Haver - the Lost Verb

Definition of "Haver" - (verb) - to have, posses, be.  Full conjugation here

Seems pretty simple right?  Not really.  Seems like the colloquial usage of the verb has changed, particularly in Brazilian Portuguese.  After some thorough Internet research (I think), I've aggregated the various uses of the verb.

Usage #1 - Concept of "exist". Literal translation of "there is" / "there are".

When haver is used in the 3rd person, a majority of the time it means "there is" / "there are".
The use of the third-person "haver" conjugation is impersonal; in other words there is no explicit subject in the sentence.

Examples:

Há - Present Indicative Tense - Third Person
Há um garoto aqui.  --> There is a boy here
"Há um livro na escrivaninha?" "Não, não há." --> Is there a book on the desk?  No there is not.
Há um pouco de verdade no que ele está dizendo. -->  There is a certain amount of truth in what he is saying

Havia - Imperfect Indicative Tense - Third Person

Havia um tempo em que havia uma ponte aqui.  --> One time there was a bridge here
Havia uma grande audiência no concerto. --> There was a large audience at the concert


Other 3rd person forms include:

houve - preterite indicative - there was / there were
haverá - furute - there will be
tinha havido - present perfect - there had been
haja - present subjunctive - there is / are
houvesse - imperfect subjective - there was / were
houver - future subjunctive - there will be
haveria - conditional - there would be

3rd person form examples:

É possível que haja uma reunião no mês que vem --> It is possible that there will be a meeting next month

Se houver alhum problema, lique para este número --> If there is any problem, call this number

Houve um debate acalorado no Senado --> There was a headed debate in the Senate

Havia mas de 30.000 pessoas no jogo de ontem --> There were more than 30,000 people at yesterday's game.

Deve haver uma soluçao --> There must be a solution

In colloquial spoken Brazilian Portuguese, any third person use of haver (when it means "to exist") can be substituted with the ver "ter".

Vai ter churrasco no domingo --> There's going to be a barbecue on Sunday
Tem leite na geladeira --> There's milk in the fridge
Tinha uma viatura da polícia parada na frente da casa deles -->  There was a police car stopped outside their house

Usage #2 - Concept of "for", denoting a period of time that started in the past and continues in the present

When the third person present indicative tense of haver is used ("há") combined with other verbs in the indicative present tense, the construction "for" is created: 

Moramos no Rio há cinco anos --> We've been living in Rio for five years
Você está aqui há muito tempo? --> Have you been here long?

When "há" is combined with other verbs in the indicative preterite, the meaning is changed to "ago"

Eles mudaram para os EUA há seis meses --> They moved to the USA six months ago
A empresa foi fundada há meio século --> The company was founded half a century ago
O escritor morreu há quinze anos --> The writer died fifteen years avon
Recebemos a noticia há alguns minutos --> We got the news a few minutes ago

Usage #3 - Haver + de + infinitive verb. 

Using haver + de + infinitive can express a future action.  From what I can gather, this form is rarely used today in spoken Brazilian Portuguese, however, it does exist.  Here are some examples.

Examples taken from Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar by John Whitlam - ISBN: 0-203-84392-4

"Assim" - how do you use it

Last night, I couldn't find a good explanation on how "assim" is used differently than "portanto".  Thankfully, this guy has a great Wordpress post on the topic.

According to On Learning Brazilian Portuguese, assim is best translated as "in this manner".  Lets test it (using random sentences from Tatoeba).

Random sentence 1

Meu irmão é muito importante. Ao menos ele pensa assim.
English translation of assim: "that he his" or "that this is true"

Random sentence 2

Ele deve estar muito bravo para dizer algo assim.
English translation of assim: "such a thing [in this way]"

Random sentence 3

Ela gostou do Charles assim que o conheceu.

