Portuguese/Contents/BPL1/Segunda lição

Verb 'ser'/Verbo "ser"
You learned, at the last lesson, that there were two copula verbs in Portuguese. You've already learned the first one, "estar". Now it is time to learn the other one, ser, which denotes a permanent situation or condition. It is not a regular verb. The verb ser is conjugated in the present indicative as follows:

See some examples:
 * Nós somos alunos. ("We are students.")
 * Eles são felizes. ("They are happy.")

To illustrate the difference between "ser" and "estar", compare the next two phrases:
 * Eu estou alegre. – "I am happy (right now)."
 * Eu sou alegre. – "I am happy (a happy person)."

Possessive pronouns/Pronomes possessivos
The possessive pronouns (pronomes possessivos) in Portuguese are the same than the possessive adjectives. As adjectives, they agree in gender and number with the possessed thing. They are:

Just like adjectives and nouns, the plural forms are made adding -s.


 * meu apartamento ("my apartment/flat")
 * meus apartamentos ("my apartments/flats")
 * minha casa ("my house")
 * minhas casas ("my houses")

The inflection patterns of "teu" (compare with "tu") and "seu" are the alike.


 * seu livro ("his/her/its/their book")
 * seus livros ("his/her/its/their books")
 * sua revista ("his/her/its/their magazine")
 * suas revistas ("his/her/its/their magazines")

The pronouns "vosso" (compare with "vós") and "nosso" (compare with "nós") are inflected just like adjectives.


 * nosso trabalho ("our work")
 * nossos trabalhos ("our works")
 * nossa piada ("our joke")
 * nossas piadas ("our jokes")

As "você" and "vocês" are address pronouns, they behave as third person pronouns. So, the possessive forms of them are "seu"-words. This is a important and confuse point, as you saw that "seu" can mean either "your(s)", "his", "her(s)", "its" and "their(s)". So instead of using "seu" (which have that lot of meanings) one changes it for:

Those are all contractions of the preposition "de" and the personal pronouns "ele", "ela", "eles", "elas". The same rule applies for "vocês" (but no contraction can be made between "de" and "vocês"). So, the possessive form used is "de vocês" ("of you").


 * o escritório dele ("his office")
 * o escritório dela ("her office")
 * o escritório deles ("their office")
 * o escritório delas ("their office")
 * o escritório de vocês ("your office")

At everyday language, "seu" is used only as possessive form of "você", making things much easier.

But some even do not use "seu" for "você", because of the confuse meanings it may have. Those use "teu" instead. It is grammatically wrong because "teu" is the possessive form of "tu". Grammatically, one must use the pronoun alongside with its respective possessive form: "tu" with "teu" and "você" with "seu".

Concluding, the possessive pronouns are:

Common greetings, thanks and goodbyes/Cumprimentos, agradecimentos e despedidas comuns
Portuguese greetings ("cumprimentos") and goodbyes ("despedidas") are quite simple. The most usual ones among them are:

This obrigado means "thank you" (not to be confused with "obligated" means obrigado).

Some actually say "muito obrigado" insted of "obrigado" ("muito" means "very").


 * Obrigado por sua ajuda! ("Thank you for your help!")
 * Muito obrigado por sua ajuda! ("Thank you very much for your help!")

Orally, there is also a reduced form of "obrigado":


 *  ' Brigado por sua ajuda! ("Thanks for your help!")

Days of the week/Dias da semana
Most of the names of the days of the week today, are adaptations made in the medieval age from the Classical Latin roots, this is true to other Latin based languages such as Spanish or Italian. But in Portuguese this was made in an easier way, naming it after fairs (naming system used in Ecclesiastical Latin). So, except for Sunday and Saturday, the days of the week are formed by ordinal numbers plus the Portuguese word for "fair":

For time expressions, the copula verb used is "ser".
 * Hoje é sábado. ("Today is Saturday.")
 * Meu aniversário é em uma sexta-feira. ("My birthday is in a Friday.")

Introduction to verbs/Introdução a verbos
The infinitive of all verbs in Portuguese language end in -r. The vowel before the -r is called the stem vowel, and it rules the conjugation of the verb. The root is what comes before the stem vowel. There are three stem vowels, that divides the verbs in three groups:


 * first conjugation ("primeira conjugação"): infinitive ends in -ar.
 * second conjugation ("segunda conjugação"): infinitive ends in -er.
 * third conjugation ("terceira conjugação"): infinitive ends in -ir.

Also, there are some infinitives that end in -or. Those are all derivate forms of the verb "pôr", ("to put") that is an irregular verb. All its derivates follow "pôr" ' s conjugation pattern. This verb comes from the old Portuguese "poer" (Latin "ponere"), so all verbs in -or are considered to be irregular verbs of the second conjugation.