The amount of information that you can give about yourself at the first meeting is huge. First of all, after introducing yourself, you can tell where you are from, what nationality you have, where you live. And within the framework of this topic, we will replenish vocabulary and study a little grammar.
Nationalities
To name the nationality of a person, you need to learn one rule. Almost all nouns and adjectives in Portuguese change endings depending on the gender (feminine or masculine) and number (singular or plural) of the object. This rule applies to nationality.
- Americano (American, masculine) – americanos (Americans, masculine)
- Americana (American, feminine) – americanas (Americans, feminine)
That is, you see that the ending “o/os” is masculine and “a/as” is feminine. You will see these endings most often. However, there are other types of endings.
- Inglês (English, masculine/singular) – ingleses (English, masculine/plural)
- Inglesa (English, feminine/singular) – inglesas (English, feminine/plural)
- Espanol (Spanish, masculine/singular) – espanhóis (Spanish)
- Espanhola (Spanish, feminine/singular) – espanholas (Spanish, feminine/plural)
If there is logic in these examples, then there are still exceptions that you just need to remember. For example:
- Alemão (German, masculine/singular) – alemães (Germans, masculine/plural)
- Alemã (German, feminine/singular) – alemãs (German, feminine/plural)
Let’s see an example:A Marta é espanhola e o Paulo é português. (Marta is Spanish and Paulo is Portuguese.)
Language
Each nationality has its own language, but the languages spoken by a person do not always correspond to his nationality. More often it shows the intellectual level of a person, his craving for something new, his desire to learn. Therefore, in order to talk about our knowledge in the field of languages, we will learn a new verb – falar (to speak).
It is a regular verb and is conjugated according to the general conjugation rule for verbs ending in “-ar“.
| Verbo “falar“ | |
| Eu | falo |
| Tu | falas |
| Ele, ela, você | fala |
| Nós | falamos |
| Eles, elas, vocês | falam |
That is:Que línguas fala? (What languages do you speak?)Eu falo português e um pouco de francês. (I speak Portuguese and some French.)
Place of residence
In addition to nationality and language, we can ask the interlocutor where he lives. Sometimes this information can give us answers to the previous two questions about nationality and language. Therefore, we need another regular verb – morar (to live).
| Verbo “morar“ | |
| Eu | moro |
| Tu | moras |
| Ele, ela, você | mora |
| Nós | moramos |
| Eles, elas, vocês | moram |
- Ela mora em Paris, fala francês e é francesa. (She lives in Paris, speaks French and is French.)
- Nós falamos russo e somos russos, mas moramos em Portugal. (We speak Russian and we are Russian, but we live in Portugal.)
Pay attention and remember the preposition “em” (in). It will come in handy for us in the future.
Question and answer
In order to form the appropriate questions, we need two new question words:
quem (who) and de onde (from where). In fact, the question “de onde” can be broken down into two components:
the preposition “de” (from) and the adverb “onde” (where). This is important to know for two reasons. First, in answering the question, we need the preposition “de“. Secondly, the adverb “where” will come in handy when we indicate the direction of movement.
- Ela fala inglês, mas não e inglesa. Quem é? (She speaks English, but she is not English. Who is she?)
- Ela é canadiana. É de Toronto e fala inglês e francês. (She is Canadian. She is from Toronto and speaks English and French.)
- De onde és? És de Nova York? (Where are you from? Are you from New York?)
“Ser” vs “estar”
Until now, we have managed with the irregular verb “ser” (to be). However, in Portuguese there is another irregular verb “to be” – estar. What is the difference? The verb “ser” describes a lasting state or location, while the verb “estar” describes temporary.
| Verbo “estar“ | |
| Eu | estou |
| Tu | estás |
| Ele, ela, você | está |
| Nós | estamos |
| Eles, elas, vocês | estão |
With this verb, we can describe a lot, but within the framework of this topic, we will look at a few situations. The first of these is the temporary location of a person or object.
- Onde está a Gabriella? (Where is Gabriella?)
- Ela está em Madrid. (She is in Madrid.)
- Regarding the topic of items, we can describe where to look for any item.
- Onde está a meu caderno? (Where is my notebook?)
- Está na gaveta. (It’s in the box.)
But if we want to tell you where some landmark, natural object, etc., in general, what cannot be moved, cannot be moved, we again need to return to the verb “ser“. Try to feel the difference by reading the examples:
- O Vitor está em Londres. O Museu de Harry Potter é em Londres. (Victor is in London. The Harry Potter museum is in London.)
- A Torre de Pisa é em Itália. Estamos cá para ver. (Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. We are here to watch.)
Moreover, with the help of the verb “estar” we can keep up the conversation by asking the interlocutor how he is doing. As in most countries, the answer must be positive.
- Como estás? (How are you?)
- Estou bem, obrigado. (Well thank you.)
The mood can change quickly, as well as the state of affairs too. Sometimes it is impossible to answer positively, in case of illness, for example. Then we can answer the question as follows:
- Está tudo mal. Estou doente. (Everything is bad. I’m sick.)
- Nós estamos mais ou menos. Estamos com sono. (We are more or less. Very sleepy.)
Conclusion
Recently, more and more restrictions have appeared regarding the indication of a person’s belonging to various gender, religious, racial and other groups. Many questions are considered incorrect and this topic of the article may be perceived ambiguously. However, most limitations are rooted in self-doubt. People need to be proud of who they are and where they come from.
Also, everything is changing in the world, so it is important to be able to talk about your native language, about your homeland and nationality!
In addition, if details about your origin can be omitted, then telling where you live or are at the moment will help to avoid trouble. For example, if you get lost!