Category Archives: Grammar

Pop Quiz

I took a Portuguese placement exam recently, and it was full of multiple choice questions like this: Eu estou ______ português. a) estudo b) estudar c) estudando d) estuda Puta, please. As long as we are going to maintain the … Continue reading

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Through the looking glass: the deep grammar of everyday Portuguese

Being here in Bahía, working as part of a large team, has made me realize how much of my past language study was really a solitary endeavor, cut off from the living language. At home, I feel starved of exposure … Continue reading

Posted in Grammar, Learning Pedagogy | 5 Comments

Te ligo!

While I’m in Salvador, I’d like to do a few posts on the language that I’m hearing and the things that I’m picking up on during my second trip to Brasil. And one thing that I’ve been hearing everywhere is … Continue reading

Posted in Grammar, Lessons | 4 Comments

Making your Portuguese flow

À proposito… (By the way,) Aconteça o que acontecer… (Whatever happens,) De qualquer forma… (In any case,) Using short connecting phrases like these really goes a long way towards enriching your speech by connecting one thought to the next and … Continue reading

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A Linguistic Dissection

So, I came across this sentence today in a book on rural development in Brazil: A pesquisa de Willems é fonte importante de referências para que se compreendam as principais características socioeconômicas e culturais da communidade rural de Cunha, na … Continue reading

Posted in Grammar, Lessons | 8 Comments