Portuguese Basics: Lesson 7

If you want to say to have to in Portuguese you say to have that.

To have to is ter que in Portuguese.

To have to means, of course, must. Apply this and say:

?I must eat.|Tenho que comer.

Refer to something masculine (say, a strawberry, morango) and say:

?I have to eat it but I don’t want it.|Tenho que comê-lo mas não o quero.

The Portuguese for to wait is esperar.

Think of getting desperate after waiting for 30 minutes for the bathroom.

How would you say to somebody (male):

?You have to wait.|O senhor tem que esperar.

What if you wanted to tell somebody to wait a minute.

One minute is um minuto in Portuguese.

This um is another um combination so it is nasal (just like em in tem and all the other um combinations). How do you think you would say:

?You have to wait one minute.|O senhor tem que esperar um minuto.

If you want to make words into plural in Portuguese, you simply add s to the end just like in English.

Portuguese for five (5) is cinco.

The English word cinque (i.e. the five on dice) has the same root – although this one comes directly from French.

How would you apply all that we know and say to a man:

?You have to wait five minutes.|O senhor tem que esperar cinco minutos.

Do you remember the word for word?

?Word|Palavra

Imagine that you are a guard at an entrance and you must only let somebody who knows a five-word password in. How would you say to a woman trying to get in:

?You must know five words.|A senhora tem que saber cinco palavras.

What about one word? You would think it would be um palavra but the fact of the matter is that the word one is the only number that has both masculine and feminine versions.

If the masculine one is um and you know that the feminine gender loves the letter a, how do you think you would say:

?One (feminine)|Uma

So, how would you say:

?One word|Uma palavra

To a man:

?You must know one word.|Tem que saber uma palavra.

So, you got um and uma for one.

The words um and uma not only mean one but they also mean a.

So, how would you say:

?A minute|Um minuto

?A word|Uma palavra

What about:

?A gentlemen|Um senhor

I believe this is enough for today.

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