Lição 4 ~ Fourth Lesson
Quando era menino (menina)
When I was a young boy (girl)

>>Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese

This is the fourth lesson in Portuguese Online's Lições. These lessons are written for moderate beginners who have already taken something like the Para começar courses offered on this site. You must first have a solid understanding of basic phrases and pronunciation and have completed lesson 1 lesson 2 and lesson 3.

*When you see "B "P, this means that you can click to hear how the word or phrase sounds in Brazil (Brazilian dialect) and Portugal (European dialect).

Author's note: **This lesson is a little longer and more difficult, so please take your time to go through all of the material. Please read through and practice the material introduced this lesson several times.**

The first two lines of this dialogue from the last lição. Joaqim left João standing alone and confused, while David surprised him with his ability to speak Portuguese. David then attempted to reassure him about his friend. After that, he revealed himself as a secret agent, breaking the cryptic news to João - his friend Joaquim isn't his friend, he's someone else.

This is another dialogue you should conquer. It's a transitional dialogue - one that's beginning to sound a little less formulaic and sterile, and more fluid. That description should also match how you're feeling about your abilities in Portuguese.

• Venha comigo means come with me. You certainly recognize the comigo by now as a special contraction of com with + mi me, but you hesitate to identify venha as coming from vir to come. It's an imperative (= command) form, so it's special. But it does resemble the first person venho I come, não é?

• Aonde vamos? where are we going? is João's immediate response. Aonde is a contraction of a to and onde where, so you can guess that we use it when asking or stating the direction to where someone is heading. Vamos is a form of ir to go, one of the irregular verbs you met in lição 2. It means we go, so the entire question translates (to) where are we going?

• não responde, só arrasta o João para o café is just part of the blocking we find written into the script. Responder means to respond, as we might have expected, so the first two words mean (he) doesn't respond. Só is an adverb that translates to only. It modifies the verb's action, and is typically placed before the verb. In this case, the verb is arrastar to drag. You've probably already constructed the rest of the sentence in English, so let's fill it in: (he) only drags the John towards the café, in other words, he just drags John toward the café.

• O garçom enters the dialogue here, suggesting to us that they're now inside the café. The word garçom is taken from the French garçon, and in some dialects of Portuguese sounds almost identical to the French word. He asks João você deseja um copo de tinto? do you desire a glass of tinto? Copo (m.) is a glass, not necessarily a cup, unless you're talking about the kind of cup (trophy) won in a futebol (m.) football, soccer tournament. Vinho (m.) is wine, and here João is asked if he wants a cup of red (wine). He could also have some vinho branco white wine, if he prefered.

• Hoje prefiro um de branco today I prefer a glass of white. Prefiro I prefer comes from preferir to prefer, and is certainly a polite way of requesting something at a restaurant. Um de branco one of white is an easy way to shorten your sentence and leave out the understood glass.

• O João nunca bebe vinho branco! Faz anos que trabalho aqui e sempre toma um copo de tinto. This remark is a little tricky, but we have the skills to dissect it. Nunca means never, one of those words we learned in the last lição. If you can recall that beber means to drink, then we've already conquered the first outburst: John never drinks white wine! Faz means does, makes, but here we're relying on a special construction: faz + (time period) + que + (present-tense verb). This structure always tells us that somebody's been doing something for some amount of time. Here, trabalho I work (from trabalhar to work) tells us that the waiter has been working aqui here for anos years! ...e sempre toma um copo de tinto and he always drinks a cup of red. As long as you've remembered that sempre means always, the only troubling word here was tomar to take. It's an extremely useful (and, fortunately, extremely REGULAR!) verb, since it can mean to take someone's belongings from them, to take medicine, to take an exam, and even to take (= eat) food or to take (= drink) beverages. In fact, please get comfortable with this verb, since many Portuguese speakers prefer it to the standard comer and beber in everyday situations.

• David says fico com uma água tônica. You should be familiar with fico com I'll have or I'll take at this time, so you might be able to guess that he's asking for a tonic water. In Portugal, the adjective tonic is spelled (and pronounced) tónico (feminine tónica).

