Dialogue

Vocabulary

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
In the last lesson, we learned how to make a reservation in a restaurant. Now that you know how to get a table, you have another big issue to tackle. If you want to enjoy your meal, the smoking issue is very important. If you are a smoker in a non-smoking establishment or a non-smoker in a smoking establishment, this could ruin your meal.
In this lesson, we'll cover how to ask for a smoking or non-smoking table.
GRAMMAR POINT
First we will imagine that you are a smoker. Before entering a restaurant, you need to ask, “Excuse me, is smoking allowed here?”:
Com licença, é permitido fumar aqui?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Com licença, é permitido fumar aqui?
Once more:
Com li-cen-ça, é per-mi-ti-do fu-mar a-qui?
Com licença, as we have seen, means “Excuse me.”
(slow) Com li-cen-ça.
Com licença.
We follow this with é permitido, which is translated as “is permitted”.
(slow) É per-mi-ti-do.
É permitido.
And next comes fumar, which means “to smoke”.
(slow) Fu-mar.
Fumar.
And last, aqui, which means “here”.
(slow) A-qui.
Aqui.
Here’s the whole sentence:
Com licença, é permitido fumar aqui?
(slow) Com li-cen-ça, é per-mi-ti-do fu-mar a-qui?
The answer to this question is simple: Sim, é permitido which means “Yes, smoking is allowed” or Não, não é permitido which means “No, smoking is not allowed”.
Let’s break those down:
(slow) Sim, é permitido.
(slow) Não, não é permitido.
Now let’s imagine you smoke. If that’s the case, when you come to Portugal, you should ask: ”Do you have tables for smokers?”
Tem mesa para fumantes?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Tem me-sa pa-ra fu-man-tes?
Once more at natural speed:
Tem mesa para fumantes?
Tem is a form of the verb which means “to have”
(slow) Tem.
Tem.
Mesa means "table" or “tables”
(slow) Mesa.
Mesa.
Para means “for.”
(slow) Pa-ra.
Para.
And the word fumantes is translated as “smokers”.
The whole question is:
Tem mesa para fumantes?
(slow) Tem me-sa pa-ra fu-man-tes?
Once more:
Tem mesa para fumantes?
Now let’s go over the possible answers to this question. If it’s a positive answer, you might hear
Sim, tem.
(slow) Sim, tem.
And if the answer is negative, Não, não tem.
(slow) Não, não tem.
In these expressions:
Sim means “yes”
Não means “no” and
Tem is a conjugated form of the verb meaning “to have”.
(slow) Tem
Tem
Let’s hear the expressions again:
Sim, tem.
(slow) Sim, tem.
Não, não tem.
(slow) Não, não tem.
When the answer is negative, you may also hear "perdão" which means “we are sorry” attached to “Não tem.” The phrase will sound like this Perdão. Não tem.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Per-dão. Não tem.
Once more at natural speed:
Perdão. Não tem.

Comments

Hide