Learn the Portuguese verb that means "to be"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Thássia: Bom dia! |
| Braden: Braden here! This is Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 17 - Little House, Big Brazilian Plans. In this lesson, you'll learn how to conjugate the verb "ser," a commonly used irregular verb. |
| Thássia: This conversation is between Joseph and Luciana and takes place in the park. The speakers are friends; therefore, they will be speaking informally. |
| Braden: Let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| (Informal) |
| Joseph: Luciana, você é paulistana? |
| Luciana: Eu sou, mas minha família é do Maranhão. |
| Joseph: Seus pais são de lá? |
| Luciana: Sim. Mas eu nasci em São Paulo. |
| Joseph: Legal. |
| Braden:One time slowly. |
| Joseph: Você é paulistana? |
| Luciana: Eu sou, mas minha família é do Maranhão. |
| Joseph: Seus pais são de lá? |
| Luciana: Sim. Mas eu nasci em São Paulo. |
| Joseph: Legal. |
| Braden:One time fast with translation. |
| Joseph: Luciana, você é paulistana? |
| Braden: Luciana, are you Paulistana? |
| Luciana: Eu sou, mas minha família é do Maranhão. |
| Braden: I am, but my family is from Maranhão. |
| Joseph: Seus pais são de lá? |
| Braden: Your parents are from there? |
| Luciana: Sim. Mas eu nasci em São Paulo. |
| Braden: Yes. But I was born in São Paulo City. |
| Joseph: Legal. |
| Braden: Cool. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Braden: You know, it seems to me that Brazilians move around a lot. |
| Thássia: We didn't used to. |
| Braden: Good point. Brazil is divided into five regions and each region has its own culture, food, and dialect of Portuguese. |
| Thássia: That's right. These unique characteristics were caused by the relative isolation of each region over the past four hundred years. |
| Braden: And since Brazilian culture is agriculturally based, throughout Brazilian history most people lived their entire lives in the same town. |
| Thássia: Recently, however, Brazilians have started moving around much more. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Braden: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we'll look at is. |
| Thássia: mas [natural native speed] |
| Braden: But. |
| Thássia: Mas [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: Mas [natural native speed] |
| Braden: And our next word is. |
| Thássia: Ser [natural native speed] |
| Braden: To be |
| Thássia: Ser [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: Ser [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next we have. |
| Thássia: Família [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Family |
| Thássia: Família [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: Família [natural native speed] |
| Braden: And our next word is. |
| Thássia: Paulistano [natural native speed] |
| Braden: From São Paulo City |
| Thássia: Paulistano [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: Paulistano [natural native speed] |
| Braden: So what's our next word? |
| Thássia: Pais [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Parents, fathers |
| Thássia: Pais [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: Pais [natural native speed] |
| Braden: And our last word is. |
| Thássia: Legal [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Cool, legal |
| Thássia: Legal [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Thássia: Legal [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Braden: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Thássia: The word we'll look at is "legal." |
| Braden: Literally, "legal" means "legal" and it's often used that way. |
| Thássia: But in this case, it's also an idiomatic expression that means "cool." |
| Braden: In the dialogue, Joseph says "legal" after learning a bit about Luciana's life. |
| Thássia: Right. When someone uses the word "legal" in Brazil, more often than not, they're saying that it's "cool." |
| Braden: Do you know any other ways to say "cool" in Portuguese? |
| Thássia: You could also say "maça," "but "legal" is by far the most common. |
| Braden: Good to know. |
Lesson focus |
| Braden: The focus of this lesson is the verb "ser." |
| Thássia: In the dialogue, we heard "Eu sou. Minha família é do Maranhão," which means. |
| Braden: "I am but my family is from Maranhão." |
| Thássia: "Sou" and "é" are all conjugated forms of their root verb "ser." |
| Braden: Right. The verb "ser" in Portuguese means "to be." In English, "to be" is the most fundamental form of verbs like "is," "are," and "am." |
| Thássia: "To be" is a verb rarely taught in English classes but it's quite standard for studying foreign languages. |
| Braden: That's right. As far as grammar is concerned, "to be" has virtually identical uses in English as "ser" does in Portuguese. |
| Thássia: "Ser" is most often used in what we call 'equative' sentences. In other words, "ser" connects two or more ideas or describes what something is. |
| Braden: "Ser" is not used to describe the condition of something or to tell the location of things. That's the "estar" verb, and we'll look at that in the next lesson. |
| Thássia: The "ser" form is usually called the infinitive form. |
| Braden: You know, I don't like to use weird grammar words like this one, but 'infinitive' is an important form to know because Portuguese dictionaries only list verbs in their infinitive forms. |
| Thássia: So if you're looking for the word "sou" in the dictionary you won't find it. |
| Braden: But you will find "ser" with a definition and hopefully a reference to the correct way to conjugate the verb. |
| Thássia: Both English and Portuguese alter these infinitive forms of verbs according to specific conjugation patterns. |
| Braden: Also, "ser" is considered a strong verb because it's conjugated forms have more meaning embedded in them than their English equivalent. |
| Thássia: Right. A misconjugated "ser," with all its added meaning, will not match with the other words in the sentence. |
| Braden: This makes the entire sentence very difficult, if not impossible, to understand. So let's go through the conjugation and the present tense. Thassia, how do you say, "I am" using the verb "ser?" |
| Thássia: "Eu sou." |
| Braden: And how do you say "you are?" |
| Thássia: "Você é." |
| Braden: And "he/she it is" would be… |
| Thássia: "Ele é" or "ela é." |
| Braden: And how about "we are?" |
| Thássia: "Nós somos." |
| Braden: And last, how do you say "they are?" |
| Thássia: "Eles são." |
| Braden: Now, just as a reminder, there is a conjugation chart for the "ser" verb included in the PDF and also on the website. |
| Thássia: And if you're feeling ambitious, we have many more conjugation charts for you to practice with and study on the website. |
| Braden: That just about does it for this lesson. See you next time. |
| Thássia: Ciao! |
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