Learn the key pattern to talk about your occupation
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| Let's take a closer look at the conversation. |
| Do you remember how Mark asks, |
| "Are you a student?" |
| Você é estudante? |
| Let's start will the word estudante, "student." Estudante . Estudante. |
| In Portuguese, nouns have grammatical gender and are either singular or plural. However, the noun estudante, "student," is a special case, as it has just one form for both masculine and feminine genders. |
| In this case, estudante is masculine singular, as Mark is addressing Alex. |
| Next is with você é, "you are." Você é. |
| First is você, meaning "you" (informal). Você . Você. |
| Note: in Brazilian Portuguese você is used when addressing someone in a casual conversation. |
| After this is é, literally "is," but translates as "are," in this context. É . É. |
| É is from the verb ser, meaning "to be." Ser . Ser. |
| Together você é literally means "you is," but translates as "you are." Você é. |
| Note: você, "you," is always followed by a verb in the third person singular, as in Você é, literally, "You is," but translates as "You are." |
| All together, Você é estudante? literally "is you student," but translates as "Are you a student?" Você é estudante? |
| Let's take a closer look at the response. |
| Do you remember how Alex says, |
| "No, I'm not a student. I'm an investor." |
| Não, eu não sou estudante. Eu sou investidor. |
| First is não, meaning, "no." Não . Não. |
| It answers Mark's yes-or-no question, "Are you a student?" Você é estudante? |
| After this, Alex Andrade specifies that "He's not a student." Eu não sou estudante. "I'm not a student." Eu não sou estudante. |
| First is eu, "I." Eu. |
| After this is, não, meaning "not." Não . Não. |
| Next is sou, "am." Sou. |
| Sou is from the verb ser, meaning "to be." Ser. |
| Together, it's eu não sou, literally, "I not am," but translates as, "I am not." Eu não sou. |
| After this is Estudante, "student." Estudante. |
| Again, masculine, singular, in this case, as Alex is responding. |
| All together, Eu não sou estudante, literally, "I not am student," but translates as "I'm not a student." Eu não sou estudante. |
| Alex then tells Mark his actual occupation. Eu sou investidor. "I'm an investor." Eu sou investidor. |
| First is, eu, "I." Eu. |
| Next is sou, "am." Sou. |
| Next is investidor, "investor." Investidor . Investidor |
| Investidor is a masculine singular noun. |
| Together, Eu sou investidor, "I'm an investor." Eu sou investidor. |
| All together, Não, eu não sou estudante. Eu sou investidor. |
| "No, I'm not a student. I'm an investor." |
| Não, eu não sou estudante. Eu sou investidor. |
| The pattern is |
| Não, eu não sou OCCUPATION. Eu sou ACTUAL OCCUPATION. |
| "No, I'm not OCCUPATION. I'm ACTUAL OCCUPATION." |
| To use this pattern, simply replace the OCCUPATION and ACTUAL OCCUPATION placeholders with the occupations that are appropriate to the conversation. |
| Note: This pattern requires nouns. Their gender will depend on the gender of the speaker. |
| Imagine you're Emma Espinosa, a student. Recall, the word for a female student is also estudante. Estudante. |
| Alex Andrade asks you if you're a teacher, professora. "A female teacher." Professora . Professora. |
| Say, |
| "No, I'm not a teacher. I'm a student." |
| Ready? |
| Não, eu não sou professora. Eu sou estudante. |
| "No, I'm not a teacher. I'm a student." |
| Não, eu não sou professora. Eu sou estudante. |
| In Portuguese, many of the occupation nouns differ depending on gender. |
| For example, |
| "architect" |
| arquiteto |
| arquiteto |
| arquiteta |
| arquiteta |
| In Portuguese, there are some rules of thumb for gender of nouns. |
| Nouns that end in "-o" tend to be masculine, |
| For example: |
| arquiteto |
| "architect," mascuine singular form |
| médico |
| "doctor," masculine singular form |
| While nouns that end in -a tend to be feminine. For example: |
| arquiteta |
| "architect," feminine singular form |
| médica |
| "doctor," feminine singular form |
| In Portuguese, some occupations share the same word for both genders, such as |
| estudante |
| "student" |
| estudante |
| dentista |
| "dentist" |
| dentista |
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