Real Brazilian Portuguese & Culture
Portuguese Mau Vs. Mal The difference between the words ‘mau’ and ‘mal’ has always confused people, even Brazilians! The two words are pronounced identically, it’s when they are written that one needs to be careful. In general, “mau” means “bad” and “mal” means “badly.” Examples: O lobo mau está de mau humor. – The bad wolf is in a bad mood. Ela está dirijindo mal porque está se sentindo mal. - She [...]
SER VS. ESTAR IN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE The fact that there are two words in Portuguese that mean “to be”, ser and estar, can baffle some English speakers at first. How am I supposed to know the difference? you may wonder. First off, don’t get aggravated about it because every language has its own special characteristics that don’t [...]
PAULISTA VS. PAULISTANO What is the difference between a “Paulista” and a “Paulistano” in Brazilian Portuguese? -A Paulista is a native or inhabitant of the state of São Paulo. -A Paulistano is a native or inhabitant of the city of São Paulo. If there are any other groups of similar words in Portuguese that get you [...]
Since much of Portuguese Blog is aimed at intermediate and advanced learners, I thought we’d do a post to help some of our readers who are just starting to study Portuguese. Still, this particular tip should be useful for everyone, since I’ve noticed this is a common mistake. BEM VS. BOM It’s important to remember [...]
LEVAR VS. TRAZER In Portuguese, the verbs levar and trazer may be confusing to some people. Levar (to take) is used to indicate a movement away from the speaker or the place where the speaker is at the moment of speaking while trazer (to bring) is used to indicate a movement toward the speaker or the place [...]
FALSE COGNATES False Cognates (called falsos cognatos in Portuguese) are basically words which look and maybe sound like words in English but actually have a different meaning. An example – you’ve just arrived in Brazil and are walking around Rio. You’re hungry and see a small restaurant which has “lanche” in the window. You assume this means lunch and [...]
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “POR” & “PARA” If you’re like most other Portuguese students you’ve probably found yourself stuck when speaking Portuguese trying to work out if the correct preposition is ´por´ or ´para´. The problem is, especially with por, that there are no single English equivalents. But, before we get too annoyed, we’d do [...]
BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE NOUNS & WORD GENDER LESSON Portuguese Nouns are either Masculine or Feminine. In English, our words don’t have gender and so this will get some getting used to. Fortunately, the gender of most nouns in Brazilian Portuguese is quite predictable. For example, the world for girl, “menina” is obviously going to be feminine (a [...]
COMMON MISTAKES IN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE: What’s the difference between Degrau, Grau & Grão? These are three similar sounding words that many people mix up when learning Brazilian Portuguese. Especially misleading is that “DEgraus” does not translate to “DEgrees.” But instead, the word for “degrees”, when talking about the weather, is “graus” and “degraus”… it just means [...]
