This week, we’re going to talk about extreme sports.

Check out the podcast here [extremesportsfull], and the BYKI list here.

Eu adoro fazer esportes radicais.
Já voei de asa-delta no Rio de Janeiro.
Também fiz parapente, e gostei muito.
Sei surfar, mas não sou muito bom.
Gosto de fazer trekking.
Eu costumo escalar e já subi o Pão de Acucar.
Um dia, gostaria de fazer paraquedismo!

Here, the speaker says: “I love doing extreme sports.” Esporte radical is an extreme sport. But when we have a noun that ends in “al,” it changes to “ais” in the plural, so more than one extreme sport is esportes radiciais.  And don’t forget that adorar means to enjoy or love something.

This means, “I’ve gone hang gliding in Rio de Janeiro.”  Voar de asa-delta means to go hang gliding, since asa-delta is the actual contraption you use, while voar means to fly. When we use já (already) with the past simple tense, we can translate it in English to the present perfect tense: have done something, since it’s something that happened in the past.

“I’ve also gone paragliding, and I liked it a lot.” Parapente is a hang glider, and here we use it with a simple fazer (to do). Put together, this means to go hang gliding. Gostar, as we know, means to like, and in the past simple tense we conjugate it with an ei at the end (gostei). Here, we translate muito as “a lot.”

This means, “I know how to surf, but I’m not very good at it.” Surfar is to surf, and the verb we use to refer to knowing how to do something is saber.  Não muito bom means not very good.

Here, the speaker says, “I like trekking,” or “I like to go trekking.” Trekking is like hiking, but a lot more intense, often for several days in rough terrain. Don’t forget that when we use gostar (to like) with a verb, we must use de as the preposition before the verb (gostar de fazer).

“I frequently go rock climbing, and I’ve climbed the Sugarloaf.” Costumar means to do something frequently or to be used to doing something. Here, we translate it as “frequently,” though it can be different depending on the context. Again, we translate já and the simple past (subi) into the present perfect: I have climbed. Sugarloaf is a famous mountain in Rio de Janeiro and one of the city’s best rock climbing areas.

This means, “One day, I’d like to go skydiving!” Fazer paraquedismo means to go skydiving, while paraquedismo is the actual sport. When referring to a desire (I’d like), we use the conditional tense of gostar, which is gostaria. Again, since we are using gostar with a verb, we must add de as the preposition.