Portuguese Conjunctions – All You Need to Know
Without conjunctions, we would sound rather clumsy and inarticulate: I like apples. I like pears. I don’t like bananas. No one speaks like that. In avoiding the…
Portuguese Regular Verbs in the Present Tense
Portuguese verbs are indeed more cumbersome to learn than, say, English. Being a Romance language, Portuguese is not short of verb forms to keep track of. Fortunately,…
Passive Voice in Portuguese
Passive voice – as opposed to Active voice – highlights the recipient that is acted upon by the agent of the verb. Accordingly, the recipient of the…
Two Worlds, One Language: Unveiling the Differences Between European and Brazilian Portuguese
You are probably aware that there are two well-established standards of Portuguese – the European and the Brazilian. Most language learners, though, don’t know much about their…
Portuguese Past Subjunctive (Imperfeito do Conjuntivo)
The Subjunctive mood is often a source of much whining and moaning among Portuguese language learners – so many conjugations one must keep track of! We have…
The Imperative in Portuguese
Like other Romance languages, Portuguese has an abundance of verb forms. Adding to the pile is the Imperative mood. We use the Imperative to give instructions and commands,…
‘Tão’ v. ‘Tanto’ in Portuguese – Know the Difference
Portuguese language learners often struggle to distinguish between the adverbs tão and tanto. Are you one of them? I get it! After all, tão and tanto are…
The Portuguese Verb Fazer
The Portuguese verb Fazer means different things depending on the context. Depending on the context, its English equivalent can be Make, Do, or Take. Additionally, there are…
Portuguese Present Subjunctive (Presente Conjuntivo)
The use of the Subjunctive in Portuguese (Conjuntivo) is way more frequent than in English. That alone can be a stumbling block for many language learners as…
Para vs. Por in Portuguese – When to Use Either
Language learners often get confused by the Portuguese prepositions para and por. While it is true that both are prepositions of movement, we use them under different…
Basic Portuguese Grammar for Beginners
Introduction Understanding the fundamentals of Portuguese grammar can be extremely helpful. In this blog post, I’ll touch on a few relevant aspects of Portuguese grammar that you…
Portuguese Reflexive Verbs and Pronouns
Reflexive verbs are abundant in Portuguese and many of them are frequently used in everyday life. It is easy for language learners – especially those unfamiliar with…
Poder vs. Conseguir in Portuguese – Tease Them Apart
Portuguese language learners often struggle to discern between Poder and Conseguir, not least native English speakers or anyone using English as a reference since Can usually encompasses…
Personal Infinitive in Portuguese (Infinitivo Pessoal)
The Personal Infinitive (Infinitivo Pessoal) is unique to Portuguese and commonplace. There’s no parallel in other languages and learners of Portuguese often struggle to wrap their heads…
Portuguese Possessive Pronouns and Determiners
Portuguese possessive pronouns and determiners indicate possession. In English, these are words like my, your, his, her, our, their (possessive determiners) and mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs (possessive pronouns). Possessive pronouns and determiners…
Past Participle in Portuguese
In Portuguese, we use the Past Participle to form Perfect tenses and the passive voice. In addition, we use Past Participles as adjectives. In what follows, I will…
Portuguese Definite and Indefinite Articles – How and When to Use Them
Most languages do well without articles. In this sense, English and Romance languages like Portuguese belong to a minority. The Portuguese definite articles – o, a, os,…
Portuguese Verb Tenses and Moods Explained: A Usage Rundown Anchored to English
With so many conjugations, Portuguese verbs are a hard-to-chew bit for anyone learning the language, especially for those not acquainted with any Romance language from before. Now,…