English translation of assim: "as soon as"

In my mind, only example sentence 2 met the general "in this manner" definition of assim.  However, it is useful to point out that when "assim" is used with the preposition "que", that the phrase (assim + que) takes on the meaning "as soon as". Examples:

"Quero que você me escreva assim que você chegar lá." - I want you to write me as soon as you get there

"Virei assim que possível" - I will come as soon as possible

"Partiremos assim que estiver pronto" -  We will leave as soon as possible

"Eu te ligarei assim que puder" - I will call as soon as I can

When "assim" is preceded by a translation of the verb "ser", "[ser] + assim" takes a construction of "that way" or "in this way" or "in xyz manner" something happened.  (poor explanation I know)


"Foi assim que ele fracassou" - This is how he failed

"Não foi assim que aconteceu" - Thats not how it turned out
"É assim que costumo preparar peixe"  - This is usually how I cook fish
"Entendo, mas as coisas são assim"  - I understand, but this is how things are
"E assim que eu fiz" - This is how I made it

To get further help, I went to the WordReference forums.  Here's a few more great examples:

"Olha, é assim" - Look, it's like this

"Eu faço assim" - I do it like this

"É bom assim" - It's good like that
"Assim não dá" - It doesn't work like that / that way

Hope that helps.  I can tell this word will require some practice to get the loose hang of it.  Here's a Brazilian podclass that also addresses "assim".  

To Change: Mudar v. Trocar

In this post, we will address grammar related to two verbs that people often use interchangeably.  MUDAR & TROCAR

First the similarities.  Both are -AR verbs.  For the most part, both are regular verbs (few non-regular conjugations for TROCAR).  Conjugations here: (MUDAR / TROCAR).

MUDAR is synonymous with: modify, transform, or alter

Examples (from Tatoeba)

1.  O ônibus mudou seu itinerário por causa da obra na avenida Beira Mar
• The bus change its route because of work on Beira Mar street
2. Quando ele viu o professor entrar, mudou rapidamente de assunto
• When he saw the professor enter, he quickly changed the subject 
3. Mudei os meus planos. Mudar de casa agora ficaria muito caro.
• I changed my plans.  Moving right now would be expensive
4. Seria divertido ver como as coisas mudam ao passar dos anos.
• Would be fun to see how things change over the years

TROCAR is synonymous with: switch or substitute

Examples (from Tatoeba)

1. Vamos trocar de lugar
• Lets me change seats with you
2. Você trocou ruim por péssimo
• You've traded bad for worse
3. As criaças trocaram presentes na festa natalina
1. The children exchanged presents at the Christmas party

Research Links

http://www.italki.com/question/58685

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1887300

http://www.wiziq.com/tutorial/62602-trocar-e-mudar

Tão v. Tanto

Tão v. Tanto

Definitions

1.  Tão = adverb: So, as, that
2.  Tanto = adverb:  So, how ;  adjective:  Such

Tão intensifies the characteristic of something. It's about quality (Note: in the examples below "tão" modifies an adjective)

• Ela é tão bonita.
• O filme é tão chato.
• Ele é tão alto.
• Eu estava tão cansado.

"Tão" is placed before the adjective in a sentence: tão cedo, tão chato, tão bonito.

Other examples from Street Smart Brazil

• João é tão alto! = João is so tall! (modified adjective "alto")
• Este café está tão bom! = This coffee is so good! (modifies the adjective “bom”)
• Ana fala tão rápido! = Ana speaks so fast! (modifies the adverb “rápido”)
• Eu acordei tão cedo hoje = I woke up so early today (modifies the adverb “cedo")

Tanto intensifies an action/verb (in the examples below "tanto" is modifying a verb

Ela estudou tanto.

Comemos tanto que passamos mal.

Ela faz tanta falta.

Dormi tanto, mas ainda estou com sono.

Eu queria tanto umas férias.

Place "tanto" after your action: estudou tanto, queria tanto, falava tanto.

Other examples from Street Smart Brazil

• Ana fala tanto = Ana speaks so much
• Joana estuda tanto! = Joana stydies so much! (modifies the verb “estudar”)
• Léo comeu tanto na festa! = Léo ate so much at the party (modifies the verb “comer”)
• Eu ri tanto que minha barriga doeu = I laughed so much that my belly hurt (modifies the verb “rir”

Tanto also refers to a great amount, or a great number of something. In this case, we need to know if this something (noun) is femine, or masculine, countable or uncountable (i.e., do we use -tanto, tanta, tantos, tantas).  In this case, "tanto" is being used as a pronoun

Tem tantas pessoas aqui.

Ela tem tantos amigos.

Ela fala tantas línguas.

Tinha tanta comida.

Você faz tanto batulho.

