Archive for month: May, 2012

By Joe Naab
May 29, 2012

I will share with you in this article the best tip I know that will literally add more than 1,000 words to your Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary by the time you finish reading.

Required Student Level
Even a beginner can benefit from this tip, especially if they refer back to it or simply keep it in mind as their skills improve over time. The most impact from this tip will come to those who know how to conjugate verbs. The most basic conjugations are learned at the basic level, with a few intermediate conjugations added later.

What’s Great about this Tip
What’s great about this tip is that there’s nothing at all to memorize. You can use this on the fly as you are thinking what you want to say in English and can instantly translate it into Portuguese. I’ve been doing this for years and rarely do I get it wrong. It’s simply awesome!

The Fundamental Thing to Know
Here it is-nearly all English words that end in tion” (eg. translation), will be the same word in Brazilian Portuguese, except that the “tion” will be replaced with “ão” (eg. translaão). The “c” with the little fishhook beneath it is called “c cedula”, and has the sound of an “s”. the “ão” in Portuguese, for those who are already speaking it, has the dreaded nasal sound, as if you are pushing the word “own” both up into the top of your nose and deep back into your throat at the same time as you say it.

This is the Tip of the Iceberg
This is already a decent tip if all you got was an immediate one-to-one translation for words ending in “tion”. I have no idea how many words in English end in “tion”, it must be in the hundreds, easily. Some examples off the top of my head, – agitation, frustration, dictation, contemplation, observation, rumination, organization, temptation, immigration, experimentation. What’s great, as I wrote above, is that you don’t have to find all these words in a premeditated manner and then memorize them all. The process will arrive in your head instantly at the moment you need it.

The Awesome Multiplication Factor of the Tip – It’s in the Verb!
Take special note that all English words that end in “tion” are actually verbs at their root. Translation is to translate, organization is to organize. Note also that not all English verbs have this form of the verb. There is no “talkation” for the verb, to talk. Thus, there is some limit to it’s application.

The technique that produces the multiplication factor is to reverse engineer this form of the word, ending in “ão”, into the dozen or more verb forms of the word. In doing this you literally add thousands of words to your Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary without any need for memorization.

NOTE: I am noticing now that almost, if not all these words, are Portuguese verbs that end in “ar”. This will make it’s application even simpler.

An Example of the Full Set using the Verb, to Experiment
We begin with the word “experimentation” and then work it through.

1. experimentation –> experimentaão
2. to experiment (infinitive) –> experimentar
3. experimenting (gerund) –> experimentando
4. experimented (past participle) –> experimentado
5. I experiment –> Eu experimento
6. You experiment –> Voc experimenta
7. He/she experiments –> Ele/Ela experimenta
8. We experiment –> Nos experimentamos
9. You guys experiment –> Vocs experimentam
10. They experiment –> Eles experimentam
11. I used to experiment –> Eu experimentava
12. You used to experiment –> Voc experimentava
13. He/she used to experiment –> Ele/Ela experimentava
14. We used to experiment –> Nos experimentvamos
15. You guys used to experiment –> Vocs experimentavam
16. They used to experiment –> Eles experimentavam
17. I experimented –> Eu experimentei
18. You experimented –> Voc experimentou
19. He/she experimented –> Ele/Ela experimentou
20. We experimented –> Nos experimentmos
21. You guys experimented –> Vocs experimentaram
22. They experimented –> Eles experimentaram
23. I will experiment –> Eu experimentarei
24. You will experiment –> Voc experimentar
25. He/she will experiment –> Ele/Ela experimentar
26. We will experiment –> Nos experimentaremos
27. You guys will experiment –> Vocs experimentarão
28. They will experiment –> Eles experimentarão

In Closing
This lists adds the three general uses of the verb (infinitive, gerund and past participle), plus verb conjugations for the four most common verb conjugations that you’ll use every day, – present, past continuous, past single occurrence and future indicative. Note that there are at least three other conjugations that are more advanced that can also be derived as above. I left them out for simplicity’s sake.

So there you have it, literally thousands of new Brazilian Portuguese words that you don’t have to memorize added to your vocabulary in the time that it took you to read this short article. Enjoy!

