Learn how to use the faz tempo structure to talk about things that happened a long time ago
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sílvia: Olá! Bem-vindo ao PortuguesePod101.com! |
| Braden: Upper Beginner Season 1, lesson 19, The Curious Case of the Sinking Portuguese Plans. Hello and welcome back to PortuguesePod101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Portuguese. I’m joined here in the studio by… |
| Sílvia: Hello! Sílvia here. So Braden, please tell us what we’ll be learning in this lesson. |
| Braden: In this lesson, you’ll learn to express things that happened long ago. |
| Sílvia: Where does this conversation take place and who is between? |
| Braden: This conversation takes place in the evening, on the phone, and it’s between Juninho and Clara. |
| Sílvia: What’s the formality level? |
| Braden: Well, they’re pretty good friends, so it’s informal. |
| Sílvia: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Juninho: Boa noite! |
| Clara: Boa noite, Juninho. |
| Jinhinho: A Laís está? |
| Clara: Tá sim, mas ela está dormindo. |
| Juninho: Dormindo?? Faz tempo que combinamos de estudar hoje a noite. |
| Clara: Faz umas duas horas que ela dormiu, você quer que eu a acorde? |
| Juninho: Não, não! Amanhã nos falamos antes da palestra. Até amanhã. |
| Clara: Até amanhã. |
| Juninho: Ela furou comigo. |
| Braden: One time slowly. |
| Juninho: Boa noite! |
| Clara: Boa noite, Juninho. |
| Jinhinho: A Laís está? |
| Clara: Tá sim, mas ela está dormindo. |
| Juninho: Dormindo?? Faz tempo que combinamos de estudar hoje a noite. |
| Clara: Faz umas duas horas que ela dormiu, você quer que eu a acorde? |
| Juninho: Não, não! Amanhã nos falamos antes da palestra. Até amanhã. |
| Clara: Até amanhã. |
| Juninho: Ela furou comigo. |
| Braden: One time fast, with translation. |
| Juninho: Boa noite! |
| Juninho: Good evening. |
| Clara: Boa noite, Juninho. |
| Clara: Good evening, Juninho. |
| Jinhinho: A Laís está? |
| Jinhinho: Is Laís around? |
| Clara: Tá sim, mas ela está dormindo. |
| Clara: Yes she is, but she's sleeping. |
| Juninho: Dormindo?? Faz tempo que combinamos de estudar hoje a noite. |
| Juninho: Sleeping? We agreed to study tonight a long time ago. |
| Clara: Faz umas duas horas que ela dormiu, você quer que eu a acorde? |
| Clara: She went to sleep about two hours ago. Do you want me to wake her up? |
| Juninho: Não, não! Amanhã nos falamos antes da palestra. Até amanhã. |
| Juninho: No, no! Tomorrow, we'll talk before the lecture. |
| Clara: Até amanhã. |
| Clara: See you tomorrow. |
| Juninho: Ela furou comigo. |
| Juninho: She holed with me. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Braden: Okay, Sílvia, so what happened here? |
| Sílvia: Juninho was planning to study along with Laís, but when he called her house, Laís was sleeping, so he was kind of disappointed because they wouldn’t be able to study. At the end of the conversation, Juninho said - Ela furou comigo. |
| Braden: Which we translated as, “she cancelled with me” or that “she holed with me” or “she punctured with me” or something like that. It’s kind of a funky expression in English. |
| Sílvia: The idea, however, is more complex. Here, Juninho had made plans with Laís, but Laís put a hold in their plans, which made the plan sink like a boat. |
| Braden: Is that the kind of idea that comes to your mind? |
| Sílvia: Yes. |
| Braden: As a sinking boat. Would your grandmother say this phrase? |
| Sílvia: Not really. |
| Braden: Not really. |
| Sílvia: And I wouldn’t say that to my boss, either. |
| Braden: So, it is a younger expression. |
| Sílvia: Yes. |
| Braden: Would you consider this slang? |
| Sílvia: It’s kind of a slang. |
| Braden: Kind of a slang? |
| Sílvia: Yes. |
| Braden: Okay, and it just means your plans failed. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Braden: The first word we’ll look at is… |
| Sílvia: furar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to puncture, to put a hole in |
| Sílvia: furar [slowly - broken down by syllable] furar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: dormindo [natural native speed] |
| Braden: sleeping |
| Sílvia: dormindo [slowly - broken down by syllable] dormindo [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: combinar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to combine, to match, to go with, to arrange |
| Sílvia: combinar [slowly - broken down by syllable] combinar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: antes [natural native speed] |
| Braden: before |
| Sílvia: antes [slowly - broken down by syllable] antes [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: palestra [natural native speed] |
