Comments on: Problems with Portuguese

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:51:31 +0000

I also have trouble with the “lh” My brazilian friend told me to pretend there is a little “i” in between the “l” and the “h”

By: Andrew Seidenfeld

Andrew Seidenfeld — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:01:18 +0000

I’ve been speaking a very simple Portuguese for years and what always makes me stop in my tracks is the definate article – the – o(s) & a(s). There are easy rules to learn about using (and not using) the definite article in front of the names of cities and countries. But when do you use it in front of people’s names (Pedro vs. O Pedro). Also I wish I understood a clearcut rule about when to use and when not to use the definite article in conjunction with ‘que,’ as in “O que é isto?” Also there are times when a native speaker will omit the definite article. However, as someone who doesn’t speak the language easily, whenever *I* choose to leave out the definite article, my sentence comes out wrong. When speaking, when is it okay and when is it not okay to omit the grammatically correct definite article.

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:07:16 +0000

I think that the most difficult thing is to conjugate irregular verbs and which verbs go with vocês and tu (probably because I don’t practice it much). But from what I’ve learned tu isn’t really used and when it is it’s not used correctly anyway so I dont worry too much about it.

By: Larry Bunting

Larry Bunting — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:32:13 +0000

Getting the nasal A correctly pronounced has been a challenge-I live in Paranagua
and the way the language is pronounced in Parana State is somewhat different
from what I got from Rosetta Stone and Sonia Portuguese. Reading is not a
problem, but getting my wife and family to understand my gringo portuguese is
a challenge. Part of the problem is knowing Spanish and crosscoding the two
languages. I have been accused of speaking German when I tought I was
speaking Portuuese!

By: Leanna

Leanna — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:45:12 +0000

Conjugating irregular verbs is really a challenge for me. I’ll think I have something figured out, but I forget it if I don’t use it enough.