• The waiter then asks mais alguma coisa? You're already familiar with alguma coisa any (one) thing. The word mais means more, so here he's asking if they want anything else.

• David turns to João and secretively asks quando você era menino, como se chamava? You've just met a new verb tense, the indicative. This is a way to talk about the past, but it's different from the preterit. More on this in the sections below. For now, just realize that the question translates to when you were a child, how did you call yourself (what was/used to be your name)? The word menino (m.) boy and menina (f.) girl are prefered in Brazil, while the Portuguese use rapaz (m.) for boy and rapariga (f.) for girl.

• Se chamava João ou tinha outro nome? Was your name John, or did you have another name? contains more of that new imperfect tense. Outro, as you know, is an adjective related to the English word other or another. Please remember that we NEVER use the indefinite articles um or uma with this word. This is why we say outro nome another name, outra casa another house, and not "um outro nome", etc. Feel free to use o, a, os, and as with this word: a outra casa the other house, o outro the other (one), os outros the others.

• Onde morava? is yet another question in the imperfect. David is asking where did you (use to) live? Remember that the verb morar deals with living in houses, places, cities, etc., and can be formally translated to reside. Viver means to live deals with living life: viver a vida to live life. The two verbs can inch onto each other's territory, but they never have the same meaning: o Picasso viveu aqui Picasso lived here may refer to the place he resided, but the focus of that phrase is the life he lived.

• Escuta! Fala comigo! is David's commanding response to João's silence. Escuta! is the imperative listen!, and fala! means speak!

• David suddenly takes a slow, instructive tone. He tells João, eu vou fazer algumas perguntas e você vai responder. This sentence refreshes a concept briefly introduced in lição 2: the compound future, or ir to go + infinitive. It's the same structure we use in English. Vou I go is the irregular present tense eu form of ir. Vai you go; he, she, it goes is the irregular ele, ela, você form of ir. An extremely literal translation of the above phrase would give us I go to make some questions and you go to respond, in other words, I'm going to ask some questions and you are going to respond. Fazer perguntas means to ask questions. Faço uma pergunta I'm asking a question: Entende? do you understand? (entender to understand, to "get it", to "catch (it)").

• Chega! Não se batam neste café! cries the waiter. Chega means he, she, it arrives, but here it is used as an expression of frustration: enough! Não se batam is a negative command (imperative) of the verb bater-se to fight. You might have noticed that bater-se is a reflexive verb, consequently its literal meaning is to beat oneself, or to beat each other. You will soon see why we say batam in the command form and not the "expected" present tense batem for the third person (referring in this case to vocês all/both of you form). Neste is a contraction of em in, on, among and the adjective este this (masculine singular).

• Deixe lá. Eu me vou embora! is quite a fluent expression in Portuguese, meaning that if you're using phrases like these, you'll be perceived as having at least a solid intermediate understanding of the language. Deixe is a command form of deixar to leave (it). Try to remember that deixar never means to leave in the sense of to depart or to go away. It's the leaving of setting something or someone down or aside, as in I left it there or we left the room dirty, she left him at the school. The greatest example of this verb's meaning is the useful compound deixar cair to "leave fall", to let fall, in other words, to drop. Lá means (over) there, a there that isn't close to you or me. Deixe lá, literally leave (it) over there, is a colloquial expression for forget about it or drop it. Vou-me embora comes from the verb construction ir-se embora to go oneself instead, in otherwords, to take off, o leave, to get out. You can already conjugate ir to go in the present tense and you can handle reflexive verbs, so you have to feel comfortable using this structure whenever you need to leave. Eu me vou embora stresses the subject, meaning I'm out of here.

Read through the dialogue outra vez, e depois and then set it aside for a little while. After going through this lesson once, reread the dialogue again. You should then make an English translation, using the explanations above as a guide. It is difficult, but after that you'll say "I understand everything much better agora!"

We've just been in a café com João, we've seen his frustration and felt his ire as he engaged the apparently well informed, but very uninformative, David in a battle of silence. Afraid that this confrontation might soon turn very ugly, you attempt to step in entre os dois between the two (of them).

