Brazil: Now
Language
Exploring Portuguese
We almost always think of Spanish as the language of Latin America. In fact, almost half of the population of Latin America lives in Brazil and speaks Portuguese. This exercise will familiarize students with a few basic Portuguese sentences and will help them see how Portuguese, Spanish and English often interrelate.
Students will be able to say some basic phrases in Portuguese and will learn several ways in which English, Spanish and Portuguese relate.
Intermediate: Some advanced skills required and a certain sophistication.
None.
Reproduce and distribute the following hand-out. Discuss in class.
Answers to the blanks are:
Pronunciation Guide:
Portuguese has some of the same sounds as Spanish, but there are also some big differences. The guide below might help you with the phrases on the handout:
Alô (a-LO)
Bom dia (bon JI-a) j = "judge"
Como vai? (CO-mu vai) ai = "tie"
Obrigado (o-bri-GA-du) g = "go"
Até logo (a-TE LAW-gu) aw = "law"
Eu te amo (eu chi A-mu) ch = "cheese"
Vowels in column 2 are pronounced approximately as follows:
a = ah
e = day
i = see
o = low
u = sue
Important Portuguese phrases:
|
Alô Bom dia Como vai? Obrigado Até logo Eu te amo |
Hello! Good morning. How are you? Thank you. See you later. I love you. |
Do you know anyone who speaks Portuguese? If you do, have them help you pronounce the words. Are they difficult? Why? Do you know what an accent is? Do you have one when you say these words? |
Some words are very different in these three languages. For example:
| English | Portuguese | Spanish | ||
| pineapple | abacaxi | piña | ||
| bowl | tigela | recipiente |
Since Portuguese, Spanish and English all have at least some words that came originally from Latin, many words are similar:
| English | Portuguese | Spanish | ||
| fruit | fruta | fruta | ||
| dictionary | dicionario | diccionario |
Some words are similar because they originated in the native languages of Latin America and spread around the world:
| English | Portuguese | Spanish | ||
| potato | batata | patata | ||
| jaguar | jaguar | jaguar | ||
| chocolate | chocolate | chocolate |
When the English word is very different from both the Spanish and Portuguese words for the same thing, it is usually because the English word comes from the old Germanic language that was the beginning of English while Spanish and Portuguese come from the Latin word. This usually happens with words for everyday objects or feelings and not "fancy" words:
| English | Portuguese | Spanish | ||
| bread | pão | pan | ||
| head | cabeça | cabeza | ||
| cold | frio | frío |
Look at this list of similar words. Remember that they all started with the same word in Latin. As time passed each language slowly changed the words. Can you see any pattern, or rules for these changes?
| English | Portuguese | Spanish | ||
| nation | nação | nación | ||
| attention | atencão | atención | ||
| station | estacão | estación | ||
| spirit | espírito | espíritu | ||
| skeleton | esquileto | esqueleto | ||
| bandit | Bandido | bandido | ||
| credit | crédito | crédito | ||
| geography | Geografia | geografía | ||
| biology | biologia | biología | ||
| cabin | cabana | cabaña | ||
| mountain | montanha | montaña | ||
| charity | caridade | caridad | ||
| piety | piedade | piedad |
Can you write these English words in Portuguese?
| information | Do you know in what other countries Portuguese is spoken as an official language? | |||
| strict | ||||
| biography | ||||
| fraternity |
Do you know what these Portuguese words mean?
| celebração | |
| informação | |
| fotografia | |
| petróleo | |
| simplicidade | |
| escándalo | |
| máscara | |
| dieta | |
| diferença | |
| união |
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