (beyond)
onde (where)
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Há alguma coisa que os falantes do português gostam muito de fazer, mais que o resto du mundo: contrações. Para eles, se o artigo “um” segue “de”, fazem uma fusão e dizem “dum”.
Há muitos disso. Acima há a lista e o vocabulário.
Memrise I’m sure you all know about Memrise, here you can find loads of different Brazilian or European Portuguese courses, not only for beginners but intermediate and advanced learners too.
RTP Zigzag RTP is Portugal’s public broadcasting network, and Zigzag is its section devoted to kids’ videos. Most are educational, covering geography, history, and general fun facts. Each video is only a few minutes long, fun and educational way to learn.
Learn Portuguese with Rafa This site is incredible, it’s targeted at learners of European Portuguese but can be of use to Brazilian Portuguese learners. It has everything from grammar lessons to vocab traditional Portuguese recipes.
Beginner Resources for Brazilian Portuguese
DuolingoI’m sure you don’t need an introduction to Duo but it’s great for beginners, free and the Portuguese course just so happens to be Brazilian Portuguese. PSA: if you click on the ‘Labs’ link in the header of the desktop site, you can find fun interactive short stories.
SemanticaUnfortunately the entire course isn’t free but it has a whole bunch of article ranging from grammar to vocabulary for all level learners. It’s pretty fantastic.
Intermediate + Advanced Podcasts, Videos & More
Intermediate European Portuguese
Practice PortugueseThis site has free podcasts and videos based on real life situations, it’s great aslistening comprehension practise. The speaker’s voice is slow and clear, so it is perfect for listeners who are still getting used to spoken Portuguese.
Portuguêses no Mundo I don’t know about you but I love podcasts about travel! This free podcast is about world travel and it is useful for Portuguese learners because each episode follows the same structure. In each episode, the host interviews a Portuguese person who’s living in another country, the host asks the same questions to each guest (“Why did you move to that country?”, “What surprised you the most about living there?”, “What do you miss most about Portugal?”, etc.).
Visiokids: Ciência para Crianças For science lovers, who aren’t quite ready to learn about astrophysics in Portuguese, this site contains science videos for kids! Super educational, why not learn science whilst practising your listening skills?
Camões Instituto da Cooperação e da Lingua Portugal
Under “A Ler” (“reading”) there’s an assortment of books including story books (with accompanying audio!), mini biographies (with accompanying quizzes!) and a reference guide for everyday situations. Check out “A Falar” (“speaking”) for videos about spoken Portuguese, “A Ouvir” (“listening”) for a variety of audio exercises, and “A Brincar” (“playing”) for some games.
Intermediate Brazilian Portuguese
NHK World Radio JapãoThis is great for intermediate and advanced speakers you can accustom yourself to listening to native speakers who are talking clearly at full speed.HK World News broadcasts a daily news program from Tokyo in dozens of languages, including Brazilian Portuguese.
Cinem(ação) This is a popular film-related podcasts in Brazil. It airs weekly, the hosts chat about one or more films released that week. Yu can also use this as a source of film recommendations.
Advanced European Portuguese
Conta-me Tudo(Tell Me Everything) Each episode of these podcasts features a different speaker telling his or her fascinating tale to an audience. Topics are varied and include narrow escapes from death, odd ways to begin a career, and a terrible idea for a birthday present. The speakers all speak quickly, so the stories are perfect for advanced learners.
Advanced Brazilian Portuguese
CBTV Canal Brasil for iOS, Android and Roku is a completely free live TV channel, unfortunately it’s only available in the United States. It broadcasts from Florida and includes news, sports, history, health, and even pets! Because it’s intended for native Brasileiros, the content is pretty advanced.
this post is meant to be a directory of every resource I come across for specifically Brazilian Portuguese. it will be a continuous work in progress so thank you for your patience! if you have any issues or things to add, please reply to this post!
This post contains a list of brazilian documentaries, movies, TV shows, books, and novelas(we don’t call them telenovelas) that’ll help you understand how our language is affected by accents, regionalisms, levels of scholarity, slangs, and such.
Don’t feel bad if you can’t understand something. We can’t either, sometimes. I’ve watched O Auto da Compadecida maybe 6 times until I could comprehend everything. That happens mostly because I’m from Rio and the story takes place in Paraíba(very far from here). Also because of income differences, lifestyle differences, etc.
Click on the titles to watch it. I’ll link it with english subtitles whenever possible. They might not be in HD, but it’s not hard to find a version in better quality.
This list will have tagged such as:
S - slang-heavy; R - heavy in regionalisms and idiomatic expressions; LS - low scholarity effects on the language; G - gringos(foreigners) speaking portuguese; OT - old-timey portuguese.
Brazil is very fortunate to be rich in works with such cultural representation like these, so, eventually, this list might get a part 2. My faves will be tagged with a *
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TV SHOWS
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*Hoje é Dia de Maria - R, LS | Season 1, season 2 ***********Capitu - OT(based on the book Dom Casmurro) Sítio do Pica Pau Amarelo - OT, R, LS(children’s) Os Maias - OT, some european portuguese *Amorteamo - R, OT(was later edited into a movie with the same title) *Antônia - S, LS *Cidade dos Homens - R, LS, S *Carandiru: Outras Histórias - LS, S Ó Paí, Ó - LS, S, R
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NOVELAS
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Cabocla - OT, LS, R
(there are 2 versions) Sinhá Moça - OT, LS, R(2 versions as well) Desejo Proibido - OT Esperança - OT, G(brazilian actors faking italian accents) Gabriela - OT, LS, R(2 versions) Cordel Encantado - OT, LS, R Terra Nostra - OT, G(brazilian actors faking italian accents)
*Bang Bang - OT, LS, R *Xica da Silva - OT, LS, R
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BOOKS
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O Vestido by Carlos Herculano Lopes - R A Infância Acabou by Renato Tapajós - LS, S
Morte e Vida severina by João de Melo Neto - R, LS, OT Vidas Secas by Graciliano Ramos - OT, R, LS
Sítio do Pica Pau Amarelo by Monteiro Lobato - OT, R, LS(children’s) Macunaíma by Mário de Andrade - R, LS, OT Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis - OT
Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cuba by Machado de Assis - OT O Cortiço by Aluísio de Azevedo - LS, OT, R O Mulato by Aluísio de Azevedo - LS, OT, R(the word “mulato” is a pejorative term)
1. Sapatão: Probably originated from the use of men shoes by lesbians in the 1970s, sapatão - “big shoe” - is likely most common term for lesbians in the country. Outside queer spaces, it is often used as an insult, but it has been reclaimed by lesbians and bi people who identify with term.
2. Sapa: As a play on the word “sapatão” and on the fact that “sapo” means frog in portuguese, “sapa” came to be used in the same contexts as sapatão. With it, of course, also came the jokes and associations between sapphic people and all things frog - swamps, tadpoles, etc.
3. Caminhoneira: Literally “truck driver”, caminhoneira is the closest term to “butch” in Brasilian portuguese, in terms associated presentation and behavior. However, there’s is no terminological duality alike the butch/femme one
4. Tesoura: … Well this one is pretty universal, I guess. Scissors, scissoring, yeah