You're sitting at one of the small indoor area, in the canto (m.) corner (always the corner of an inside angle, never uma esquina (f.) street corner). They are seated on the other end, perto de next to a janela the window. You march over to their mesa (f.) table and begin to offer your wise council. Since the situation is now heated, you take a harsh and straightforward tone:

Escutem!
Calem-se!

That's right. You just take your verb escutar to hear, to listen and make a plural command out of it : listen up! Then you do the exact same thing with the verb calar-se to quiet oneself (more on this later): quiet down! You continue to spit out another command to both of them:

Não falem assim neste café!

You use a negative in this one: don't speak! Then you manage to throw in a very useful adverb: the word assim like this, like that, as such, in such a way. This word seems to fit almost anywhere. In fact, it sounds so useful to you that you run through a few phrases in your mind:

se faz assim it's done/made like this
cantam assim they sing like that (or that's how they sing)
a canção se canta assim the song is sung like that (or that's how the song is sung)
canta assim! sing (it) like this!
se chamavam assim they used to call themselves like that (or, better translated: that's what their names were)

You realize that one of those phrases contained a strange verb - se chamava - but you still recognize it as a form of chamar-se to call oneself. You know it has something to do with the past, but you're willing to wait a little for a better explanation. Anyway, you are now very consciente aware of the negative command you just gave the two of them: don't speak like that in this cafe! You feel quite comfortable with your negative commands, and now you smile contentedly and close with an entendem? understand?

Disgusted by your atitude (f.) attitude, the two of them just let out a quick Deixe lá! and you wander back to your mesa that's over there no canto in the corner. You now go back to your studies, but are prepared to confront the two of them all over again when you reread this Brain-Drilling after you've completed the lesson.

>>MISBEHAVING NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES
You have already met a number of nouns that seem a little "strange". By "strange", I mean that they didn't work like the ones you saw in the first two lessons: singulars in -o, -a, or -e, plurals in -os, -as, or -es. You've been asking yourself what's wrong, and now you've come so far that you deserve an explanation.

Here is my explanation: some nouns that you meet will be strange. The plural will not just add an -s if the singular noun ends in a vowel or (rarely) an -es if it ends in a consonant. You've seen nouns like homem (m.) man and lição (f.) lesson that look odd to you. The secret is that they travel in packs - groups of nouns act this way. Now I'll give you the rules.

1) Nouns that end in -ão are particularly troublesome. The only way to accurately predict how they will change is to know the Latin nouns they come from (a knowledge of Spanish can help here).

An important handful of nouns in this group change from -ão to -ães in the plural.
>example
o cão the dog, os cães the dogs (note also the regular noun cachorro (m.) dog in Brazil)
o pão the bread, os pães the breads

A decent number of nouns in this group change from -ão to -ãos in the plural (the "regular" expected change). Many of these have cognates that end in -an in English.
>example
a mão the hand, as mãos the hands (manual)
o pagão the pagan, os pagãos the pagans (pagan)
o cristão the Christian, os cristãos the Christians (Christian)
o irmão the brother, os irmãos the brothers

Please remember that any nouns with the ending -ã follow the expected changes and have a plural in -ãs. Many of these also have cognates that end in -an in English.
>example
a pagã the (female) pagan, as pagãs the (female) pagans
a cristã the (female) Christian, as cristãs the (female) Christians
a irmã the sister, as irmãs the sisters

>never fails The overwhelming majority of -ão nouns are feminine nouns with the endings -ção and -são (or -ssão). Most of these words will look very familiar to you, since English inherited so many of these words from Latin through older French (but with the less-evolved endings -tion and -(s)sion). As long as you obey Portuguese spelling and pronunciation rules, you will pick up these words quickly. They always have a plural in -ões.

