Portuguese grammar, explained through songs

The future subjunctive, alive and compulsory

Portuguese has a tense English simply does not have, and uses it every day. After quando, se, assim que and enquanto, a future action takes it:

quando CHEGARES, telefona · se QUISERES, vamos · assim que PUDERES.

It is built from the third person plural of the preterite minus -ram: fizeram → fizer, foram → for.

Hear it in: A Nossa Dança (Calema) · Lambada (Kaoma)

Ser or estar

English has one verb «to be»; Portuguese splits it in two.

SER is what something is: sou português, é médico, o livro é meu.

ESTAR is how or where it is right now: estou em casa, está cansado, está frio.

The same adjective changes meaning: ele é aborrecido (he is boring) / ele está aborrecido (he is annoyed).

Hear it in: Eduardo e Mônica (Legião Urbana) · Garota de Ipanema (Tom Jobim & Vinícius de Moraes) · Lambada (Kaoma) · Mas Que Nada (Jorge Ben) · Primeiros Erros (Chove) (Capital Inicial)

Where the pronoun goes

European Portuguese normally puts the object pronoun AFTER the verb, joined with a hyphen: chamo-me Ana, dá-me isso, vejo-te amanhã.

But it jumps in front after a negative, a question word or words like já, também, que: NÃO me chamo Ana, quando me dás isso, já te vi.

Brazilian Portuguese prefers the front position everywhere.

Hear it in: Uma Casa Portuguesa (Amália Rodrigues)

Gender and number

Nouns end in -o (usually masculine) or -a (usually feminine), and the article and adjective follow: o carro novo, a casa nova, as casas novas.

The plural normally adds -s, but words in -ão go three ways — mão → mãos, pão → pães, coração → corações — and words in -l swap it for -is: papel → papéis.

Hear it in: A Nossa Dança (Calema) · Ai Se Eu Te Pego (Michel Teló) · Mas Que Nada (Jorge Ben) · Primeiros Erros (Chove) (Capital Inicial)

Telling someone to do something

The affirmative TU form is just the third person present: fala!, come!, parte!

But the moment you say no, everything moves to the subjunctive and TU gains an -s: não fales!, não comas!, não partas!

With você and vocês both forms are the subjunctive: fale / não fale.

Hear it in: Lambada (Kaoma) · Mas Que Nada (Jorge Ben) · Uma Casa Portuguesa (Amália Rodrigues)

Reflexive verbs and the hyphen

The infinitive carries -se on the end — levantar-se, chamar-se, ir-se embora — and when conjugated that se becomes the pronoun for the person.

In Portugal the pronoun goes AFTER the verb, with a hyphen: chamo-me, levanto-me.

But it jumps in front with a negative, a question word or an adverb: não me chamo, já se foi.

In Brazil it almost always goes in front, even with none of those: eu me chamo.

Hear it in: Uma Casa Portuguesa (Amália Rodrigues)

Estar a + infinitive, or the gerund

To say what is happening right now, European Portuguese uses estar a + infinitive: estou a cantar.

Brazilian Portuguese uses the gerund: estou cantando. Both are correct, each on its own side.

The European gerund has not disappeared: it accompanies an action, above all in writing and in songs.

And it never works as a noun: «swimming is good» takes the infinitive, not the gerund.

Hear it in: Lambada (Kaoma)

The subjunctive: when Portuguese stops asserting

The indicative states a fact; the subjunctive holds the sentence in wish, doubt, feeling, or what has not happened yet.

It is called for by espero que, quero que, talvez, oxalá, é preciso que, para que, embora.

It is formed by swapping the vowel: falar gives que eu fale, comer gives que eu coma.

And Portuguese has a tense almost no other language has: the future subjunctive, compulsory after se, quando and enquanto — se puderes, quando chegares.

Hear it in: A Nossa Dança (Calema) · Eduardo e Mônica (Legião Urbana) · Garota de Ipanema (Tom Jobim & Vinícius de Moraes) · Mas Que Nada (Jorge Ben) · Primeiros Erros (Chove) (Capital Inicial)

The conditional: what you would do

It says what would happen, not what does. It is built on the WHOLE infinitive plus -ia: falaria, comeria, partiria.

It covers hypotheses, politeness — gostaria is far softer than quero — and guessing about the past.

The few irregulars are the future's: faria, diria, traria.

In everyday speech the imperfect very often takes its place: instead of gostaria people say gostava.

Hear it in: Primeiros Erros (Chove) (Capital Inicial)

The imperfect: what used to happen

The preterite reports a finished event; the imperfect describes what lasted, what repeated, or the background the rest happens against.

The endings match across all three conjugations except for the vowel: -ava, -ia, -ia.

Only four verbs are irregular: ser (era), ter (tinha), vir (vinha) and pôr (punha).

In a song it is usually the voice of memory: what there was, what you always used to do.

Hear it in: Eduardo e Mônica (Legião Urbana)

The preterite: what happened

This is the past that reports a finished event at a definite moment: ontem vi, já cheguei.

Mind the trap: the «pretérito perfeito composto» (tenho feito) is NOT the English present perfect — it means the action keeps repeating up to now.

For an ordinary past, always use the simple form: fiz, not «tenho feito».

The irregulars are many and among the commonest: fui, tive, fiz, disse, trouxe, pus.

Hear it in: A Nossa Dança (Calema) · Ai Se Eu Te Pego (Michel Teló) · Garota de Ipanema (Tom Jobim & Vinícius de Moraes) · Lambada (Kaoma)

Há and tem: saying something exists

HÁ is impersonal and never changes: há um problema, há mil problemas.

In speech, and especially in Brazil, TEM is used with the same sense: tem gente lá fora.

Do not mix it up with ter meaning possession: tenho um carro is «I own», há um carro is «there is».

And há also does elapsed time: há dois anos means «two years ago».

Hear it in: Eduardo e Mônica (Legião Urbana) · Uma Casa Portuguesa (Amália Rodrigues)

The contractions: do, na, pelo, àquele

In Portuguese the preposition fuses with the article, and it is not optional: de + o gives do, em + a gives na, por + o gives pelo.

You cannot write «de o livro»: it is always do livro.

With the preposition a and the article a comes the grave accent, whose only job is this: à, às, àquele.

Contractions catch the demonstratives too: de + este gives deste, em + isso gives nisso.

Hear it in: A Nossa Dança (Calema) · Ai Se Eu Te Pego (Michel Teló) · Garota de Ipanema (Tom Jobim & Vinícius de Moraes) · Mas Que Nada (Jorge Ben) · Primeiros Erros (Chove) (Capital Inicial)

Mais, menos, tão… do que

Portuguese does not change the adjective: it puts a word in front. mais alto do que, menos alto do que, tão alto como.

The superlative adds the article: o mais alto, a mais alta.

Two irregulars to know: bom gives melhor (never «mais bom») and mau gives pior.

And there is the -íssimo superlative, very Portuguese and very common: lindíssimo.

Hear it in: Ai Se Eu Te Pego (Michel Teló) · Eduardo e Mônica (Legião Urbana) · Garota de Ipanema (Tom Jobim & Vinícius de Moraes) · Uma Casa Portuguesa (Amália Rodrigues)