Last night, a girl kept telling me that I speak portuguese better than her. This was simply a joke to encourage me (everybody who studies languages knows how good it feels when a native speaker compliments you), but I think she meant my portuguese was "better" than hers because she heard me use the conditional tense, which Brazilians rarely use in colloquial speech. This spurred a string of thoughts about how my portuguese, which I have learned largely from textbooks, differs from the Carioca's.
1.) The following verbs are used not only everyday, but in almost every sentence. These are verbs that I hardly ever thought to use (some I did not even know) when I studied portuguese in a U.S. classroom.
- Deixar: to leave, to let, or to allow.
- Pegar: to get or to catch. (this verb is just as overused as "to get" is in english)
- Tomar: to take, as in to take a shower or take some food. This verb is a perfect equivalent to the french "prendre." For any of you that have spoken english with Europeans, you may have noticed that they always say they will "take" a coffee or "take" lunch. This is slightly awkward for American english, but it is the direct translation from most romance languages (at least portuguese and french, but I imagine the others as well).
- Parar: to stop. OK, so this one isn't quite as common. I personally wake up to it every morning because my 1 year old "roommate" is always getting yelled at.
- Segurar: to hold, to secure. Again, I hear this one a lot because of baby Antonio.
- Pedir: to ask. I always thought "perguntar" was more common, but pedir is always used as the verb. "uma pergunta" is used as a noun.
- Ficar: to stay, to be. I actually learned in the States that Cariocas love this verb. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that it is indeed extremely common, much more than ser or estar (which also mean "to be")
2.) Cariocas never use the imperative! It is considered overly formal and intimidating to use commands. Instead of "pare" for "stop" they simply use the third person present conjugation, "para."
3.) The future tense is basically nonexistent in colloquial speech. Instead, to express an idea in the future, Cariocas always the verb "to go" instead of using the future tense. This is less concise in terms of word count, but is often quicker in terms of syllables.
For example, a carioca would always say, "Vou jantar às 7 horas" (I am going to eat dinner at 7) instead of, "Jantarei às 7 horas" (I will eat dinner at 7). We do this in english too, but not as often as they do in portuguese.
4.) The present progressive form is much more common than I expected. Since I studied french before portuguese (and the present progressive doesn't really exist in french in the same way it does in english or portuguese), I thought this tense would be rare. I have actually found it to be more common than the present indicative, as it is in english. Ex: "Estou falando" (I am speaking) is more common than "Falo" (I speak). In french, you would usually just say "Je parle" to express either of these thoughts, although you could say "je suis en train de parler" (literally: I am in the process of speaking) if it were necessary to emphasize the continuous nature of the action.
5.) I have met a few people from Sao Paulo, and their accent is vastly easier to understand than the Carioca's. To provide a U.S. analogy, Rio can be compared to a New York accent, and Sao Paulo seems more midwestern.
6.) The word "oi," which translates as "hi," really means "what?" or "yes?" more than anything. For example, if somebody yells at somebody else from across the room, the receiver will shout back "oi?" to get them to repeat.
I will share more later. As boring as this topic may be for most, I find it fascinating!
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