Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

Let's take a closer look at the conversation.
Do you remember how Ben asks
"How do you say 'book' in Portuguese?"
Como se diz "book" em português?
The standard way to ask for the meaning of a word in Portuguese follows a simple pattern.
First is como, "how." Como. Como.
Next is se diz, literally "one says." Se diz.
Se, roughly translating as "one," as in "one says." Se . Se.
Next is diz, "says," as in "one says." diz.
Diz is from the verb, dizer, meaning "to say." Dizer.
Together, Como se diz, literally, "How one says," but translates as, "how [does] one say." Como se diz.
After this is the English word, "book."
Last is the phrase, em português, meaning "in Portuguese." Em português.
First is em, "in." Em. Em.
After this is, português, "Portuguese," as in "the Portuguese language." Português. Português.
Note, when the context is clear, you may omit em português.
All together, Como se diz "book" em português? Literally means something like "How one says "book" in Portuguese," but translates as "How do you say 'book' in Portuguese?" Como se diz "book" em português?
Note the rising intonation of the sentence to mark that it's a question.
Como se diz "book" em português?
Let's take a closer look at the response.
Do you remember how Paula says,
"You say 'book'."
Se diz "livro."
First is se diz, which literally means "one says," but translates here as "you say." Se diz.
After this is the answer to the question, livro, "book." Livro. Livro.
All together Se diz "livro," literally means "One says "book," but it translates as "You say 'book'."
Se diz "livro."
The pattern is
Como se diz ENGLISH WORD em português?
How do you say ENGLISH WORD in Portuguese?
Como se diz ENGLISH WORD em português?
To use this pattern, simply replace the ENGLISH WORD placeholder with the word you want to know.
Imagine you want to know the Portuguese word for 'pen'.
Ask
"How do you say 'pen' in Portuguese?"
Ready?
Como se diz "pen" em português?
"How do you say 'pen' in Portuguese?"
Como se diz "pen" em português?
This lesson introduces a grammatically complex, but commonly used, pattern: the impersonal form with se. The se-construction is used to express what people do in general, rather than point to a specific person.
The pattern is se plus a verb in the third person. The example used in the lesson was se diz, "one says." Let’s quickly look at a few more examples.
Se chama, "one calls," as in "one calls it 'a book.'"
Se faz, "one does," as in "one does this."

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