Basque PAU Portuguese flashcards

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Pretérito perfeito vs imperfeito

Perfeito (falei) marks a completed event; imperfeito (falava) marks a habit, description or background. In narratives, imperfeito sets the scene and perfeito advances the action.

Futuro do subjuntivo trigger

The future subjunctive (falar, falares, falarmos) is required after quando, se, assim que and enquanto when the reference is future: 'Quando chegares, telefona'.

Personal infinitive use

The inflected infinitive (falar eu, falares tu, falarmos nós) appears after prepositions and in causative or perception constructions: 'antes de saíres', 'vi-os chegarem'.

Proclisis triggers in European Portuguese

Proclisis (pronoun before the verb) is obligatory after negation, subordinating conjunctions, interrogatives and preverbal quantifiers: 'não me disse', 'para que se saiba'.

Haver impersonal agreement

In the sense of existence, haver is impersonal and invariable: 'havia muitas pessoas', never 'haviam'. By contrast, existir agrees normally: 'existiam muitas pessoas'.

Porque vs por que

'Porque' is a one-word causal conjunction; 'por que' introduces questions or means 'for which'; 'porquê' is a noun with an article; 'por quê' ends a sentence.

Acordo Ortográfico hyphen rule

After the 1990 agreement, prefix plus word with the same vowel drops the hyphen (contraordem, autoestrada), and anti-, micro- and mini- drop it before r or s (antirrugas).

Há vs a vs à

'Há' means there is or ago ('há dois anos'); 'a' is a preposition or article ('daqui a dois anos'); 'à' contracts a + a ('vou à escola').

CPLP member states

The CPLP has nine members: Angola, Brasil, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Guiné Equatorial, Moçambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe and Timor-Leste. It was founded in 1996.

Revolução dos Cravos

The 25 April 1974 military coup with popular support ended the Estado Novo dictatorship in Portugal and led to independence for the African colonies in 1975.

Saramago and Pessoa

José Saramago won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998. Fernando Pessoa created the heteronyms Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis and Álvaro de Campos.

Lusophone music genres

Fado in Portugal, samba and bossa nova in Brazil, morna and coladeira in Cabo Verde, semba and kuduro in Angola, and marrabenta in Moçambique.

False friend: actualmente

In Portuguese, 'actualmente' (EP) or 'atualmente' (BR) means currently or nowadays, not actually. The English 'actually' corresponds to 'na verdade' or 'de facto'.

Fact versus opinion markers

Pretérito perfeito, dates and statistics signal fact. Modal verbs, evaluative adjectives and expressions like 'é provável que' signal the author's opinion or stance.

Pirâmide invertida

A news report opens with a lead answering what, who, when and where, then adds detail in decreasing order of importance. This structure helps locate answers quickly.

Anaphoric pronoun resolution

'Este', 'esse', 'aquele' and 'o qual' point back to a preceding noun. Gender and number agreement usually disambiguate which noun is the referent.

Connectors of concession

Embora, ainda que, mesmo que and a menos que introduce concession and require the subjunctive. Porém, contudo and no entanto coordinate contrast with the indicative.

Ser vs estar

Ser expresses identity and inherent traits ('é médico', 'é alto'); estar expresses states and location ('está cansado', 'está em casa'). Some adjectives change meaning with each verb.

Opinion text structure

A short opinion text needs a thesis in the introduction, two body paragraphs with arguments and examples, a concession, and a conclusion that restates the thesis without new arguments.

Formal letter closing

Formal Portuguese letters close with 'Com os melhores cumprimentos' or 'Agradecendo a atenção, subscrevo-me'. Informal messages close with 'Um abraço' or 'Beijinhos'.

Register markers tu versus você

'Tu' takes second-person singular verbs (estás, tens, podes) and is informal. 'Você' and 'o senhor' take third-person forms and mark distance or formality. Never mix them in one text.

Concession formula in composition

'Embora seja verdade que X, não se pode ignorar que Y' acknowledges a counter-argument. The subjunctive after embora is mandatory and is frequently tested.

Travessão in dialogue

European Portuguese narrative marks each speech turn with a travessão (-). Brazilian usage accepts both travessão and quotation marks.

Onde vs aonde

'Onde' means place where and pairs with stative verbs ('Onde estás?'). 'Aonde' means place to which and pairs with verbs of motion ('Aonde vais?').

De encontro a vs ao encontro de

'De encontro a' means against or contrary to. 'Ao encontro de' means in agreement with or towards. The two expressions have opposite meanings.

Cohesion versus coherence

Cohesion is the surface linking of sentences through pronouns, substitution and connectors. Coherence is the logical unity of the text: a single thesis, consistent register and no contradictions.

Timor-Leste languages

Portuguese and Tetum are the two official languages of Timor-Leste. The country restored independence in 2002 and joined the CPLP the same year.

Brazilian versus European lexicon

Brazilian Portuguese uses ônibus, celular, geladeira and café da manhã; European Portuguese uses autocarro, telemóvel, frigorífico and pequeno-almoço.

Inference question rule

For inference items, the correct answer must follow necessarily from the text. Options that are merely plausible in the real world but not supported by the text are wrong.

Absolute quantifier trap

Options containing todos, sempre, nunca or exclusivamente are usually false unless the text itself states exclusivity. Exam writers use these as distractors.

Mesoclisis and enclisis

In the future and conditional, object pronouns follow the verb or appear inside it: 'dar-lhe-ei' or 'vou dar-lhe'. Proclisis at the start of a sentence is impossible in European Portuguese.

Hyphen with bem and mal

Compounds with bem and mal keep the hyphen when the second element is a noun or adjective: bem-vindo, mal-humorado. Forms like benfeitor and malcriado are single words.