Place tanto (masculine) or tanta (feminine) before uncountable(usually words with no plural): tanta gente, tanto barulho, tanta comida, tanto amor, tanto açucar, tanta bagunça.

Other examples from Street Smart Brazil:

• Eu coloquei tanto açúcar no café! = I put so much sugar in the coffee (modifies the noun “açúcar”)
• Carina tem tanta paciência com todo mundo! = Carina has so much patience with everyone (modifies the noun “paciência”)
• Clara tem tantos livros! = Clara has so many books! (modifies the noun “livros”)
• Maria tem tantas roupas! = Maria has so many clothes! (modifies the noun “clothes”)

Bringing this all home, more examples (of all the above) from Street Smart Brazil

• Mariana tem tanta sorte! = Mariana has so much luck. ('tanta' modifies the noun “sorte)
• Mariana é tão sortuda! = Mariana is so lucky. ('tão' modifies the adjective “sortuda”)
• Marta tem tanta paciência! = Marta has so much patience ('tanta' modifies the noun “paciência”)
• Marta é tão paciente! = Marta is so patient ('tão' modifies the adjective “paciente”)
• Tiago tem tanto talento! = Tiago has so much talent ('tanto' modifies the noun “talento”)
• Tiago é tão talentoso. = Tiago is so talented ('tão' modifies the adjective “talentoso”)
• Ana fala tanto = Ana talks so much ('tanto' modifies the verb “falar”)
• Ana fala tão alto = Ana talks so loud ('tão' modifies the adjective “alto”)
• Tem tanta gente aqui! = There are so many people here
• Ela tem trinta e tantos anos = She is thirty something (probably 35+)
• Quarenta e tantas pessoas vieram para nossa festa ontem à noite = Forty something people came to our party last night
• O almoço foi servido lá pelas tantas da tarde = Lunch was served sometime late in the afternoon
• Ontem eu vi um filme muito chato. Lá pelas tantas, as pessoas começaram a levantar e ir embora. = Yesterday I saw a very boring movie. At some point, people started to get up and leave.

Good video from Street Smart on this topic: 

The above is completely plagiarized from Clear Portuguese and Street Smart Brazil

Get outside your comfort zone

Didn't have much time this week to work on a robust Sunday Portuguese post.  However, I did watch this short video which gave me a little steam to study harder this week.  From my short travels in Brazil, I agree with his "just do it with weak vocabulary and grammar" approach.  (Here's the link in case the embedded video doesn't show up your browser.  Here)

Benny Lewis - TED San Antonio

Advice from One of My Friends

Recently, I posed this question to a friend, who I call Sensei. "How do I make real traction learning Portuguese?"

Sensei taught himself Japanese whilst living in the States. Here is his thoughtful reply. I found it helpful.

Reply from Sensei:

I hear ya. To get to real fluency you need to make a big commitment. Here is what genuinely worked for me. A lot of it you probably can't do because I was a student and had some freedom, but there is plenty of doable stuff. It took me 2 years to get to respectable conversational level and after 3 years I had completely arrived.

Stuff I did that you probably don't have time for:

1- I took college classes. They are really, really helpful for getting the fundamentals down. I took classes at three schools (St. Johns, Columbia, Sophia (school in Tokyo)). Columbia was by far the highest level of instruction. If there is any chance you can audit classes on the weekend or something you should.

2- I studied abroad in Japan for a year. That was how I got from functional understanding to true conversational fluency. Are there Brazilian bars, clubs, meetup groups, soccer leagues, etc in your town? If so, go join them ASAP and make a bunch of friends who primarily speak Portuguese to each other. Nothing will replace you being around and interacting with native speakers as much as possible.

Stuff I did on my own that was critical:

1- Translate a ton of stuff. I learned to love it and did it as a hobby. I got really into translating Japanese song lyrics and TV shows especially. Your early translations will suck but there is no better way to learn a bunch of vocabulary than by translating things. You want to find a peer group of like-minded people to share your translations with so you can learn from one another. I am sure there are great communities for such things. Check viki.com I did some consulting for them last summer. Also look for Youtube channels. When guys talk about their "10,000 hours to mastery" they are talking about stuff like this. Learn to love it. Listen to portuguese music (who doesn't like bossanova anyway) and write out lyrics. Carry a notebook with you.

