Você fala Português?

Learning a foreign language from scratch is a feeling I had long forgotten. Most of the languages that I speak (or 'chew', as the Italians would say in a less committal tone!) I learnt as   a teenager. The thought of learning a new language at the age of 26 did not seem very realistic until I had a reason and a real need to do so. Needless to say, it is much more pleasant to be learning a new language when you know it is going to have an immediate and practical application, then when you are trying to make sure that your average is not spoilt by that French grammar test that you had forgotten about!

So far learning Portuguese has been a real joy. Not only because it has given me something to focus on - yes, beach life can be hard sometimes!- but also because it has filled my days with plenty of opportunities of interacting with the locals, which is a precious experience when travelling.

Brazilian Portuguese is spoken by almost 190 million people worldwide and although on paper the differences with its European counterpart are only limited to specific vocabulary and a few grammatical rules, in practice the differences are large, spanning grammar, syntax and pronounciation.

Despite not knowing much about European Portuguese, I am under the impression that,for someone who speaks Italian, Brazilan Portuguese may be slightly easier to understand and to get to grips with. The variety of guttural sounds that (to my untrained ear!) sometimes make European Portuguese sound like Arabic, are not there and the musicality of the language makes Brazilian Portuguese much more similar to Italian. To the point that it has actually made me more aware of that musicality in the Italian language that is so endearing to all my British friends and that I have always taken for granted.

But this is not to say that learning portuguese is as easy as drinking a glass of water, as the italian saying goes.While knowing a latin based language is useful in 90% of the cases, there are a few hurdles that are worth bearing in mind. Most of these for me are still work in progress - and will probably remain so until the end of my trip.

Portuguese is more precise than Italian when it comes to expressing a state. If the state is permanent -such as for example when you are talking about where you come from, what you do for a living, what you are like as a person- it uses the verb 'Ser' (to be), but if you are talking about a temporary situation - such as for example where someone is in this precise moment, what mood they are in, where the car is parked etc- it's all about the verb 'Estar' (to stay).

Despite some exceptions like the Roman dialect, Italian is a lot less precise and tends to use the verb to be (Essere) in all cases. And while increasing my awareness of the temporary nature of many things in this world (!) this does mean that I need to think twice when I am talking about things that would otherwise feel very natural.

My solution here so far? Think and speak like a Roman.

Perhaps as essential as being able to talk about how things are is to be able to talk about things that you or other people have. In Italian, the verb 'to have' (avere) is everywhere. Not only is it used to express an idea of ownership but it is also used as a building block to construct many verb tenses. Without it the Italian language - particularly the spoken language- would have serious difficulties working.

 'Haver' does exist in Portuguese but it's an impersonal verb that means 'there is/are. 'Ter' on the other hand is what you would be using to talk about the idea of owning/having something. In Italian the verb 'Tenere' literally means 'to keep' and has very little to do with 'to have'... except if you are Sicilian, in which case you are allowed the poetic licence! So here is my next solution- think and talk like a Sicilian.

One of my favourite -yet hardest things to learn- about Brazilian Portuguese is the way in which people agree to a question. Contrary to Italian, where the words 'Si' (yes) and 'No' (no) are all you need to reply, in Portuguese it's rare that 'sim' and 'não' are uses in isolation. Instead people will repeating the main verb of the question in response to a 'yes' or 'no' question. So 'você foi para a praia?' (did you go to the beach?) becomes 'Fui' (I went). Which for Italians who are used to the driest, most monosyllabic answers that could ever exist is very endearing. In Portuguese, when someone answers 'yes' to a question is almost like they had always agreed with you and there would have been no need to ask the question in the first place. And the intonation of the answer adds to this impression by stretching each syllable as much as possible.

As heart warming as this may feel, it also means that one can't get away without knowing verb endings(!)...and this is,of course, where most of the work in progress is!

Pronunciation of most words for someone who speaks a latin based language is ok...until you get to the nasal sounds! The most popular example is the difference between 'pão' (bread), where 'ao' is pronounced with a 'u' sound at the end trough the nose, and 'pau' (stick) where the vowels in 'au' are pronounced as open.

Italian does have a lot of vowel sounds, but all of them tend to be open and pronounced exactly as they are written so it's very easy to forget about this subtlety in portuguese - and when you do everyone knows you are italian, that's guaranteed!

I don't think there is a real solution to this except being patient, keeping your ears open...and perhaps walking up and down the beach speaking out loud the tricky words - yes I have been on many deserted stretches of beach recently!

Like in all languages, spoken and written Portuguese can be quite different. The informal language is as colourful,vivid and expressive, just like the rest of Brazil itself.

Many word endings or beginnings in spoken Portuguese are contracted. The verb 'estar' for example that is so widely used, looses the 'es' at the beginning. Expressions like 'esta bom' (the equivalent of 'ok') becomes 'ta bom' or even 'ta?' when used in a question. The word 'você' becomes ' 'oce' and is almost lost in the midst of all the other words in the sentence, question, remark or exclamation.

As a language, Portuguese is also rich if colourful expressions. There are many ways to ask how someone is and even more to express how well you are...so there are endless possibilities to say that life is great. 'Tudo bom','Tudo bem','Tudo ótimo','Tudo legal','Beleza'...and the list  goes on. 

Or simply 'tudo' -all (good)- in response to the question 'Tudo bem?' if it's 8 o'clock in the morning and you have just rolled out of bed and are desperately trying to reach for that coffee flask on the breakfast terrace before engaging in any meaningful conversation with any native speaker because stringing a sentence together would be far too demanding at that time of the day.

So far I can definitely say that getting to grips with Portuguese has kept me busy and kept mu mind engaged in many ways that I had long forgotten about. As the brazilians would say, it has reminded me of how much learning languages is 'a minha praia' -literally 'my beach' or as the Brits would say 'my cup of tea'!

I have included a section on Portuguese words on the right hand side corner of the blog which I am going to update daily. Stay tuned for the Portuguese word of the day!