Portuguese Phrases For Dummies

Karen Keller

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781118068069
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Are you thinking about traveling, studying, or working in Portugalor Brazil, but you don't know any Portuguese? Want to improve your conversation skills with the Portuguese-speaking people in your life? Portuguese Phrases for Dummies is the perfect diving board for anyone looking to communicate and even become fluent in the language.

As the fifth-most widely spoken language in the world, Portuguese can be heard in South America, Africa, Asia, and of course, Portugal. If you want to know basic Portuguese but don't want a boring textbook that unloads tons of conjugation rules or long lists of words to memorize, then this quick-and-easy phrasebook will get your feet wet without overwhelming you. This friendly book covers a wide array of subjects both helpful and interesting, including:

• Numbers, days of the week, measurements, and time
• Making friends and small talk
• Enjoying every type of meal
• Shopping in markets and at stores
• Culture, leisure, and activities
• Work and transportation
• Finding a place to live
• Dealing with emergencies
• Slang and colloquial terms
• Phrases and particles to make you sound like a local!

Knowing these fundamentals, you'll be able to communicate with Portuguese-speaking people and continue learning about the language and culture. With hundred of useful phrases at your fingertips, Portuguese Phrases for Dummies will give you a basic comprehension of this beautiful language and have you speaking instantly!

Chapter 1

Say It How? Speaking Portuguese

In This Chapter

Recognizing what English and Portuguese have in common

Spell it out: Saying the alphabet

Looking at vowels and consonants: Basic Portuguese sounds

B elieve it or not, the Portuguese language comes in different versions. Pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese and Portuguese from Portugal, say, is totally different. Some Brazilian tourists in Portugal report that they don’t understand a word! I think it’s a little more of a stretch than the differences between American and British English, just to give you an idea. But if a group of people from Texas, South Africa, and Scotland got together, they’d probably scratch their heads when trying to understand each other, too!

Written Portuguese, on the other hand, is very standard, especially when it’s in a newspaper or some formal publication that doesn’t use slang. A Brazilian can understand a Portuguese newspaper or read the works of Portugal’s Nobel Prize–winning author José Saramago, no problem.

In this book, I focus on Brazilian Portuguese, as opposed to the Portuguese spoken in Portugal and countries in Africa — Cape Verde (islands off northwestern Africa), Mozambique (on the coast of southeast Africa), Guinea-Bissau (in western Africa), Angola (in southwestern Africa), and São Tomé and Príncipe (islands off western Africa).

Exploring the Roots of Portuguese

The beautiful Portuguese language belongs to a linguistic family known as the Romance languages. Back when the Roman Empire was around, Rome was in the center of a wide swath of Europe, northern Africa, and parts of Asia. With Rome’s influence came its language — Latin.

And the closer a place was to Rome, the more likely it was to absorb Latin into its language. This was the case with Portugal — where the Portuguese language originates — as well as with places like France, Spain, and even Romania.

So how did Portuguese g...

Table of contents

• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Say It How? Speaking Portuguese
• Chapter 2: Grammar on a Diet: Just the Basics
• Chapter 3: Numerical Gumbo: Counting of All Kinds
• Chapter 4: Making New Friends and Enjoying Small Talk
• Chapter 5: Enjoying a Drink and a Snack (or Meal!)
• Chapter 6: Shop ’Til You Drop
• Chapter 7: Making Leisure a Top Priority
• Chapter 8: When You Gotta Work
• Chapter 9: I Get Around: Transportation
• Chapter 10: Finding a Place to Lay Your Weary Head
• Chapter 11: Dealing with Emergencies
• Chapter 12: Ten Favorite Brazilian Portuguese Expressions
• Chapter 13: Ten Phrases That Make You Sound Like a Local