2- Start blogging in shitty portuguese ASAP. Make internet friends. I used to do this on a Japanese site called mixi but I know there are humongous Brazilian communities online. Check Orkut and other places. I used to use these social networks for making friends, interacting in the foreign language, and learning about the culture and various interests.

3- Consume media in your free time. Watch TV, read books, watch movies, listen to music. Learn to love it. Absorb that shit by osmosis. Learn about their pop culture. Language is heavily influenced by pop culture. Watch their morning TV shows on Youtube or wherever they get posted online.

4- Make an active effort to use every new grammar pattern & word you learn the same day you learn it. Work it into conversation or a blog post. Try to use it 3 or more times if possible. This is a lot easier when you're living in the country and can go to a bar and talk to strangers, but you must do this or you will not remember the stuff you learn.

5- Make friends who speak the language. Get some Brazilian friends who will watch Portuguese TV shows and movies with you and can explain things you don't understand.

6- Travel to the country. There is no way to fake this. I went to Japan about 15 times between 2002 and 2011.

There are really 3 things you need to study to reach real fluency:

Grammar: The only way to learn is brute force. Get yourself some good textbooks and study the grammar patterns until you master them. Use them every single day. If you don't understand something, ask someone who speaks the language better than you. Try to translate things and ask people to critique your translations to make sure you are really understanding the grammar.

Vocabulary: Translation & media consumption are your friends here. You cannot memorize vocabulary from a book, there are too many words and your brain will not retain things.

Cultural references: Media consumption & interaction with natives. They are open to sharing their culture with you, whether online or in person. You need to understand the culture to get fluent.

Expect to make a real commitment if you want to reach fluency. The beauty of it is, once you truly get fluent, you don't forget. It's something you carry with you for the rest of your life. Go put your 10,000 hours in, dude.

Meaning of "Vontade"

Meaning of “Vontade”

“Vontade” is a noun.  Its literal translation is:

• Will / Wish
• Desire
• Pleasure
• Mind

Common expressions formed with the word include (from here):

Ficar à vontade

This means make yourself at home. You’ll hear this if you’re in someone’s home or office.  

Bem-vindo! Fique à vontade. Quer um cafezinho?

Welcome. Make yourself at home. Do you want a coffee?

Estar com vontade de

This means, “Are you in the mood to” or “Do you feel like.”  Similarly, “estar sem vontade” is to not be in the mood for something.

Você está com vontade de ir no cinema?

Do you feel like going to the movies?  

Estou sem vontade de estudar hoje.

I’m not in the mood to study today.

Que vontade de

This expresses a wish to do something, roughly: “What desire to.”  

Que vontade de pular na piscina!

What desire to jump in the pool!  

Que vontade de comer feijoada!

What desire to eat feijoada!

Vontade

In some cases, you can use vontade as “the urge,” particularly when talking about physical needs.  

Ele sempre está com vontade de urinar.

He always has the urge to pee.  

A vontade de tossir é maior à noite.

The urge to cough is worse at night.

LOTS more sentences using the word “vontade” can be found on Tatoeba here

Ter + vontade de + Infinitive   OR Estar com + vontade de = “I feel like ______” (from here)

Expressing desire using the grammatical formula [ter + vontade de + infinitive verb] is a way to talk about longing or lasting desire.

Similarly, [estar + ter vontade de + infinitive verb] is a way to express a momentary desire

• Estou com vontade de tomar sorvete.
• I feel like (eating) ice cream.

• Ela estava com vontade de desistir.
• She felt like giving up.

• Às vezes tenho vontade de mudar de vida.
• Sometimes I feel like changing everything about my life.

• Não tenho vontade de passar por aquilo tudo de novo.
• I don’t feel like going through all that again.

The verb ficar can be used instead of estar com/ter to signal a change from not wanting to wanting:

• Quando tomo café, fico com vontade de fumar.
• When I drink coffee I feel like smoking.

• Depois da viagem à Argentina, fiquei com vontade de conhecer outros países.
• After the trip to Argentina, I felt I wanted to visit other countries.