| Braden: lecture |
| Sílvia: palestra [slowly - broken down by syllable] palestra [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: acordar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to wake up |
| Sílvia: acordar [slowly - broken down by syllable] acordar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: estudar [natural native speed] |
| Braden: to study |
| Sílvia: estudar [slowly - broken down by syllable] estudar [natural native speed |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: tempo [natural native speed] |
| Braden: time, weather |
| Sílvia: tempo [slowly - broken down by syllable] tempo [natural native speed] |
| Braden: Next |
| Sílvia: comigo [natural native speed] |
| Braden: with me |
| Sílvia: comigo [slowly - broken down by syllable] comigo [natural native speed] |
| Braden: And our last word is… |
| Sílvia: amanhã [natural native speed] |
| Braden: tomorrow |
| Sílvia: amanhã [slowly - broken down by syllable] amanhã [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Braden: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Sílvia: The first phrase we’ll look at is umas duas horas. |
| Braden: When Brazilians are estimating the amount of something, like time or the length or the number of shoes in their closet or something like that, they tend to insert the word umas or uns to give a feeling of "around" or "about." So, umas duas horas is about 2 hours. |
| Sílvia: This is gender sensitive as well, so you could just as easily say uns 15 sapatos (about 15 shoes). Even though these are estimates, when Brazilians say this, they are usually pretty certain about the number, roughly 75% or more. |
| Braden: Could you break this down? |
| Sílvia: umas duas horas |
| Braden: And one time fast. |
| Sílvia: umas duas horas |
| Braden: So, what’s our next phrase? |
| Sílvia: The next phrase we’ll look at is - A Laís está? |
| Braden: In the dialogue, Juninho asked - A Laís está? This literally translates to "The Laís is?" but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense in English. So, we translated it as "Is Laís around?" |
| Sílvia: We could also have translated it as "Is Laís here?" Remember that the verb estar has the feeling of location with it. So just by saying está, Juninho makes the word aqui unnecessary. Braden: Could you break this down for us? |
| Sílvia: A Laís está? |
| Braden: And one time fast. |
| Sílvia: A Laís está? |
| Braden: Let’s take a look at the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Sílvia: The focus of this lesson is faz tempo. In the dialogue, we heard the phrase - Dormindo?? Faz tempo que combinamos de estudar hoje a noite. |
| Braden: Which we translated as “Sleeping? We agreed to study tonight a long time ago.” |
| Sílvia: We’ve already talked about the faz tempo structure, but we’ve got some more info about it to give to you. |
| Braden: Just to review though. |
| Sílvia: The formula is: faz + time + que + action (in the preterit tense) |
| Braden: Or.. |
| Sílvia: Action (in the preterit tense) + faz + time. |
| Braden: And these are in the PDF, so check that out. Could you give some example? |
| Sílvia: Ele dormiu faz duas horas. |
| Braden: And what does this translate to? |
| Sílvia: He fell asleep two hours ago. |
| Braden: How about one more example? |
| Sílvia: Faz duas horas que ele dormiu. |
| Braden: How does this translate? |
| Sílvia: He fell asleep 2 hours ago. |
| Braden: These are the same sentence, meaning the same thing, right? Just using the two different formulas. |
| Sílvia: Yes. |
| Braden: And the meanings are the same. |
| Sílvia: Our contrast here is using the faz tempo structure in the present tense or the past tense. |
| Braden: So, the faz doesn’t change, it’s the other verb that can change. |
| Sílvia: For example, if you were to say, “Faz seis meses que saí de lá” means “It’s been six months since I left there.” |
| Braden: So, the verb “sair” is in the preterit tense, “saí”. |
| Sílvia: Here, we’re talking about time that has gone by, since some event has happened. |
| Braden: When you use the second verb in the present tense, instead of the preterit, then it changes. Then, it becomes something has been happening for that X amount of time. |
| Sílvia: For example, “Faz seis meses que trabalho aqui”, which means, “I’ve been working here for six months.” |
| Braden: The key here is the second verb. Is it in the present tense or in the past tense? And in this case, it is in the present tense. |
Outro |
| Braden: That just about does it for this lesson! See you later! |
| Sílvia: Até mais! |
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