Portuguese

usage of DE:

• do not use a definite article with de if followed by:
  • city
    • except when the city has the same meaning as a 'regular'noun, eg Rio, Recife, Bahia.
  • state
    • except Portugal, Moçambique e Agola, & Cuba.
  • person
  • name of a class
  • the name of what something is made of (composition)
• use the article in all other cases.

• change M to NS
  • jovem - jovens
  • paisagem - paisagens
  • bobagem - bobagens
  • fim - fins
• word ends in L (not IL), changes to IS
  • real - reais
  • natural - naturais
  • insolúvel - insolúveis
  • azul - azuis
  • estadual - estaduais
• when endings stressed, only É and Ó retain the accent
  • hotel - hotéis
  • pastel - pastéis (crayon)
  • infiel - infiéis
  • espanhol - espanhóis
• words ending in IL change to IS if last sylable stressed, EIS if not
  • barril - barris
  • funil - funis
  • difícil - difíceis
  • fácil - fáceis
  • fóssil - fósseis
  • fútil - fúteis
• words ending in the dipthong ÃO change to ÕES
  • a associação - associações
  • lição - lições
  • caminhão - caminhões
  • avião - aviões

use subject pronouns position-relational prepositions except for eu, which is replaced by mim (like I -> me in English)

  perto de mim
  longe de você
  ao lado dele
  sobre nós

the preposition com changes with pronouns:

  com mim - comigo (with me)
  com nós conosco (with us)
  com você - contigo (with you)

direct object = thing getting 'verbed'. things:

people:

• n.b.: far can be either in time or in space and is always relative.
• you have to form contractions with prepositions de, em, a, para.
  • em (in, on, at)
    • morar
    • pensar
    • acreditar (to believe)
    • estudar
    • pôr
  • de (of, about, from)
    • lembrar (to remember)
    • esquecer (to forget)
    • gostar
    • precisar
    • ser
  • a / para
    • ir
    • dar

adverbs are made by adding -MENTE to the feminine signular form of an adjective.

• If there is no feminine signular form, the suffix is applied to the base word
• If there is an accent in the adjective, it is lost.

  claro - claramente
  geral - geralmente
  inteligente - intelegentemente
  perfeito - perfeitamente (perfectly)
  simples - simplesmente
  freqüência - freqüentemente
  honestidade - honestamente
  immediato - immediatamente

perhaps the most important thing on the test are verbs. We have learned 6 tenses/conjugations for the verbs in the first nine chapters of Brasil: Lingua e cultura:

• simple present
• preterite (simple past)
• preterite imperfeito (action existed before the phrase)
• personal infinitive
• future (going to construction)
• future subjunctive (what might happen in the future.

usually needs to be preceded with a pronoun indicating the noun for the verb.

  É possível você entrar ás oito.  
  É importantes nós falarmos ao diretor.
  É difícil vocês dormirem com todo este barulho. 
    (it is difficult for you to sleep with all this noise)

used with these prepositions to avoid the subjuntive. (wikipedia: is a grammatical mood of the verb that is subjective, from the person's viewpoint, that expresses wishes, commands (in subordinate clauses), emotion, possibility, judgment, necessity and statements that are contrary to fact.).

  Eles pediram para tocarmos na orquestra.  
    They asked us to play in the orchestra). 
  Ao acabar você o romance, pode me emprestar? 
    After you finish the novel, can you lend it to me? 
  Até o meu filho decidir, eu vou esprar. 
   Until my brother decides, I am going to wait. 
  Esta carne é para você comer no jantar (eu vou comer peixe). 
   That meat is for you to eat (I will eat fish). 

when using ao (when), the subject pronoun goes after the personal infinitive.

• spelling changes that affect the er form of the preterite:
  • jogar - eu joguei
  • chegar - eu cheguie
  • ficar - eu fiquei
  • explicar - eu expliquei
  • dançar - eu dancei
  • começar - eu comecei
  • checar - eu chequei (I checked)

used to express an action that started before the beginning of the sentence/idea. In english, this is expressed with 'was'.

some words have only the preterite imperfeito and not the perfeito, because the perfeito meaning (a state of being) is illogical:

• ser. Você era o meu melhor amigo quando estávamos n Rio.
• estar. Você estava no brasil quando era estudante? (were you in brazil when you were a student?)
• ter. Ela foi à cidade quando tinha dezoitos anos.
• poder.
• dever
• precisar
• querer
• conhecer
• saber. Eu sabia os nomes de todos os países da América. (I knew all the countries of america)
• acabar de. Acavávamos de sair quando ouvimos o telefone. (we had just left when we heard the telephone)

basic idea: A-> E and E -> A from the 1st person present simple conjugation.

(*) there is only the 2nd person singular and plural because the other direct objects of the commands don't make much sense (unless you are schizophrenic).

there are some irregular verbs:

also, many verbs have regular spelling changes to reflect pronunciation ( generally: E -> I & O -> U for the second-to-last vowel.):

• explicar -> explico -> expliQUE
• chegar -> chego -> chegUE
• dancar -> danço -> danCe (same as english!)
• convencer -> convenço -> convença

and don't forget that many verbs have regular spelling changes in the 1st person present (p 101 no livro):

• dormir -> durmo -> durme
• servir -> sirvo -> sirva
• mentir -> minto -> minta
• seguir -> sigo -> siga
• subir -> subo -> suba (well, this is an irregular verb)

Same formation as the imperative (above). Used with desire/opinion statements with que. íf there is no que, use the personal infinitive, which is simpler :)

• querer que
• desejar que
• precisar que
• exigir que (demand/require that)

examples:

• É melhor que vocês estudem para o exame hoje.
• É melhor que vocês estudem para o exame amanhã. -> even though the sentence is in the future, the future subjunctive is not used with impersonal expressions, hence the present subjunctive is used.
• Vai ser melhor que vocês estudem para o exame amanhã. -> again, use the present subjunctive with impersonal expressions.

"if you want" or "if I may"

• construction: take off the -am from any of the preterite perfeito vocês form to the basic future subjunctive.
  • querer -> quiseram -> quiser ->

• for all verbs, regular or irregular, there is only one set of endings: -MOS and -EM.
• doesn't seem to be different from the personal infinitive, except with irregular verbs.
• With the words below, you would not use the future subjunctive in English, but you must use it in Portuguese.
• used with (in no particular order):
  • se : Eu vou comprar o CD se tiver dinheiro.
  • enquanto
  • quando : Faça o exercício quando quiser.
  • logo que - as soon as (not as long as!)
  • assim que - as soon as : Eles estudam assim que touxerEm o material. note the E!
  • sempre que - always
  • depois que - after ?
  • conforme
  • quanto mais - the more
  • quanto menos - the less
  • apesar do que - is spite of
  • conforme - depending