Monthly Archives: April 2010

Porques & Podes

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There are quite a few ways to write both porque and pode and I’ll go over them with you.

Porque vs Porquê*

When you see porque as one word, it means “because” (which often has the same meaning as ‘pois‘). When the word has a circunflexo on the final letter (ie, porquê), it gives cause, reason or motive to what is being said.

Ex. Ele faltou à prova porque não sabia a data de sua realização (He missed the test because he didn’t know the day it was to be administered).

Ex. Ele não sabia o porquê de suas lágrimas (He didn’t know the reason for his tears).

* – Another way to express cause, reason or motive is to use the word motivo. It is natural to think that using the Portuguese word for reason (razão) would suit your needs but that is incorrect. You will learn how to use razão in good time and with practice.

Por que vs Por quê

Both mean “why” although they can be placed with or without a question mark on the end, just as in English. The rule is that when the word comes at the end of a sentence, it gains the circunflexo on the final letter.

Ex. Por que não compraste aquele livro? (Why didn’t you buy that book?)

Ex. Não compraste aquele livro, por quê? (You didn’t buy that book, why?)

Pode vs Pôde

Coming from the verb poder (to be able to), pode means it/he/she can or is able to. It is the 3rd person present indicative. Pôde, on the other hand, carries the same placement although it is used to speak of the past.

Ex. Ontem, ele não pôde sair mais cedo, mas hoje ele pode (Yesterday, he couldn’t leave earlier, but today he can).

Using Accents & Other Lexical Annotations

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An accent is used over vowels to indicate a stressed syllable or the fusion of vowels. Learning where and when to place accents on words is just part of the learning process but I’d like to map it out for you in case you have any doubts. The section on the trema (¨) has a lighter font because due to the Spelling Reform, the trema is no longer used on words of Portuguese origin (only on foreign words now).

Agudo (´)
It’s use is conditioned by the rules of graphic accentuation, including stressed and open vowels such as a, e, and o or above the stressed vowels i and u.

Ex. Macapá (capital of Amapá state), médico (doctor), tórax (thorax), vovó (grandmother), língua (language/tongue), múltiplo (multiple).

Circunflexo* (ˆ)
Used above stressed and closed vowels such as a, e and o, in accordance with the rules of graphic accentuation.

Ex. lâmpada (lamp), você (you), ônibus (bus), vovô (grandfather).

Grave (`)
Indicates a crasis (contraction of a vowel or diphthong), such as the fusion of two a‘s (in general, a preposition and the article).

Ex. Fui à festa sem ser convidado (I went to the party without being invited).

Til (˜)
Used above a and e to indicate nasality.

Ex. pão (bread), mamões (papayas), ímã (magnet). 

Cedilha (ç)
Used only with the letter c when followed by a, o and u, to indicate the sound of the phoneme.

Ex. maçã (apple), estação (station, season), espaço (space), açúcar (sugar).

Trema (¨)
Used above the letter u when pronounced yet unstressed in the pairing gu and qu, when followed by either an e or an i.
Ex. ensangüentado (bloodied), lingüiça (sausage), conseqüencia (consequence), tranqüilo (calm).

Apóstrofo (‘)
Used to indicate the supression of a phoneme in a word, in order to avoid repetition or cacophony (harshness in sound).

Ex. d’água (of water).

* – The circunflexo is also called “chapeuzinho” (little hat) informally.

A Lesson on Pronunciation

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The following was taking from Gramática da Língua Portuguesa by Roberto Melo Mesquita. Before continuing, keep in mind the recent spelling reform did away with the differential accent, such as in the section below on the graphic accent where there used to be a written difference between pára (stop) and para (for). In any event, I will change the color of the font on that section as a reminder of its abandonment.

In any word of two or more syllables, there is always one that is pronounced with greater intensity than the others. Such as:

GEN-te
ca-ma-RA-da
ja-ca-RÉ
va-LOR

For the syllable which is pronounced with greater intensity, the name of sílaba tônica (tonic or stressed syllable) is given. The rest receive the title of átonas (atonic, unstressed), as they are pronounced with a lesser intensity. The tonic syllables receive a more intense accent called tônico. Reexamining two of the previous examples, we have:

ja-ca-RÉ
which is made up of the atonic syllables ‘ja-ca’ and the tonic syllable ‘RÉ’.

