Learning the Portuguese language. 2

Verbs play an essential part in sentences. They tell you what is going on and name the action or state that gives the sentence its point, so you will get more out of Linguata if you can recognize which are the verbs in the phrases that you come across. You can often get a sense of what they mean because they will remind you of some other word you’ve come across, but you also need to know their number and person, that is whether they apply to one or more people and whether they refer to an ‘I’, a ‘we’, a ‘you’ or a ‘he/she/it’ etc. As far as tense is concerned, you can express a great deal by sticking to the present, but it will also help if you have a rough idea of how future and past tenses are formed.

We will start with the Present Tenses of ter ‘to have’ and of ser and estar ‘to be’. Note that Portuguese has two forms of ‘to be’, ser and estar. As in Spanish they serve different functions and cannot take each other’s place. Broadly speaking ser implies permanence, estar a temporary quality. Ser is also used in impersonal expressions and to indicate possession. Ter appears in many expressions where we use ‘to be’. Examples follow the tables.

 

Ter (To Have)

Ser

Estar

 

I

tenho

sou

estou

Eu

You (Fam.)

tens

és

estás

Tu

He/She/It

tem

é

está

Êle/ela

You (Polite Sing.)

tem

é

está

O senhor/ a senhora

We

temos

somos

estamos

Nós

You (Fam.)

tendes

sois

estais

Vocês

They

têm

são

estão

Êles/elas

You (Polite Plur.)

têm

são

estão

Os senhores/ as senhoras

Ter

Tenho fome.

 

I am hungry.

Tens calor?

 

Are you (informal) hot?

Tem frio.

 

He is cold.

Temos sono.

 

We are sleepy.

Têm razão.

 

They are right.

Tenho um quarto reservado.

 

I have reserved a room.

Tem casa de banho?

 

Is there a bathroom?

Aqui tem a chave.

 

Here is the key.

Ser

Sou Americano.

 

I am American.

Eu sou alérgico à penicilina.

 

I am allergic to penicillin.

És Portuguesa.

 

You (fam.) are Portuguese (fem.).

Lisboa é em Portugal.

 

Lisbon is in Portugal.

É a minha mala.

 

It is my suitcase

Meu nome é…

 

My name is…

Este é meu filho.

 

This is my son.

Somos Ingleses.

 

We are English.

São dez horas.

 

It is ten o’clock (lit. ‘they are ten hours’).

Estar

Estou em Lisboa.

 

I am in Lisbon.

Estou com insolação.

 

I have sunstroke

Estás palida.

 

You (fam.) are pale (temporary state).

Aqui está a chave.

 

Here is the key.

Como está?

 

How are you (polite)?

Estamos muito bem.

.

We are very well

Os hotéis são à direita.

 

The hotels are on the right.

Three Main Types of Verb and Their Present Tenses

Portuguese verbs are more complex than the ones we are used to in English. They have more endings and more tenses. There are only three verb groups or conjugations, whose infinitives end in –ar, -er and –ir respectively. Infinitives are the ‘to’ form of the word which you will sometimes see used as a command on notices e.g.

Empurrar

Push

Puxar

Pull

Apertar

Fasten

Não fumar

Don’t smoke

Introduzir

Insert

   

The following table illustrates representative Present Tenses for the three verb groups:

 

I

You (fam.)

He/she/it/ You (pol.)

We

You (fam.)

They/ You (pol.)

Speak falar

falo

falas

fala

falamos

falais

falam

             

Sell vender

vendo

vendes

vende

vendemos

vendeis

vendem

             

Depart partir

parto

partes

parte

partimos

partis

partem

There are a couple of past tenses which occur frequently and are easy to recognize. The Imperfect describes something which used to happen or went on for some time in the past, as in They used to speak Portuguese at breakfast, and They were speaking Portuguese when they were interrupted. In both cases the verb would be imperfect, falavam. Another commonly met tense is the Past Definite, used to describe a completed action and corresponding to the English verb in both They spoke Portuguese once at breakfast and They have spoken Portuguese once at breakfast.

The following table gives both tenses for the three conjugations, using the model verbs above:

1st

Conjug.

falava

falavas

falava

falávamos

faláveis

falavam

 

falei

falaste

falou

falámos

falastes

falaram

             

2nd Conjug.

vendia

vendias

vendia

vendíamos

vendíeis

vendiam

 

vendi

vendeste

vendeu

vendemos

vendestes

venderam

             

3rd Conjug.

partia

partias

partia

partíamos

partíeis

partiam

 

parti

partiste

partiu

partimos

partistes

partiram

 

Some examples of the Past Definite from Linguata:

I haven't booked a room

 

Eu não reservei um quarto

(reservar - 1st)

I've run out of petrol

 

A gasolina acabou

(acabar ‘finish’ – 1st)

I've had an accident

 

Eu sofri um acidente

(sofrer ‘suffer’ – 2nd)

I've lost my passport

 

Eu perdi meu passaporte

(perder ‘lose’ – 2nd)

We didn't order this

 

Nós não pedimos isto

(pedir ‘ask for’ – 3rd)

You will notice that most of the verbs used in Linguata are in the Present tense, which is the most useful one to become familiar with. There are also a number of examples of the Conditional, which is the ‘would/should’ tense. This is useful for making requests and expressing preferences. It is very similar to the Future tense in Portuguese:

Future

falarei

falarás

falará

falaremos

falareis

falarão

Conditional

falaria

falarias

falaria

falaríamos

falaríeis

falariam

Here are some examples of the Conditional from Linguata:

Please speak more slowly

 

Você poderia falar mais devagar?

Will you give me an extra pillow?

 

Você poderia me dar mais um travesseiro?

I would like a single room

 

Eu gostaria de um quarto para uma pessoa

In the first two examples, poderia is a conditional form of poder ‘to be able’, i.e. ‘could you…?

 Sources:

Alexander da R.Prista, Essential Portuguese Grammar (N.York : Dover Publications, 1966)

Manuela Cook, Teach Yourself Portuguese (London: Hodder Education, 2003)