Let's look at some examples. |
Listen and repeat or speak along with the native speakers. |
Oi! Eu sou Alex. Prazer! |
Oi! Eu sou Alex. Prazer! |
Eu sou Mark. Prazer! |
Eu sou Mark. Prazer! |
Eu sou Karen. Prazer! |
Eu sou Karen. Prazer! |
Oi! Eu sou Sasha Lee. |
Oi! Eu sou Sasha Lee. |
O meu nome é Lilian. |
O meu nome é Lilian. |
Did you notice how the last speaker uses a different pattern? |
O meu nome é Lilian. |
"My name is Lilian." |
Let's start with nome, "name." Nome. Nome. |
In Portuguese, all nouns have grammatical gender and are either singular or plural. Nome is masculine and singular — a fact that determines the form of other words in the sentence. |
Before this is o meu, meaning "my." O meu. |
Meu is masculine singular to agree with nome. |
Before meu is the article o. Think of it like "the" in English. O. O. |
O is also masculine singular to agree with nome. |
Note: in this sentence, the article, o, does not have a corresponding English translation. |
In Portuguese, possessive pronouns, like meu, "my," seu, "your," and so forth, often pair with an article, like the o in o meu. |
Together it's o meu, "my." O meu. |
All together, o meu nome. "My name." O meu nome. |
Next is é, "is," as in "My name is." É. É. |
É is from the verb ser, meaning "to be." Ser. |
Together it's o meu nome é, "my name is…" O meu nome é. |
Last is the name Lilian. "Lilian." Lilian. Lilian. |
All together, O meu nome é Lilian. "My name is Lillian." |
O meu nome é Lilian. |
This pattern is |
O meu nome é NAME. |
My name is NAME. |
To use this pattern, simply replace the NAME placeholder with your given name or given name and surname. |
Note: this pattern requires a proper noun. |
Remember this pattern. You will use it later in the lesson. |
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