>example
uma lição a lesson, as lições the lessons
a estação the station, as estações the stations
a depressão (the) depression, as depressões (the) depressions

2) Nouns (and adjectives!) ending in -al, -el,-il, -ol or -ul can also be tricky. When a noun ends in -al, -el, -ol or -ul, the plural simply requires you to replace the final -l with an -is.
>example
um hotel a hotel, os hoteis the hotels
o sol the sun, os sois the suns
o mar azul the blue/azure sea, os mares azuis the blue/azure seas

Nouns and adjectives ending in -il are more difficult to handle. When the last syllable is stressed, it changes to -is (and not -iis). Otherwise, you will change the final -il to -eis in both spelling and pronunciation. You will know when you need to do this because, by our Portuguese accent rules introduced in Para começar 3, a word ending in a final -il will take a written accent if it's not stressed on that final -il. Just look at the two examples below to get a better idea.
>example
uma atitude infantil a childish/infantile attitude, as atitudes infantis childish attitudes
uma pergunta fácil an easy question, perguntas fáceis easy questions
uma nota útil a useful note, umas notas úteis some useful notes

3) Nouns (and adjectives!) ending in -m change the -m to an -n and add an -s in the plural (-m "becomes" -ns).
>example
um homem a man, uns homens some men
o som sound, os sons sounds

3) Adjectives ending in -s in the singular don't change in the plural.
>example
uma pergunta simples a simplistic question, as perguntas simples simplistic questions

>>HOW TO MAKE AN ACTION IMPERFECT
The imperfect tense, like most of our grammatical terminology, inherits its name from Latin. Something that is perfect is complete, done through and through. An imperfect action, then, is one that is unfinished or incomplete.

The imperfect indicative expresses a continuous or habitual idéia(f.) idea in the past (in Portugal, that's spelled ideia, without the accent). In English, we tend to say "used to..." to express the imperfect indicative. It is the "background tense"- rather than describing a simple, completed action, it describes an action that was ongoing. Therefore it is often used in stories and in giving background information.

Fortunately, only four irregulars exist in this tense: pôr to put, to place (punha, punhas, punha, púnhamos, púnheis, punham), ter (tinha, tinhas, tinha, tínhamos, tínheis, tinham) ser to be (era, eras, era, éramos, éreis, eram), and vir to come (vinha, vinhas, vinha, vínhamos, vínheis, vinham). Ir [to go] is not irregular; its forms are ia, ias, ia, íamos, íeis, iam. Notice, again, how ter and vir are almost identical in their irregular forms. The most important irregular to remember at this point is, without question, ser. Think of the word era, since in this case you're looking at yet another related word borrowed from Latin. It marks a period of time long past, but it doesn't mark an exact action or moment. Just like the imperfect!

A more historically correct (and complicated) way to look at the regular endings is to see them as having a stem augment -av- or -i-, with the true endings for the persons matching in all conjugations (-a, -as, -a, -amos, -eis, -am).

Quando era menino, minha mãe gostava de servir-me gelado todos os dias. When I was (a) boy, my mother used to like to serve me ice cream every day.
O cão nos vinha contentamente porque sabia que o amávamos. The dog was coming to us [nos] happily because it knew [saber] that we loved it.

>>PRETERIT AND IMPERFECT: TWO VERY DIFFERENT PASTS
>in-depth
One of the biggest challenges most Portuguese learners have is distinguishing between these two tenses. Since English leaves the option to discriminate open (I saw him every day / I used to see him every day), and since Portuguese uses the two a little differently, you will need to become comfortable with the differences between the two tenses in Portuguese. On top of that, you will need to master the differences between the way Portuguese speakers look at the past, and how speakers of your native language see it. That is where (yet again!) I come in to help you.

Perhaps a crude illustration will do better than anything else I can say.

{ _____ < < ____ < < _ a _ c _t _ i _ o _ n _ > >______ >> ____ } ______ me (present)

>(ACTION)< _______________ me (present)

It's a little abstract, but I hope you can see the difference between the top and bottom attempts at visualizing the two pasts. The blue represents the verb tenses. The rest represents the distance from the present, and any boundaries that apply. The first visualization stands for the imperfect. Notice that the action is one action, but that it continues on for some time in the past. Also note that the brackets {} are outside of the blue, meaning that this tense does not include a beginning or ending point.

The second stands for the preterit. Like the imperfect, the action takes place sometime in the past (behind "me"). Unlike the imperfect, it is short but striking. This action is necessarily bounded ( ) by time.

Now for a more hands-on approach, where we will look at a number of short sentences in both the preterit and imperfect. These sentences should convince you of a real difference.

