Introduce other people (with dialogues)
After we’ve learned how to introduce ourselves in Portuguese, it is necessary to master the material on how to introduce others. For this, we will need some new grammar, a good amount of vocabulary, and, if you already know all of this, we will give you ideas on how it is done through a dialogue.
Dialogue
João: Olá, boa tarde. Eu sou o João e esta é a minha mulher, a Ana. Somos do Porto, mas moramos em Lisboa. Falamos português e um pouco de inglês. E vocês, como se chamam? (Hello good afternoon. I’m João and this is my wife, Ana. We are from Porto, but we live in Lisbon. We speak Portuguese and a little English. And you, what are your names?)
Maria: Olá, boa tarde. Eu sou a Maria e este é o meu marido, o Pedro. Somos de Coimbra, mas agora moramos no Porto. Falamos português e espanhol. Vocês gostam de morar em Lisboa? (Hello good afternoon. I’m Maria and this is my husband, Pedro. We are from Coimbra, but now we live in Porto. We speak Portuguese and Spanish. Do you like living in Lisbon?)
Ana: Sim, gostamos muito. A cidade é muito dinâmica. Vocês gostam de morar no Porto? (Yes, we really liked it. The city is very dynamic. Do you like living in Porto?)
Maria: Sim, gostamos muito. O Porto é uma cidade muito bonita e tranquila. João e Ana, onde moram em Lisboa? (Yes, we really liked it. Porto is a very beautiful and peaceful city. João and Ana, where do you live in Lisbon?)
João: Nós moramos no Bairro Alto. E vocês, onde moram no Porto? (We live in Bairro Alto. And you, where do you live in Porto?)
Pedro: Moramos na Foz. É uma zona muito agradável. Vocês falam outras línguas além de português e inglês? (We live in Foz. It’s a very pleasant area. Do you speak other languages besides Portuguese and English?)
Ana: Eufalo um pouco de alemão. (I speak a little German.)
João: Eu falo francês fluentemente. E vocês? (I speak French fluently. And you?)
Maria: Eu falo bem espanhol. (I speak Spanish well.)
Pedro: Eu também falo espanhol. É interessante conhecer pessoas de cidades diferentes e que falam línguas diferentes. (I also speak spanish. It’s interesting to meet people from different cities and who speak different languages.)
Ana: Concordo! É bom aprender sobre outras culturas também. (I agree! It’s good to learn about other cultures too.)
Verb “SER”
The most important verb in the Portuguese language is the verb ser (to be). With its help, we can name our own and others’ names, name the city of our origin, describe objects and people. Let’s look at the conjugation table:
| SER | |
| eu | sou |
| tu | és |
| ele, ela, você | é |
| nós | somos |
| eles, elas, vocês | são |
Now you can go back to the dialogue and see how this verb is used in context.
Articles
Cities are mentioned several times in the dialogue. You probably noticed that, unlike human names, they do not require a definite article. However, there are exceptions. For example, here in the dialogue we see “o Porto.” The same situation applies to cities: a Guarda, o Funchal, a Lousã.
When it comes to countries, the situation is completely opposite. Almost all countries require a definite article. For example: a Rússia (Russia), o Brasil (Brazil), a Ucrânia (Ukraine), o Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka), and so on.
There are also countries where you can use the article at your discretion: (a) França (France), (a) Inglaterra (England), (a) Itália (Italy), (a) Espanha (Spain).
However, countries like Portugal, Angola, Israel, Cuba, Andorra, and some others do not require an article at all.
Let’s go back to countries that require the article, but in plural form. To change a definite article from singular to plural, you need to add the ending “-s”: o/a (singular) – os/as (plural). Let’s look at examples of such countries: os Estados Unidos da América (United States), as Maldivas (Maldives).
Verbs “MORAR”
It’s not hard to guess from the context of the dialogue that the verb “morar”, used together with cities, is translated as “live”. In other words, the verb “ser” (to be) helps us to talk about where we are from, and the verb “morar” (to live) – where we currently reside. This is a regular verb and it is conjugated according to the standard conjugation rule for all verbs ending in “-ar”.
| MORAR | |
| eu | moro |
| tu | moras |
| ele, ela, você | mora |
| nós | moramos |
| eles, elas, vocês | moram |
the dialogue, the verb “morar” in different conjugations is highlighted in green. To ask where a person lives, we need to be familiar with the question word “onde”, and to answer we need the preposition “em” (in):
Onde moras? (Where do you live?) – Moro em Coimbra. (I live in Coimbra.)
Merger of preposition and article In the dialogue we come across the following:
no Porto, no Bairro Alto. “No” is the result of the merger of the preposition “em” and the definite article “o”.
Let’s look at the table:
| em + | = |
| o | no |
| a | na |
| os | nos |
| as | nas |
A similar situation occurs with the preposition “de” – it also merges with definite articles:
| de + | = |
| o | do |
| a | da |
| os | dos |
| as | das |
In addition to the example in the dialogue, we suggest you look at the following examples:
Eles são dos Estados Unidos da América. (They are from the USA.)
Nós moramos nas Maldivas. (We live in the Maldives.)
Verb “FALAR”
The dialogue also contains a new verb – falar (to speak). It is also regular and, when conjugated, also obeys the general rule.
| FALAR | |
| eu | falo |
| tu | falas |
| ele, ela, você | falaa |
| nós | falamos |
| eles, elas, vocês | falam |
Please note that it does not require any preposition if we are talking about the language: falar _ português (to speak Portuguese).
However, it requires different prepositions if we are talking about a topic, but we will discuss this next time.
Nationalities
Nationality, just like any adjective, is subject to the same rules. More precisely, it declines depending on the gender and number of the object to which it refers.
Eu sou português. (I am Portuguese.)
Elas são italianas. (They are Italian.)
And often the language a person speaks and his nationality coincide, because… in essence, these are the same characteristic, unless otherwise provided. This situation is typical for a masculine object in the singular.
Ele é russo e fala russo. (He is Russian and speaks Russian.)
Eu sou francês e falo francês. (I’m French and I speak French.)
Conclusion
On the one hand, everything seems elementary, however, at the beginning of learning the Portuguese basics language, it is important not to miss the significant details that we tried to draw your attention to today. Moreover, even if you already have some experience in learning Portuguese, it never hurts to brush up on your knowledge.