Mastering Brazilian Portuguese: A Guide to Speaking Like a Native

Guest blog post by Jhenifer L.

Brazil is an enormous country, which makes it impossible to talk about one Brazilian accent. Brazilians usually distinguish different accents by state, but they vary significantly from city to city. Generally speaking, one thing we can say about the Portuguese spoken in Brazil is that the vowels are more open than those of other Portuguese-speaking countries. But hey, instead of getting hung up on the accent, what if we check out some other things we can change in our speech to sound more like a native?

USING "VOCÊ" INSTEAD OF "TU"

"Tu" is the equivalent of "you" in many Romance languages, such as in Spanish ("tú") and in French ("tu"). Although Brazilian middle schoolers still have to learn how to conjugate verbs with it, the personal pronoun is no longer used in most parts of the country. Instead, we often just use "você". But be careful: "você" is conjugated as a third-person singular,  the same way "ele" (he) and "ela" (she) are conjugated. This way, you can say "Você estuda português" instead of  "Tu estudas português" ("You study Portuguese"). Honestly, good for us, because that means there is one less conjugation to worry about!

USING "A GENTE" INSTEAD OF "NÓS"

Talking about fewer conjugations to learn, we often use "a gente" instead of the traditional "nós" to say "we." The coolest part is that it's also conjugated as a third-person singular, so you can say "A gente estuda português" instead of the longer "Nós estudamos português" to  mean, "We study Portuguese." In fact, in more informal settings, it even feels a bit off to talk with the personal pronoun "nós."

USING "COLOCAR" INSTEAD OF "PÔR"

If you've studied Spanish before, you might be tempted to use "pôr" when you're looking for an equivalent of the verb "to put" as it looks like the verb "poner." However, it's a very irregular verb in many tenses, and not often used in Brazilian Portuguese. To avoid conjugation errors, or  sounding too formal, we use the regular verb "colocar." Therefore, you'll hear "Eu coloquei o livro na mesa" more frequently than "Eu pus o livro na mesa" ("I put the book on the table").

NOT PRONOUNCING FINAL S's AND R's

If you're ever feeling lazy when speaking with friends and family in Portuguese, don't be afraid to skip pronouncing some of the s's and r's at the end of verbs and nouns. Although they are usually important to show us the time tense and the number of things, it's common to leave them behind when speaking fast. So instead of "Vamos comer nuggets depois de correr?" ("Shall we eat nuggets after running?") you can say "Vamo comê nugget depois de corrê?"

ADDING AN "EE" SOUND AT THE END OF ENGLISH WORDS

If you want to sound like a Brazilian, it is essential to add an "ee" sound at the end of words that come from English. The reason behind this cute mannerism is that it's not possible in Portuguese to end a syllable with certain consonant sounds, such as /t/, /k/, /p/, /d/ or /g/. So don't be afraid to say nugget[ee], internet[ee], ket[ee]chup[ee], Titanic[ee], ping[ee]-pong[ee].

ANSWERING WITH THE VERB ITSELF

It is very common for us to answer questions by only repeating the verb. In this case, there's no need to use a "sim" ("yes") at the beginning of the sentence. If someone asks you "Você gosta de coxinha?" (Do you like coxinha?), you'll only need to say "Gosto" ("I like") to answer that you do. Isn't it so practical? Just don't forget to change the conjugation according to whoever is doing the action!

Did you know any of these speech patterns? If you've noticed any more, feel free to share with us!

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