Some words exist to indicate which tense is most likely to be used, or which one fits better. They basically parallel English words or expressions. Try to guess which tense would best fit in the following cases:

Nesse momento... In that moment...
Repentinamente... Suddenly...
Regularmente... Regularly...
Quando [verbo], [verbo]... When [verb], [verb] (ex.: When I entered, he was talking on the telephone).

Have an answer yet? Well, of these, only the third word (regularmente) should have caught your eye for the imperfect tense. The first two obviously require the preterit. What about the last one? It's a trap: in the example given on the right, the first action is in the preterit, since it's a one-time action (I entered). The second action is actually an ongoing action with no necessary beginning or ending point, so it would be in the imperfect.

If we could attribute one verb to each of these tenses, it would be fazer to make, to do for the preterit and costumar to be accustomed to, to usually (do something) for the imperfect. Here are examples of each in their respective tenses (please note that fazer is irregular in the preterit):

Fiz o que se exigia de mim*. I did (implied: that one time) what was expected of me.
Costumava ir à praia todos os dias. I was accustomed to going / usually went to the beach every day.

* o que means what as a relative pronoun. In other words, where you could use the clumsy that which in English, you should use o que in Portuguese. Exigir to expect is used with the reflexive pronoun se here. If you've already forgotten the last lesson, you'll need some help remembering that this construction can translate to an English passive. In other words, no one used to expect, it simply was expected (literally it expected itself de mim of me).

Of course, please keep in mind that both of these verbs (fazer and costumar) can be used in the opposite tense.

One very important aspect to note is that the imperfect is always used in describing surrounding factors (especially when telling the time, weather, or the setting of a story). Here are some examples:

Fazia frio e a gente caminhava devagar. It was cold, and the people were walking slowly.
O relógio soava fortemente com rancor -- já eram oito. The clock sounded strongly, with fury - it was now eight o'clock.

Please review this section thoroughly, since there is an exercise on the differences between the preterit and imperfect at the bottom of this lesson.

>>PRETERIT AND IMPERFECT VERBS: WHEN MEANINS CHANGE...
>in-depth
When highlighting the differences between these two tenses, please pay attention to a few verbs that have very different meanings when used in the preterit and the imperfect. Here are the three most notable examples:

poder to be able, can (irregular preterit: eu pude, tu pudeste, ele/ela pôde, nós pudemos vós pudestes, eles/elas puderam). (regular imperfect: eu podia, tu podias, ele/ela podia, nós podíamos vós podíeis, eles/elas podiam). The imperfect has the expected past meaning of was able or could. However, be careful with the preterit, since its meaning shifts to something like was able (after attempting or overcoming). Eu pude means I (tried and I) could, not just "I could". Eles não puderam means they tried and they couldn't, not just "they couldn't".

querer to want (irregular preterit: eu quis, tu quiseste, ele/ela quis, nós quisemos vós quisestes, eles/elas quiseram). (regular imperfect: eu queria, tu querias, ele/ela queria, nós queríamos vós queríeis, eles/elas queriam). The imperfect has the expected past meaning of wanted (to). Watch out for its sneaky preterit, with a meaning that translates roughly to tried to. Eu quis means I tried or I attempted. Eu não queria means I didn't want to.

saber to know (irregular preterit: eu soube, tu soubeste, ele/ela soube, nós soubemos vós soubestes, eles/elas souberam). (regular imperfect: eu sabia, tu sabias, ele/ela sabia, nós sabíamos vós sabíeis, eles/elas sabiam). Here again, the imperfect has the expected past meaning of knew. The preterit doesn't, since it means something a little different: found out. Eu soube means I found out. Eu não sabia means I didn't know.

If you stop to consider everything you've already learned about these two tenses, these separate meanings unique to the preterit aren't entirely strange. They all reflect an action that happened at a single point in the past, whereas the expected imperfect meanings are more consistent with long-term past actions.

>>HOW TO TELL PEOPLE WHAT TO DO: THE IMPERATIVE
Up to now, we've only dealt with the indicative mood. Sure, we've seen the indicative in a number of tenses: present, preterit, imperfect... but we've never journeyed beyond this mood. It's time we take that journey. You will now meet a new mood: the imperative.