The expression dar vontade de is used either with or without an explicit subject with the meaning of ‘make (me) want to’. It may be preceded by the unstressed pronouns me and te in colloquial speech and the third person pronoun lhe in more formal contexts, but it is also used without a pronoun object:

• Quando tomo café, me dá vontade de fumar.
• When I drink coffee, I feel like smoking.

• O frio dá vontade de ficar em casa.
• The cold makes you want to stay at home.

• Não te dá vontade de gritar?
• Doesn’t it make you want to scream?

• Ele senta no jardim quando lhe dá vontade.
• He sits in garden when he feels like it.
  
  

Present Perfect Continuous

• The present perfect continuous tense is used when an action started in the past and has not finished yet

• It helps me to refer to a grammar book every so often to remind myself of the "rules".  

• The present perfect continuous refers to an unspecified time between 'before now' and 'now'. The speaker is thinking about something that started but perhaps did not finish in that period of time. He/she is interested in the process as well as the result, and this process may still be going on, or may have just finished.

• Here's another good definition on the English use of the present perfect (from this website):
  
  
  1: To say how long for unfinished actions which started in the past and continue to the present. We often use this with for and since. 
  • I've been living in London for two years.
  • She's been working here since 2004.
  • We've been waiting for the bus for hours.
  2: Actions which have just stopped (though the whole action can be unfinished) and have a result, which we can often see, hear, or feel, in the present (focus on action). 
  • I'm so tired, I've been studying.
  • I've been running, so I'm really hot.
  • It's been raining, the pavement is wet.
  • I've been reading your book, it's very good.

Sites that Help me Learn Portuguese

Over the last few years, I've found a few websites very helpful:

Newspaper - iPad reading

• Folha De Sao Paulo
• I often read it through Google Translate (helps with new vocabulary)
• Folha De Sao Paulo (through Google Translator)

Watching TV - (albeit not awesome TV)

• Squid TV

Verb Conjugations

• Verbix Portuguese

Podclasses - Used when I walk to work

• Brazilian Podclass

Radio - Listen to native speakers

• CBN Brazil (website)
• Tune in Radio App - lots of foreign radio stations
• Tune in Radio

Flashcards

• Flashcardlet
• Allows you to link mobile devices

More to come............

Forming Past Continuous / Past Progressive Verb Forms in Portuguese

Past Continuous Tense:

• Definition of Past Continuous Tense: (from Sonia Portuguese)
  
  
• The past continuous tense is used to say that somebody was in the middle of an action at a certain time in the past when another action occurred (in yellow below). It is also used to express two past actions in progress simultaneously (highlighted in green below)
  
  
• Notice that these sentences are often formed with a verb in the indicative preterite form (highlighted in yellow below)
  
  
• The past continuous tense is formed with the past tense (imperfect) of the auxiliary verb estar (to be) + the present participle (ndo).
  
  
• Examples (from Sonia Portuguese)
  
  
• English
• 1.  I was sleeping when you arrived.
• 2.  It was raining when I left home.
• 3.  They were having lunch when the phone rang.
• 4.  What were you doing there?
• 5.  I was talking to my sister while he was reading.
  
  
• Portuguese
• 1. Eu estava dormindo quando você chegou.
• 2. Estava chovendo quando eu saí de casa.
• 3. Eles estavam almoçando quando o telefone tocou.
• 4. O que você estava fazendo lá?
• 5. Eu estava conversando com a minha irmã enquanto ele estava lendo.
  
  
• Other Notes
  
  
• You can substitute the imperfect tense to substitute for the past continuous tense (it is grammatically correct).
  
  
• Example:
• (1) Enquanto eu estava dirigindo, ele estava dormindo.
• (2) Enquanto eu dirigia, ele dormia.
• (3) Enquanto eu dirigia, ele estava dormindo.
• (4) Enquanto eu estava dirigindo, ele dormia.
  
  
• However, using the past continuous form versus the imperfect for is more "precise"
• ...... the imperfect has a wider scope whereas the past continuous is more focused in a precise momentary process.
  
  
• Wordreference 1
• Wordreference 2
• Other Helpful Links:
  
  
• Helpful past continuous (and present continuous) video
• Link 1
  
  
• Good explanation from Sonia Portuguese (where the examples were taken)
• Link 2
  
  
• Lesson highlighting past continuous tense construction from Brazilian Podclass
• Link 3