NSSCO Portuguese Foreign Language 6113 flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Open vs closed vowel pairs

Portuguese contrasts vowels by aperture, changing meaning: avô (grandfather, closed) vs avó (grandmother, open); sede (thirst, closed) vs sede (headquarters, open). Listen for aperture, not spelling.

Reduced unstressed vowels

In European Portuguese, unstressed vowels are centralised or dropped, so está sounds like /ʃta/ and de like /dɨ/. Recognise the reduced form instead of expecting full vowels.

Final -s as /ʃ/

European Portuguese pronounces final or pre-consonantal -s as /ʃ/, as in dois, portugueses, as casas. Brazilian Portuguese keeps it as /s/. This affects how numbers and plurals sound.

Discourse markers for answers

Mas, porém and no entanto signal contrast; por isso and então signal consequence; primeiro, depois and finalmente signal sequence. These markers usually introduce the sentence that holds the answer.

False friends to flag

Actual means current, realizar means to carry out, escritório means office, and push/pull signs are empurre/puxe. Cognates that look English but differ in meaning cause misreading.

Formal letter conventions

A formal Portuguese letter opens with Exmo. Senhor Director or Exma. Senhora, uses Venho por este meio solicitar…, and closes with Com os melhores cumprimentos followed by the name.

Portuguese double negatives

Não… nada, não… nunca and não… ninguém are correct and emphatic in Portuguese, unlike English. Não vi ninguém means I saw nobody, not that you did see someone.

Inferring meaning from affixes

Prefix des- negates (fazer, desfazer), re- repeats, and suffixes -ção and -mento build nouns from verbs while -mente builds adverbs. Affixes let you guess unknown words from known roots.

Pretérito perfeito vs imperfeito

Use the pretérito perfeito for completed single events (ontem fui ao cinema) and the imperfeito for habits or background description (quando era criança, ia sempre).

Subjunctive triggers

Quero que, é importante que, espero que, embora, para que, antes que and talvez require the subjunctive: faça, vá, seja, tenha. These express wish, doubt, emotion or purpose.

Personal infinitive rule

After para, antes de, depois de and ao, the infinitive takes a subject pronoun when its subject differs from the main clause: para eu fazer, antes de eles chegarem.

Accents that change meaning

Há means there is while a is the article; é means is while e means and; está means is while esta means this; pôr means to put while por means by. Omitting accents changes the word.

Conditional for politeness

The conditional (falaria, poderia, gostaria) softens requests and expresses hypotheticals: Poderia dizer-me onde fica a estação? Gostaria de reservar uma mesa, por favor.

Asking for clarification

Useful speaking formulas are Pode repetir, se faz favor?, Não percebi bem, Pode falar mais devagar? and Como se diz… em português? They keep the interaction going.

Natural fillers in speech

Pois, bem, é assim, digamos and deixa-me ver fill pauses naturally. They signal you are still speaking and buy time to plan the next clause.

Opinion and agreement phrases

Give opinion with Na minha opinião…, Penso que…, Acho que…; agree with Concordo plenamente or Tens razão; disagree politely with Discordo um pouco, porque…

Nasal vowels and digraphs

Nasal vowels appear in não, pão and mãe. Digraphs: lh = /ʎ/ in filho, nh = /ɲ/ in banho, rr = /ʁ/ in carro, ch = /ʃ/ in chá.

Portuguese stress rules

Words ending in a, e, o, am or em are stressed on the penultimate syllable (casa, homem). Words ending in i, u, a diphthong or another consonant are stressed on the last (papel).

Ser versus estar

Ser expresses identity, origin, profession and enduring traits (sou português, é médico). Estar expresses state, location and temporary condition (estou cansado, está em casa).

Por versus para

Por marks cause, exchange, duration and movement through (obrigado por, por dois euros). Para marks destination, purpose and deadline (para Lisboa, para estudar, para amanhã).

Pronoun forms after verb endings

Object pronouns become lo/la/los/las after -r, -s or -z (fazer+o gives fazê-lo) and no/no-la after nasal endings (põe+o gives põe-no).

Obligatory preposition contractions

De + o gives do; em + a gives na; a + aquele gives àquele; por + os gives pelos; com + mim gives comigo. These contractions are compulsory, never optional.

Masculine -a nouns

O problema, o sistema, o mapa, o dia and o tema are masculine despite ending in -a. A mão and a flor are feminine despite their endings. Learn gender with the noun.

Irregular present-tense forms

Core irregulars: ser (sou, é, somos, são), ir (vou, vai, vamos, vão), ter (tenho, tem, temos, têm), fazer (faço), poder (posso), querer (quero).

CPLP member states

The Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa has nine members: Angola, Brasil, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Guiné Equatorial, Moçambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe and Timor-Leste.

Lusophone music genres

Fado comes from Portugal and is UNESCO intangible heritage since 2011; samba and bossa nova from Brazil; morna and coladeira from Cabo Verde; kizomba and semba from Angola; marrabenta from Mozambique.

Revolução dos Cravos date

On 25 de Abril de 1974 the Carnation Revolution ended the Estado Novo dictatorship in Portugal. It is a national holiday and a frequent reading and listening topic.

European vs Brazilian Portuguese

Differences include tu versus você, estar a falar versus estar falando, and comboio/autocarro versus trem/ônibus. Both varieties are accepted in the examination.

Acordo Ortográfico changes

In force in Portugal since 2009, the orthographic agreement removed silent consonants (acção to ação, óptimo to ótimo) and revised hyphenation rules. Older texts keep the old spellings.

Where Portuguese is official

Portuguese is official in the nine CPLP states and in Macau. It has roughly 250 million first-language speakers, making it one of the most widely spoken languages worldwide.

Portuguese literary figures

Luís de Camões wrote Os Lusíadas; Fernando Pessoa wrote Mensagem and created heteronyms; José Saramago won the Nobel Prize in 1998; Machado de Assis, Mia Couto and Pepetela are also key.

Brazilian independence date

Brazil declared independence from Portugal on 7 de Setembro de 1822, celebrated as the Dia da Independência. Portugal's national day, Dia de Portugal, falls on 10 de Junho.