The imperative is used for giving commands. Fortunately, you will not need to relearn new sets of verb forms for all of those tenses in the imperative. It only exists in the present tense, so we will typically refer to it simply as the imperative, not "the present imperative active blah... blah... blah...".

First, the easiest form: the tu command. Unlike any other verb endings you'll meet in Portuguese, the informal tu command forms are used in Brazil as well as Portugal. That doesn't mean that they are associated with the pronoun tu, it just means that Brazilians have kept these useful informal commands.

The tu commands just match the third-person singular form of the present indicative: ele fala he speaks > fala! speak!

To form the imperative stem, grab the present indicative stem from the eu form (very important for irregular verbs). Remember that you must never use a pronoun with these commands. Add the following endings to that stem:

Don't use the first person stem to make the tu command, just follow the instructions given above this table. This is very important, since irregular verbs will have very different commands for the tu form versus all of the other forms:

Look at the eu forms for these verbs: tenho, venho, faço. If we rip off the -o ending, we have tenh-, venh-, and faç-. Compare those stems to the ele/ela/você forms: tem, vem, faz. It makes sense, doesn't it?

To form a negative command, we use the word não in front of the verb. The only ending that will change is the tu form, to the -as or -es (the ending you might have expected tu to have when comparing the charts, since the other endings just "switch" the main vowel):

Não fales! don't speak!
Não vendas! don't sell (it)!
Não abras! don't open (it)!
mas but:
Não fale! don't speak!
Não vendam! (all of you) don't sell (it)!
Não abram! (all of you) don't open (it)!

By the way, did you notice that we can't just command anyone? There are no eu's, ele's, ela's, and eles' in these charts for a very good reason. We have to direct a command at someone, so there must be a you involved: you (informal), you (equalizing or formal), we (you + me), all of you (you+you....).

>>BUT DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE PRESENT (A FEW MORE IRREGULARS)
Somewhere along the line, you managed to master the present indicative (go / goes, speak / speaks, and so on), but you missed out on a few very important irregular verbs. Take the time to write these verbs out for the first time, and keep them in your notebook or on flashcards so that you can review them later. Since verbs are by far the trickiest, most difficult aspect of Portuguese grammar, I recommend that you begin making study sheets or reference cards for yourself at this point. Keep them nearby whenever you read or write Portuguese.

Here are the verbs you should get to know. You've already met a number of these verbs' forms, such as posso I can and faz he/she/it does.

Two essential verbs:
dar to give : dou, dás, dá, damos, dais, dão
poder to be able, can : posso, podes, pode, podemos, podeis, podem

The verb poder also has "hidden" irregular forms. It is called a stem-changing or radical changing verb. Those terms just mean that its o alternates between the sound of open ó when stressed and closed ô when unstressed. We will learn much more about these verbs soon, but now you should learn that poder's present forms are pronounced as if they were written pósso, (pódes), póde, podemos, (podeis), pódem in Brazil, and pósso, pódes, póde, pudemos, (pudeis), pódem in Portugal (since unstressed o is pronounced like Portuguese u in Portugal).

Three very similar irregular verbs:
dizer to say, to tell : digo, dizes, diz, dizemos, dizeis, dizem
fazer to do, to make : faço, fazes, faz, fazemos, fazeis, fazem
trazer to bring : trago, trazes, traz, trazemos, trazeis, trazem

Three more irregular verbs that are almost exactly alike:
crer to believe : creio, crês, crê, cremos, credes, crêem
ler to read : leio, lês, lê, lemos, ledes, lêem
ver to see : vejo, vês, vê, vemos, vedes, vêem
Don't forget to pronounce the ending -êem as two syllables (long closed -ê, then long nasal -em).

