My favorite words in Portuguese are all those which I call “arcaicisms”, old-words that have been left to the dust in Italian but are perfectly functional in modern Portuguese. Above all my favorite is “comboio”: in ancient Italian it would be “convoglio” and means train. It makes me think of old -time travels. The Fitzgeralds on the French Riviera kind of time.
Portuguese is the hardest of all Latin languages, because of its “matizes”, nuances. I’d say that if you can speak a reasonably good (C1 level) Spanish in a couple of years, reaching a C2 of Portuguese will almost be unattainable in a lifetime, so complex and complicated this language is.
Of course youngsters do not speak a very good Portuguese, but I have learned the language mainly by reading Eça de Queiroz (he never uses a synonym in the hefty books he writes) and his Portuguese is rather delicious for the ears and the heart.
Apparently, we've only begun to scratch the surface of the complexities, nuances, and complications of the language. Fortunately, we have the rest of our lives to keep learning.
I also enjoy reading the ads I see on the Metro. One McDonald’s ad for a new egg sandwich had the tagline, “Nunca Ovo Um Recital Assim” which translates literally as “Never Egg a Recital Like This.” But it’s a play on the verb ouvir, so it means “You Have Never Heard a Recital Like This” (“Nunca Ouviu Um Recital Assim.”) Clever. But it had me scratching my head.
My favorite word, at the moment, is "malabarismo," meaning "juggling." Both literally, and figuratively (as in to "juggle a schedule.") I had read about and heard about "Indian jugglers," as in an essay by William Hazlitt. Apparently the art of juggling as we know it was developed by people in India on the Malabar Coast during the period of British rule... but for some reason the association made it into Portuguese and Spanish, but not English.
Learning languages is fun, but more difficult as you get older. I was a Spanish major at university and spent a year studying abroad in Madrid my junior year. After a year I was at about a B2/C1 level. My senior year I needed another class to fill my schedule and decided to take Portuguese. My knowledge of Spanish certainly helped me pick up Portuguese pretty easily (although we were taught Brasilian Portuguese at the University of California). Grammatically they are very similar although Spanish uses the reflexive verb a lot more than Portuguese and Portuguese has a future subjunctive verb form while Spanish does not. I still understand Spanish a lot better than Portuguese (when in Spain I understand about 80-90% of what is said on the radio, while in PT I only understand about 70%) however, after 4 years here when I try to speak Spanish a lot comes out Portuguese, the exact opposite of when we moved here in 2020. We lived in China from 2015-2018 and the first year I tried really hard to learn Chinese, but after about 6 months I gave up. Too much of a tonal language. I would say things on the street only to receive blank stares. Still I managed to get about a 200-300 word vocabulary (including the numbers)
When I was young I was good at languages and learned them quickly. My aging brain is having a tough time with this one. It's good you are learning it now. I especially don't get the beer commercial. Nao comprender, or words to that effect.
The other thing with desculpe/a is that you don't really use it as much as you would in English (I'm British so overuse "sorry" anyway) - I've had several minor situations where I've said it and people have replied saying some version of "forgive you for what?".
I should say this is always slightly gruff older Portuguese, I think younger people use it a lot more like we do, possibly an influence from being bilingual
I've come to realize that for me it's the slow and steady route. I try every day to do flash card+ work on the amazing site, Linguno. And I have a new tutor who is so incredibly supportive. Hang in there - you'll get it!
My favorite words in Portuguese are all those which I call “arcaicisms”, old-words that have been left to the dust in Italian but are perfectly functional in modern Portuguese. Above all my favorite is “comboio”: in ancient Italian it would be “convoglio” and means train. It makes me think of old -time travels. The Fitzgeralds on the French Riviera kind of time.
Portuguese is the hardest of all Latin languages, because of its “matizes”, nuances. I’d say that if you can speak a reasonably good (C1 level) Spanish in a couple of years, reaching a C2 of Portuguese will almost be unattainable in a lifetime, so complex and complicated this language is.
Of course youngsters do not speak a very good Portuguese, but I have learned the language mainly by reading Eça de Queiroz (he never uses a synonym in the hefty books he writes) and his Portuguese is rather delicious for the ears and the heart.
Apparently, we've only begun to scratch the surface of the complexities, nuances, and complications of the language. Fortunately, we have the rest of our lives to keep learning.
It will be a marvelous linguistics journey!
I also enjoy reading the ads I see on the Metro. One McDonald’s ad for a new egg sandwich had the tagline, “Nunca Ovo Um Recital Assim” which translates literally as “Never Egg a Recital Like This.” But it’s a play on the verb ouvir, so it means “You Have Never Heard a Recital Like This” (“Nunca Ouviu Um Recital Assim.”) Clever. But it had me scratching my head.
Exactly! Excellent example.
Love this!
My favorite word, at the moment, is "malabarismo," meaning "juggling." Both literally, and figuratively (as in to "juggle a schedule.") I had read about and heard about "Indian jugglers," as in an essay by William Hazlitt. Apparently the art of juggling as we know it was developed by people in India on the Malabar Coast during the period of British rule... but for some reason the association made it into Portuguese and Spanish, but not English.
Interesting.
Learning languages is fun, but more difficult as you get older. I was a Spanish major at university and spent a year studying abroad in Madrid my junior year. After a year I was at about a B2/C1 level. My senior year I needed another class to fill my schedule and decided to take Portuguese. My knowledge of Spanish certainly helped me pick up Portuguese pretty easily (although we were taught Brasilian Portuguese at the University of California). Grammatically they are very similar although Spanish uses the reflexive verb a lot more than Portuguese and Portuguese has a future subjunctive verb form while Spanish does not. I still understand Spanish a lot better than Portuguese (when in Spain I understand about 80-90% of what is said on the radio, while in PT I only understand about 70%) however, after 4 years here when I try to speak Spanish a lot comes out Portuguese, the exact opposite of when we moved here in 2020. We lived in China from 2015-2018 and the first year I tried really hard to learn Chinese, but after about 6 months I gave up. Too much of a tonal language. I would say things on the street only to receive blank stares. Still I managed to get about a 200-300 word vocabulary (including the numbers)
It seems to me that in general in Spanish you pronounce everything, whereas in Portuguese....
Boa! Fun! Good stuff. Musings I often have. Glad to have run across your blog.
So glad to have you!
Hmm. A beer that says more than we know. Is that a hops-based idea equivalent to "In vino veritas"?
I suspect it is, yes. But I'm not really sure. Fortunately for Super Bock, I am not their target audience.
Very interesting distinctions that we are just beginning to entender,... Or compreender? Thanks for sharing!
When I was young I was good at languages and learned them quickly. My aging brain is having a tough time with this one. It's good you are learning it now. I especially don't get the beer commercial. Nao comprender, or words to that effect.
The other thing with desculpe/a is that you don't really use it as much as you would in English (I'm British so overuse "sorry" anyway) - I've had several minor situations where I've said it and people have replied saying some version of "forgive you for what?".
I should say this is always slightly gruff older Portuguese, I think younger people use it a lot more like we do, possibly an influence from being bilingual
Interesting. Thank you!
This was great! Thank you
Glad you liked it! Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you and family :)
Love it! A small blender is called "varinha mágica" in Portugal, which means "magic wand". Unfortunately in Brazil we say "mixer" :-)
I do love a good magic wand. Boas festas!
I love this post! I am enjoying learning Portuguese, but often feel panicked I am not learning fast enough.
I've come to realize that for me it's the slow and steady route. I try every day to do flash card+ work on the amazing site, Linguno. And I have a new tutor who is so incredibly supportive. Hang in there - you'll get it!
Boa!
Wowza!