GEN-te
which is made up of the tonic syllable ‘GEN’ and the atonic ‘te’.

It is necessary to not confuse the tonic accent with the acento gráfico (graphic accent), which is also called a sinal diacrítico (diacritic sign). The tonic accent signals a greater intensity on a syllable when the word is pronounced, independent of being accentuated graphically or not. The tonic syllable doesn’t always present a graphic accent. See the following:

ofiCIna
with the ‘CI’ as the tonic accent

reCEIta
with the ‘CEI’ as the tonic accent

The graphic accent exists in order to avoid errors in the pronunciation or to differentiate words with the same spelling and the same pronunciation. Observe:
PAra (preposition)
with the ‘PA’ as the tonic accent
PÁra
with the ‘PÁ’ as the graphic and tonic accent

There are words with three syllables or more that have, in addition to atonic and tonic syllables, a secondary accent. This occurs principally with words that are formed from other words. See the following:

ca-fé
with the ‘ca’ as atonic and ‘fé’ as tonic

ca-fe-zal
with the atonic ‘ca’, the subtonic ‘fe’ and the tonic ‘zal’

cha-péu
with the atonic ‘cha’ and the tonic ‘péu’

cha-peu-zi-nho
with the atonic ‘cha’, subtonic ‘peu’, tonic ‘zi’ and atonic ‘nho’

In the Portuguese language, many times it is the tonic accent which permits the identification of the grammatical category of a word or differentiates words within the same category. See the following:

Indication of grammatical category:
saBIA (verb)
SÁbia (adjective)
eDIto (verb)
Édito (noun)

Differentiation among words:

SÁbia (adjective)
sabiÁ (noun)

The Last Flower of Lazio

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I read this poem today and really took to the first line which speaks of the ‘last flower of Lazio’, refering to how Portuguese was the last of the latin languages to be born out of Vulgar Latin and that it originated out of the Italian region of Lazio (where modern day Rome is).

Língua Portuguesa
by Olavo Bilac

Última flor do Lácio, inculta e bela,
És, a um tempo, esplendor e sepultura:
Ouro nativo, que na ganga impura
A bruta mina entre os cascalhos vela…
Amote assim, desconhecida e obscura,
Tuba de alto clangor, lira singela,
Que tens o trom e o silvo da procela
E o arrolo da saudade e da ternura!
Amo o teu viço agreste e o teu aroma
De virgens selvas e de oceano largo!
Amo-te, ó rude e doloroso idioma,
Em que da voz materna ouvi: “meu filho!”
E em que Camões chorou, no exílio amargo,
O gênio sem ventura e o amor sem brilho!

The Portuguese Language
translated by Austin Stranger

The last flower of Lazio, uncultivated and beautiful,
you are, at the same time, splendor and sepulcher:
native gold, that in impure minerals
the brute mine amid gravel hides…
I love you like this, unknown and obscure.
Tube of high resonance,  simple lyre,
You have the rumble and the hiss of the storm,
the longing and tenderness of a lullaby!
I love your rustic vigor and your fragance
of virgin woods and large ocean!
I love you, oh rude and painful language,
from which I heard of maternal voice “my son!”
from which Camões cried, in bitter exile,
the genius without fortune and the love without brilliance!

The poem inspired other takes on the same subject such as the poem “Língua”, by Gilberto Mendonça and “Língua Portuguesa”, by Caetano Veloso. The latter, I am familiar with and I am quite taken with it as well. Fernando Pessoa has also written (in PT) on the subject in his famous ‘Book of Disquiet’.

More Info

An Analysis of Bilac’s poem (in PT)
Olavo Bilac on Wikipedia

Decifering a language of languages

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I translated this from a book on Portuguese grammar.
“While analyzing our own way of speaking, each one of us is capable of perceiving that we dominate various “languages”, in other words, we have various ways of “registering” our language. Every moment, we are making use of one of these registers.

Observe: a child of two years, when he falls, he can say that he hurt his bum-bum. His mother, upon making him feel better, asks: “Ah, did my baby hurt his bundinha? A more serious problem occurs at this point. Upon taking him to the doctor, the parents will probably say that the problem is in the nádegas. And the doctor? Well, he can write down that the pain is in the region of the glútea…

See that all of these expressions are within our knowledge and we know, almost intuitively, which is the most adequate moment to employ one or the other.”