Joe Naab is the author of Brazil for Life!, a how-to living guide for those who want to start a new life or have a second home in Brazil. He is presently working on a near-coastal, countryside real estate subdivision project outside the city of Florianópolis, Santa Catarina. He can be found at http://brazilforlife.com and reached by email at info@brazilforlife.com. His Youtube channel is called BrazilforLifeTV.

Previous articles by Joe:

How to Work and Support Yourself in Brazil

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By Steven Nelson
May 7, 2012

One of the most rewarding activities that you can do in Brazil is to swim with dolphins. Getting so close to such wonderful, friendly aquatic life is a special moment for those who take part, and usually one of the most memorable moments of even the longest visit to Brazil.

There are two main possibilities and very different in every way they are too. The first and perhaps the best known is in the Amazon area around Manaus. The Amazon River System is full of freshwater dolphins (full of many things really, including manatees, peacock bass, pacu and dourado as well) which can be seen surfacing at regular points from any Amazon batelao, igarit or gaiola traversing the waterways from Belem to Tabatinga, Boa Vista or Porto Velho.

Being sociable creatures, the dolphins (known locally as the boto, which is a sub-species of dolphin rather than the genus golfinho) tend to travel in family groups with a couple of youngsters swimming with the parents. The females can grow up to 8ft/2.5m long although usually they come in around the same average length as a human, although slightly heavier. These botos do look strikingly different to the dolphins beloved of marine park crowds, with their narrow beaks and bulbous foreheads. The beaks have evolved to find food amongst the narrow gaps between roots and vegetation of the Amazon riverbanks and the igarapé creeks of the flooded forests. One interesting fact about them that can be noticed while they feed is that their vertebrae do not fuse, allowing them to rotate their flexible necks through 180 degrees. They are also very different in colour to other dolphins at times – some of the Amazon River Dolphins are pink. Some are a more usual grey colour, others still a mixture of grey and pink.

In a couple of areas close to Manaus, the Amazon River Dolphins have become accustomed to human contact, and seem to enjoy spending time with their two-legged friends. Of course, this is in no small way down to the fact that they receive fish for their time and trouble, but they have also been known to stay around and play for hours with visitors, even when the fish have long been fed to them. As long as the occasion is supervised by a local wildlife expert, the pure joy of a close encounter with the largest freshwater cetacean in the beautiful surroundings of the Amazon Rainforest could stay with you for a long time.

Of course, not everyone agrees with the visitors and seemingly the friendly dolphins themselves (‘friendly’ as long as you are not fish or crustacean of course) that these kind of visits are beneficial for both sides. This type of semi-captive feeding colony may well bring the dolphins too close to humankind and too accustomed to contact, when not all humans would be so delighted to meet them. The Amazon River Dolphin is listed as an endangered species, with polluted waterways, diminished habitat, fishing and general river traffic in the Amazon area all affecting their population. Amazon folklore tells of the dolphins as mythical creatures, the killing of which brings bad luck. They are also thought to turn into attractive men at night, and impregnate local girls before returning to the river!

Perhaps swimming with Amazon River Dolphins will encourage more care to be taken with them and more conservation projects throughout the whole Amazon River system. While visitors to the Amazon can swim with the local dolphins, the local people have more chance to find work helping this to happen and (similar to the Projeto TAMAR sea-turtle work along the Brazilian coast) this will lead to an increased conscientiousness with regards to this unique creature and its environment. If this were possible, then a swim with an Amazon River Dolphin could be as rewarding for the dolphin population as it is for their humans friends.

Activity Information: Swimming with Amazon River Dolphins is best done as part of a visit to an Amazon Lodge along the shores of the river. The easiest ones to visit are within an hour or three boat or boat and road journey from Manaus. Reputable lodges always include local expert guides with their trips to see the dolphins.

You can visit Steve’s blog at Great Things To Do In Brazil: Favela Tour
Around Brazil: Tandem Hang-Gliding in Rio de Janeiro
Around Brazil: The Rio de Janeiro Marathon
Around Brazil: The Rio de Janeiro Marathon
Around Brazil: Lapa, Rio de Janeiro