While they aren't irregular, verbs that end in a vowel + -er or -ir ending (e.g. construir, destruir, doer, sair) have endings typically written with a final -i instead of the expected -e in certain forms. On top of that, verbs like construir/destruir have an optional second set of forms (this is a tomatos ~ tomatoes ordeal):

construir to build : construo, construis (constróis), construi (constrói), construímos, construís, construem (constroem)
destruir to build : destruo, destruis (destróis), destrui (destrói), destruímos, destruís, destruem (destroem)
doer to hurt : dói, doem*
sair to leave : saio**, sais, sai, saímos, saís, saem
Notice the accent marks: they are there to tell you to stress the o in certain forms (since you should naturally stress any final i), and they exist to break a diphthong (ui or ai) into two syllables in others (so that you say u-í oo-EE and a-í ah-EE instead of ui OOy and ai AHy).

* The verb doer is called an impersonal verb, so it only has two forms. In Portuguese, we can only say it hurts or they hurt (speaking specifically about what is hurting, never about the people who receive the pain).
** saio is an irregular form (see below for a few more verbs that are irregular in the eu form only).

Finally, please keep in mind that a few verbs are irregular in the first person singular (eu) form only:

ouvir to hear : ouço, ouves, ouve, etc.
pedir to ask for, to demand, to order : peço, pedes, pede, etc.
perder to lose : perco, perdes, perde, etc.
saber to know : sei, sabes, sabe, etc.

At this point, you might have recognized a few things about irregular verbs in your new language:

1) They are rarely completely irregular
2) Many of them have very similar irregular forms
3) Many of the verbs only have one irregular form or a handful of irregular forms (nós and vós are rarely irregular)
4) If the vós form (the archaic one we don't use in speech) is "irregular" in the present indicative, it usually ends in -des. That -des is nothing more than the older ending for the vós form (from Latin -tis)!

Please take the time to remind yourself that these verbs, along with any other present-tense verbs in Portuguese, are used for an action that will happen in the very near future. A good rule of thumb is to use the present where English would use to be (verb)-ing:
>example
Já me vou embora I'm leaving soon or I'm about to leave or I'll be out of here soon, etc.

You will also use the present in your insightful truisms (again, just as in English):
>example
Quem acredita sempre alcança (He) who believes, always acheives (alcançar to reach, to acheive).

Remember to review this information and keep it nearby, but focus on understanding the imperfect vs. preterit and the imperative at this time.

A. Um conto A story/tale

You just found another story that Roberto left near the university. You continue to feel that he should start writing in the past and not the present. The infinitive verbs in (parentheses) are a guide and shouldn't be read as part of the story. See below the text for some useful notes if you feel at all lost.

Usar o tempo apropriado (o pretérito ou o imperfeito) no conto seguinte:
Use the appropriate tense (preterit or imperfect) in the following story:

_________ (fazer) frio e _________ (chover to rain) muito. A menina _________ (dormir to sleep) em seu quarto com o cachorro. Seu pai _________ (tocar to play (musical instrument, record or CD)) piano no outro quarto. Repentinamente a porta se _________ (abrir to open) e a menina _________ (acordar to awaken). _________ (ter to have) medo. Pois seu irmão _________ (entrar to enter). Como é costume (= as usual), o pai só _________ (fechar to close) a porta e _________ (começar to begin) a tocar outra canção.

Não _________ (saber to know) que as crianças _________ (ter to have) medo da escuridão?

Notas úteis - Useful notes
*seu at this point, read this word as his or her
quarto (m.) room
pai (m.) father
porta (f.) door (pronounced with open ó)
repentinamente suddenly (we saw this word above, in this lição, remember?)
medo (m.) fear, fright (ter medo to be afraid, to have fear)
criança (f.) child (as opposed to an adulto (m.))

First, try to make a rough translation yourself. Then use the following translation as a reference. This will give you a rough idea of what the Portuguese text is trying to convey, which will help you choose your verb tenses wisely.

"It was cold and very rainy. The girl was sleeping in her room with the dog. Her father was playing the piano in the other room. Suddenly, the door opened and the girl woke up. She was afraid. Then her brother entered. As usual, the father just closed the door and began to play another song.

Didn't he know that children are afraid of the dark?"

Your answers should match these (no peeking!):
Fazia frio e chovia muito.
We have to use the imperfeito because these verbs set a scene.

