Basic Portuguese

A Grammar and Workbook

Cristina Sousa

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781317596271
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Basic Portuguese: A Grammar and Workbook comprises an accessible reference grammar and related exercises in a single volume.

Twenty units cover the core material which students can expect to encounter in their first year of learning Portuguese. Grammar points are followed by examples and exercises which allow students to reinforce and consolidate their learning.

Clearly presented and user-friendly, Basic Portuguese provides readers with a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of Portuguese grammar.

UNIT 1

Nouns

Gender of nouns

In Portuguese, all nouns have a gender, either masculine or feminine. When you learn a new noun, you should memorise its gender at the same time:

masculine nouns:	o carro	the car
	o mar	the sea
feminine singular:	a casa	the house
	a hora	the hour

General rules can provide some guidance and so they have been summarised below. The most common exceptions are also provided. You will need to learn these, so it’s a good idea to note the examples as you go along.

Several nouns can be learnt as pairs – masculine and feminine – as they are used to denote male and female beings:

o homem	a mulher	man	woman
o rapaz	a rapariga	boy	girl
o cidadão	a cidadã	(male) citizen	(female) citizen
o cão	a cadela	dog	bitch
o gato	a gata	(male) cat	(female) cat
o galo	a galinha	cockerel	chicken
o pai	a mãe	father	mother
o filho	a filha	son	daughter
o irmão	a irmã	brother	sister
o tio	a tia	uncle	aunt
o sobrinho	a sobrinha	nephew	niece
o primo	a prima	(male) cousin	(female) cousin
o avô	a avó	grandfather	grandmother
o neto	a neta	grandson	granddaughter
o marido	a esposa	husband	wife
o sogro	a sogra	father-in-law	mother-in-law
o genro	a nora	son-in-law	daughter-in-law
o cunhado	a cunhada	brother-in-law	sister-in-law

Many other nouns with a masculine and a feminine form change to the feminine by adding -a, for example:

o professor	a professora	teacher
o cantor	a cantora	singer
o português	a portuguesa	the Portuguese

Some nouns can be masculine or fem...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Pronunciation
• Stress
• 1 Nouns
• 2 Articles
• 3 Numbers, times and dates
• 4 Subject pronouns and present tense of regular verbs
• 5 Present tense of irregular verbs
• 6 Interrogatives
• 7 Negatives
• 8 Ser and estar
• 9 Demonstratives
• 10 Adjectives and adverbs
• 11 Comparatives and superlatives
• 12 Direct object and direct object pronouns
• 13 Indirect object pronouns and their contraction with direct object pronouns
• 14 Reflexive pronouns and verbs
• 15 Possessive pronouns and adjectives
• 16 The present perfect tense
• 17 The preterite tense
• 18 The imperfect tense
• 19 The preterite tense vs. the imperfect tense
• 20 The past perfect and the pluperfect tenses
• Key to exercises
• Bibliography
• Glossary of grammatical terms
• Index