Portuguese Basics: Lesson 5

Welcome back. A short summary:

?It is good to have time but she doesn’t have it.|É bom ter tempo mas ela não o tem.

The Portuguese word for I is eu.

I live in Europe, don’t I.

However, this eu is pronounced not like eu in Europe but by pronouncing e in epic and u in Lucas fast and thusconnecting them into one sound. Sounds way harder than it is.

Now, look at the general rule how to make words into the eu form:

To make to do into I do, you remove the last two letters and replace them with o.

This is the general rule and it works pretty well. Try it:

?To want.|Querer.

?I want.|Eu quero.

Actually, whereas in Brazil they say that eu pretty often, in Portugal they don’t say it because you can tell that you are talking about yourself by the ending. I will usually skip eu but it’s no mistake to say it if you want to.

What about:

?I want to have time.|Quero ter tempo.

There is another rule you need to learn before you are ready to work with what we got fully.

If you connect an infinitive (a to form) with the word for it (o or a), the last r disappears and the word for it gets the letter l in front.

So, for example, if you want to say to want it you add querer and o and you get quere-lo which means too want it.

This works for all infinitives without exceptions.

Try some phrases with it. You are talking about dinheiro – money.

?I want to have it.|Quero tê-lo.

You are talking about the word – a palavra now. Say:

?I want to know it.|Quero sabê-la.

Let’s get back to talking to o senhor. Still talk about the word:

?You want to know it but she doesn’t know it.|O senhor quer sabê-la mas ela não a sabe.

Anyway, getting back to the eu words. The rule I taught you about removing the last two letters and replacing them with o works for all regular infinitives but words like have and know are very common words so they are a bit irregular.

For example, have – ter – should become eu to for I have but that doesn’t quite work this way. It becomes eu tenho.

So, how would you say:

?I have money.|Tenho dinheiro.

Actually, there are many expressions with ter. In Portuguese, you aren’t hungry or thirsty. You, literally, have hunger and thirst.

Hunger in Portuguese is fome.

It sounds more like famine than hunger, actually. Anyway, guess, how you would say:

?I am hungry.|Tenho fome.

The same goes for thirst.

Thirst in Portuguese is sedo.

First, talk to yourself politely (use o senhor) and ask:

?Are you thirsty?|O senhor tem sedo?

Answer:

?I am not thirsty.|Não tenho sedo.

Done.

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