The point I’m getting at though is that Portuguese presents a problem that is often born organically out of the viewpoint of the learner and the teacher, a problem in the sense of knowing how one wants to teach or learn. Of course, it is said that you must learn the rules before you can break them but in the end, I suppose it’s up to the learner and how or what he or she wishes to learn. The last part of the section I translated speaks to how we must approach the subject and I happen to be in complete agreement with it. Mastering one’s own language and knowing how to navigate through it at will can be very useful in all kinds of situations.

Having an ear for Van Gogh

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Once I heard a friend of mine, a university-educated Brazilian, say something that sounded like Van Gogee (gee such as in the word geezer) and I wondered if he meant Van Gogh (pronounced ‘go’ in English)…apparently he did. I’m not sure if there exists some sort of a foreign word ‘rule’ that means you must pronounce something as it is pronounced in its original language but if the point of communication is to be understood then among Brazilians, saying Van Gogee is fine, I guess.

On the other hand, if I went around saying the President of Brazil’s nickname is pronounced Lulay, then I would be incorrect, right? Perhaps I’m just nitpicking here and none of this matters but nonetheless, I suppose I’ll just keep sticking to my way of doing things, which when it comes to pronunciation, I will do my best to say things in their original tongue (* – see comments).

What is your opinion?

Knowing Your Ordinal Numbers

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The first 10 ordinal numbers can probably be considered basic knowledge by just about anyone who speaks or is learning Portuguese. The lesson the books don’t teach you is what happens after décimo (10th)? How does one say 11th or even something crazy like 44,999th? I would teach you here if I thought there was a way to teach it aside from employing basic memorization skills. Since that is the case, I recommend seeing the Números Ordinais section of this Wikipedia page.

By the way, 11th is either undécimo or décimo primeiro while 44,999th is a bit Germanesque* in length,  quarenta e quatro milésimo noningentésimo nonagésimo nono!

* – I’m refering to das Kompositum.

The Leveling Off Point – Part Two

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After writing the original Leveling Off Point last month, I’ve come to the decision that Eyes On Brazil has had a good run in the 2 years I’ve been doing it. There are roughly 800 posts to browse through and the new platform here, which will act like a mirror site (with an Amazon store for Brazilian literature, music, etc).

A few weeks into the blogging platform change and I realized most people accessing my site are doing so via WordPress URLs, meaning my hits to this site aren’t diminishing. In any event, while it’s had a good run, there may be some walking left to do every once in a while so don’t be surprised if you see a new post when there’s a blue moon out. As for my interaction with the site, I will still check in on the stats and respond to every comment (just as I’ve always done) so no worries there.

What is next for me? I will continue to work on Eyes On Colombia since I feel like the country needs a spokesperson that can reach an English-speaking audience. Eyes On Portuguese, I will keep up with…and who knows, I might start with a new country (perhaps that is my fado, I mean fate).

Thank you all for reading, interacting and for coming back to learn more! Now let’s see how long this ‘quitting’ thing lasts…

Cumprimentos

Monocle surveys Rio’s present and future

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Two years ago, I took a chance and picked up an art & culture magazine at a bookstore. That magazine was Monocle and despite its $10 price tag, in the last few years I’ve always found it to be well worth the read. In fact, it’s the only English-language magazine I do my best to read regularly. For its March edition, which if you hurry, you might be able to still find it in bookstores, Monocle surveyed Rio de Janeiro’s present and future in a 20-page spread. Each two pages focus on a different aspect of the lifestyle of Rio’s (well-to-do) residents and barring the fact they focus on the expensive side of Rio and misspelled the word “red” in “Linha Vermelha” (by writing “vermeia”), I found their spread touched upon many of the challenges that Rio is facing and will face in the years to come. Hopefully the influx of investment money into Rio will do something positive for the Rio that has no asphalt (such as handing over land rights to long-standing favela residents so they can feel more inclusion and also have the choice to sell their home/land for profit in the coming years). The Monocle article briefly mentions that land prices (some favelas included) are on the rise already and my guess is they will continue to climb throughout the next decade.

In case you missed the magazine, Monocle offers a short clip on Rio and a list of what to spend money on.