HSC Portuguese Continuers cheat sheet

Listening tasks in HSC Portuguese Continuers typically play a spoken text twice; the first hearing is for gist (topic, speakers, setting), the second for specific detail such as times, prices, names and reasons.

Register markers to detect: tu/você and te/lhe signal formality and relationship; o senhor/a senhora signals deference; vocês addresses a group.

Responding items often require a reason or opinion, not just a fact: listen for porque, pois, já que, como (causal), por isso, então to capture cause and consequence.

Discourse connectors that mark a turn or contrast: mas, porém, contudo, no entanto, embora, apesar de; these usually precede the point being tested.

Numbers, dates and times are frequent distractors: horas (duas e meia, quinze para as três), dias da semana, and prices in euros or reais are often corrected mid-text.

Identify the relationship and setting from greetings and leave-taking: Bom dia/Boa tarde, Até logo, Com licença, Faz favor, Alô (phone) versus Olá (face-to-face or informal).

Note hesitation and repair markers (bem..., quer dizer, isto é, ou seja) - the speaker often revises an earlier statement, and the revision is the correct answer.

In dialogue items, track speaker roles: who invites, who refuses, who suggests an alternative; answers usually hinge on the second speaker's response.

Skim for text type first: notícia (headline plus lead answering who/what/when/where), artigo de opinião (thesis plus arguments), anúncio (imperatives, contact details), carta formal (você/o senhor, Atenciosamente).

Locate the main idea in the first paragraph of news texts and in the conclusion of opinion pieces; supporting evidence sits in the middle paragraphs.

Distinguish fact from opinion using markers: segundo, de acordo com, dados mostram (fact) versus acredito que, na minha opinião, parece-me, infelizmente (opinion/evaluation).

Analytical questions ask for cause, purpose and consequence: scan for porque, devido a, por causa de, a fim de, para que, de modo que, portanto, assim.

Pronoun and referent tracking is commonly tested: ele/ela, este/esse/aquele, o qual, cujo refer back to a previously named noun; match gender and number.

Comparative and superlative data: mais...do que, menos...do que, tão...como, o mais...de; percentages and statistics (por cento, a maioria, metade) are frequent answer targets.

Inference items require combining two sentences; the answer is implied, not quoted - look for contrast (embora, apesar de) and concession structures.

Formal written conventions: Excelentíssimo Senhor, Venho por este meio..., Com os melhores cumprimentos; informal: Oi, Beijos, Abraços.

Text types and their skeletons: diário (date, first person, feelings), carta/email pessoal (saudação, corpo, despedida), relato/narrativa (orientação, complicação, resolução), convite, mensagem.

Narrative tense pairing: pretérito perfeito for completed plot events, pretérito imperfeito for background, description and habitual action; mixing them correctly is a marked criterion.

Opening and closing formulas: Querido(a)/Caro(a) + name; Um abraço, Beijos, Até breve, Com carinho; formal: Prezado(a), Atenciosamente, Cordialmente.

Cohesion devices to deploy: primeiro, depois, em seguida, entretanto, além disso, finalmente, por isso - examiners reward varied connectives over repetition of e/depois.

Word-count discipline: plan roughly 10% introduction, 75-80% development, 10-15% conclusion, and check the required range before finishing.

Register consistency: keep tu or você throughout; avoid switching mid-text; contractions (do, da, no, na, pelo) are obligatory in Portuguese and their omission is an error.

Imaginative prompts reward sensory and emotional detail (adjectives, adverbs in -mente) plus direct speech with correct travessão or aspas punctuation.

Personal writing must answer every bullet of the prompt; missing one element (e.g., a reason or a future plan) loses content marks regardless of accuracy.

Pretérito perfeito regular endings: -ar (falei, falaste, falou, falámos/falamos, falaram); -er (comi, comeste, comeu, comemos, comeram); -ir (parti, partiste, partiu, partimos, partiram).

Pretérito imperfeito endings: -ar (falava, falavas, falava, falávamos, falavam); -er/-ir (comia, comias, comia, comíamos, comiam).

Future subjunctive (futuro do subjuntivo) after quando, se, assim que, logo que, enquanto referring to future: quando eu for, quando ele fizer, se puder.

Personal infinitive is used after prepositions and with an explicit subject: antes de sairmos, para eles entenderem, apesar de ela não vir.

Subjunctive triggers: é importante que, espero que, duvido que, embora, para que, tomara que - present subjunctive forms falar: fale, fales, fale, falemos, falem.

Ser versus estar: ser for inherent/permanent traits and identity (ela é médica, é alto), estar for states, location and temporary conditions (está cansada, está em casa).

Object pronouns: o/a/os/as after verb forms (vejo-o, convido-a); after nasal endings use no/na/nos/nas (eles põem-nos); lhe(s) for indirect objects.

Por versus para: por = cause, exchange, duration, movement through (por isso, obrigado por, por duas horas); para = purpose, destination, deadline, recipient (para estudar, para Lisboa).

Accentuation rules: proparoxytone always accented (médico, lâmpada); paroxytone accented if ending in -r, -l, -n, -x, -ps, -ã(s), -ão(s), -um/uns or any vowel plus -s; oxytone if ending in vowel, -s or -n (sofá, português, armazém).

Lusophone countries and their capitals: Portugal–Lisboa, Brasil–Brasília, Angola–Luanda, Moçambique–Maputo, Cabo Verde–Praia, Guiné-Bissau–Bissau, São Tomé e Príncipe–São Tomé, Timor-Leste–Díli.

Portuguese is an official language in those eight countries plus Equatorial Guinea (adopted 2014) and is a working language of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).

Brazilian versus European Portuguese contrasts: você/gerúndio (estou falando) versus tu+concordance and infinitive construction (estou a falar); vocabulary autocarro/ônibus, telemóvel/celular, gelado/sorvete.

Regional cultural markers often used in texts: fado and Coimbra's fado in Portugal; samba, bossa nova and capoeira in Brazil; morna and coladeira in Cabo Verde; kizomba and semba in Angola.

Festivals: Carnaval (Brazil, also Portugal and Cape Verde), Festa Junina in Brazil, Festa de São João in Porto, Santos Populares in June across Portugal.

Literary names to recognise: Luís de Camões (Os Lusíadas), Fernando Pessoa and heteronyms, José Saramago (Nobel 1998), Machado de Assis, Mia Couto, Pepetela.

Food and everyday-culture vocabulary: bacalhau, pastel de nata, feijoada, açaí, pão de queijo, churrasco, moqueca, funge (Angola), cachupa (Cabo Verde).

Historical and social references: the 25 de Abril de 1974 Carnation Revolution, the 1975 independence of African lusophone nations, and emigration/immigration themes (saudade, emigrante, retornado).