Learning Portuguese includes reading short stories, listening to music, watching videos to learn new verbs everyday. If you do this everyday, you’ll be able to build up your skills and get closer to your goals! First verb you will learn with me is SER=TO BE:
It’s important to have some knowledge on what a “pronoun” and “number” mean.
| SINGULAR |
PRONOUNS |
PORTUGUESE |
| |
I |
Eu |
| Informal |
You (informal) |
Você |
| Feminine & formal |
You |
A senhora |
| Masculine & formal |
You |
O senhor |
| |
She |
Ela |
| |
He |
Ele |
| Neutral (for objects) |
That |
Isso |
| Neutral (for objects) |
This |
Isto |
| PLURAL |
PRONOUNS |
PORTUGUESE |
| |
We |
Nós |
| Informal |
You (all) |
Vocês |
| Feminine & formal |
You (all) |
As senhoras |
| Masculine & formal |
You (all) |
Os senhores |
| Feminine |
They |
Elas |
| Masculine |
They |
Eles |
Pronoun is a word that can function by itself as a noun phrase and that refers either to the participants in the discourse (e.g., I, you ) or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse (e.g., she, it, this ).
While number is when we refer to one item or more such as “I” is singular, but “we” is plural or “you” is singular while “you all” is plural.
Pronouns are divided by first, second and third persons
First person: I and we/eu e nós
Second person: you and you all/você e vocês
Third person: he or she and they/ela ou ele e elas ou eles
In the chart shown above, pronouns in first person with singular and plural number are different to the rest of conjugations for second and third persons when they are being conjugated. Let’s see what happens when pronouns are conjugated with SER verb.
Singular Plural
I am | Eu sou We are | Nós somos
You are (informal) | Você é You’ll are (informal) | Vocês são
You are | o senhor / a senhora You’ll are | os senhores / as senhoras
He is | Ele é They are | Eles são
She is | Ela é They are | Elas são
* Pay attention how eu [I] and nós [we] have their own way of behaving.
I’ll explain more in class about “tu”, “vós” “você” and “vocês”
Usually Brazilians don’t use the person “tu” to refer to the person you. But in some regions in Brazil such as Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul, people use “tu” but in an “incorrect” way, along with the verb that should be used for the person “você”.
For example, if you read Portuguese Grammar books that are taught in schools in Brazil, you’ll see the following conjugation for the verb ser:
| Singular |
1 |
Eu |
sou |
| 2 |
Tu |
és |
| 3 |
Ele / Ela / Você |
é |
| Plural |
1 |
Nós |
somos |
| 2 |
Vós |
sois |
| 3 |
Eles / Elas / Vocês |
são |
In Brazil, “Vós” is rarely used and “Tu” is usually used with the verb conjugated for the persons “Ele”,“Ela” and “Você”
For a better comprehension of the verbs and persons, it is good to separate what is singular from what is plural. Eu (I), você (you), ele (he), ela (she), isso (that), isto (this) a gente (it means “we” – but it is a singular noun) and any other singular words are in the singular section. Nós (we), eles (they), elas (they, but just for a group of women or feminine nouns), vocês (you) and all plural words, are in the plural section.
Let’s study the chart for didactics purpose.
For the sake of the verb “ser”, let’s see how pronouns share the conjugation of “ser”…
| Singular |
Eu |
sou |
| Ele / Ela / Você/ Isso / Isto / A gente / A senhora / O senhor |
é |
| Plural |
Nós |
somos |
| Eles / Elas / Vocês / As senhoras / Os senhores |
são |
What we can see here it’s 4 conjugations (or 4 different behaviors) of the verb “ser”.
For instance:
- Eu sou feliz. (I’m happy.)
- Ela é americana. (She is American.)
- Nós somos primos. (We are cousins.)
USES OF “SER”: When do we use this verb?
Unlike verb TO BE in English, SER can be used to describe what someone is like.
- Describe people, eg: Ela é inteligente | Ela é não inteligente / Ele é rebelde? (Is she rebellious?) —> Não, ele não é rebelde = Não, não é rebelde não (No, she isn’t rebellious) I’ll explain more in class about negative words and question words.
- Identify people, eg: Vocé é professora (You are a professor) / Quem é vocé? (Who are you?) Eu sou turista (I’m a tourist) / Quem são eles? Eles são alumnos (they’re students)
- Some expressions based in the form It’s, followed by an adverb, will use SER in Portuguese, eg: É importante que vocé estude una língua estrangeira (It’s important you study a foreign language) / É necessário aprender coisas novas todos os dias (It’s necessary to learn new stuff everyday) English It’s means É.
- For time, eg: Que horas são agora? São as seis em ponto. (What time is it? It’s six o’clock.) A que horas é a aula de português? É às seis da tarde (At what time is Portuguese? It’s at six in the afternoon.)
This is a main review of one of the main uses for TO BE. However, in Portuguese TO BE means also “estar”. After the break we’ll see how different “estar” is from “ser”.
Got Portuguese? 