A menina dormia em seu quarto com o cachorro. Seu pai tocava piano no outro quarto.
Even though these verbs sound like one-time actions, they are actually setting up more of the story's background, so they are ongoing. That's why we have to use the imperfeito again. This is typical of any story.

Repentinamente a porta se abriu e a menina acordou.
The pretérito works much better here. The word "suddenly" should tell you that these are abrupt, one-time actions.

Tinha medo.
This short sentence should trick you. It's in the imperfeito because it describes a state or an emotion (in this case, fear).

Pois seu irmão entrou. Como é costume, o pai só fechou a porta e começou a tocar outra canção.
The verbs then become abrupt, one-time pretérito actions again.

Não sabia que as crianças têm medo da escuridão?
This sentence is more like an afterthought from the narrator. He asks why the father didn't know (sabia knew rather than soube found out). On top of that, he makes a general declaration that all kids are afraid of the dark (in the presente since it's supposed to be a generalization).

B. Prova Quiz

This is a tough prova that will test your grammar skills. The material is all from this lesson, so please reread the lesson very thoroughly before continuing.

>>Instructions
You will be given a basic word, then asked to give an alternate form of that word. For example, if you see the noun casa, then are asked for its plural, you should write casas. If you see the verb falar and are asked for the present-tense nós form, you should give falamos.

Seção 1 : Substantivos e adjetivos
Section 1 : Nouns and Adjectives
(seção (Portugal: secção) (f.) section)

Seção 2 : Verbos
Section 2 : Verbs

Answers
I think it will help you to do a little research and check back through the lesson to find your answers. They're all there, I promise! The only one that might trick you is the very last verb given in the second section. With this one, you would usually form a short phrase like (eles) se iam embora. In Portugal, where it's acceptable to attach pronouns to the end of a verb when that verb is at the beginning of a sentence, you would say iam-se embora. Good luck with the rest!

Brasil and Portugal aren't the only Portuguese-speaking countries in the world. Far from it: the language is officially spoken in África Africa, Ásia Asia, Europa (f.) Europe. Of course, none of these countries boast numbers that compare to the well over 100 million sulamericanos South Americans that claim it as their native language. In many countries where it has an official status, it is used in its official form as an administrative language. Beneath the political level, though, there are a number of crioulos creoles that are based on the Portuguese brought to Africa, Asia, and South America, where that language mixed with the local languages. Such crioulos have been documented in many areas of Africa, in India, in East Timor and in Macau.

Linguists will tell you that a crioulo is actually the birth of a new language. A pidgin form of the colonizer language is stripped of its formal grammar and the known meaning of its words, and then reinterpreted in the context of the local language and its people's culture. The result often differs drastically from the standard language. Speakers of standard Portuguese cannot make sense out of most Portuguese-based creoles. In many of these areas, however, contact with official Portuguese never ceased, and many locals can understand both their creoles and the official language.

More than any other language, Portuguese seems to be tied to the history of creoles and their development. Some theories hold that Portuguese is, in fact the absolute standard for all of the creoles born as a result of the Age of Exploration. These argue that a Proto-Pidgin was used by Portuguese sailors and slave-traders, and sailors from elsewhere in Europe eventually caught on to this pidgin. While it is quite a bold conclusion to jump to, it is fascinating to note that universal pidgin words like savvy and pickaninny are derived from Portuguese sabe (you) know and pequeno little. On top of this evidence, some creoles often claimed to be English-based, French-based or Dutch-based actually seem to have begun as Portuguese-based creoles and adopted new words when the regions fell under new crowns.

You still think that life has some unanswered questions, but, for now, there are a few things you're sure of:

• How to give the plural of any strange-looking noun (or adjective!).

• How to talk about the way things used to be.

• How to give a detailed account of an accident. Or a crime. Or anything that happened at one single moment in time.

• How to boss people around (or were you already good at that?!).

• How to use any of those nasty irregular present indicative verbs.

Practice hard, read abundantly, and never, NEVER stop speaking and writing in Portuguese (even if you're talking to yourself, and passerbys are convinced that you're muttering insanely). You are beginning to gain some real, noticeable strength in your new language. Please read and reread this lesson, and we'll see you soon!

ATÉ À PRÓXIMA! Until next time!

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