Portuguese Grammar Reference - Amazon Web Services

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Contents
The following Help Topics are available:
History of the Portuguese Language
Pronunciation
Parts of Speech
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Pronouns
Prepositions
Articles
Conjunctions
Interjections
Word Formation
Phrases
Sentences
Spelling
Time and Numbers
Glossary
Appendix of Irregular Verbs
Appendix of Commonly Confused Words
Grammar Pages
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Contents | Previous Topic | Next Topic | Glossary
History of the Portuguese Language
Portuguese, along with Spanish, French, Italian and Romanian, is classified as a Romance language, which means that
it is a modern version of the colloquial Latin spoken by the Romans who occupied the Iberian peninsula for more than
half a millennium (213 BC - 476 AD). The vocabulary of that dialect was then enriched by more than five centuries of
Moorish occupation (711 - 1249) of that part of the peninsula which is called Portugal.
Pre-Roman Languages
The picture is somewhat more complicated, of course. Among the earliest settlers were Phoenicians, Carthaginians,
Iberians and Celts. The mixture of these four groups created a strong people, the Lusitanos, who later opposed the
Roman occupation of the lands extending from the northwestern corner of the peninsula to the Tagus river, a land
called Lusitânia.
The Iberians came to Lusitânia as farmers and miners, attracted by its land and mineral wealth. They probably
originated in North Africa, although this is not known for certain, and their culture and language remain something of
a mystery. Inscriptions written in the Iberian language survive but are not yet understood. Place names and vocabulary
words of probable Iberian origin include:
The Ebro River (Iberian 'Iberus')
Hispanha, Espanha (Iberian 'Hispalis')
bruxa (witch)
cachorro (puppy)
manteiga (butter)
veiga (river plain)
Celtic tribes arrived in the region between 600 and 400 BC. They mingled with the Iberians to such an extent that the
Romans referred to the entire populace as "Celtiberian." Portuguese words borrowed from the Celtic dialects include:
cavalo (horse)
cama (bed)
cambio (exchange)
caminho (road)
camisa (shirt)
carpinteiro (carpenter)
carro (cart)
The mineral wealth of the Iberian peninsula attracted Mediterranean traders in ancient times. Phoenicians (in the 11th
century), and then Carthaginians and even Greeks (around 500 BC), established trading posts on the Lusitanian shore.
This, rather than any specific vocabulary words or grammatical constructions, was probably the most important factor
in the development of the Portuguese language.
The Roman Province of Lusitânia
The Romans entered the Iberian peninsula after defeating the Carthaginians in 201 BC. Over the course of the next two
hundred years they extended their control over the entire peninsula. The Latin spoken in Lusitânia (now a new distant
province of the Roman empire), rather than the Latin spoken in Rome, became the basis of modern Portuguese. It was
a greatly simplified version of the language that avoided passive verb forms, ignored several tenses, and bypassed the
declensional system of cases by settling on a single form. The accusative (direct object) forms of Latin words became
the normal forms of Portuguese words. (The final -m was silent.)
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LATIN PORTUGUESE
terram (s.) terra (land)
terrâs (pl.) terras (lands)
tôtum todo (all)
frîgidum frio (cold)
portam porta (entrance)
ratiônem razão (reason)
rîvum rio (stream)
The initial f- of some Latin words remains the same in Portuguese.
LATIN PORTUGUESE
fâbulârî falar (to talk)
facere fazer (to do)
farînam farinha (flour)
ferrum ferro (iron)
fîlium filho (son)
fôrmôsum formoso (good-looking)
fûmum fumo (smoke)
Initial cl- and pl- in Latin become ch- in Portuguese.
LATIN PORTUGUESE
clâmâre chamar (to call)
plânum chão (floor)
Visigothic Lusitânia
The Roman occupation of Lusitânia ended in 409 A.D. with the invasion of migrating Germanic tribes, the Suevi and
the Vandals. The Romans dealt with this invasion by sending in a Germanic tribe with whom they had an alliance: the
Visigoths.
The Visigoths spoke Latin but left a legacy of Germanic personal names such as Elvira, Guzmão and Rodrigo.
Portuguese words of Visigothic origin include:
branco (white)
guerra (war)
orgulho (pride)
rico (rich)
roupa (clothing)
sala (room)
Muslim Portugal
After 300 years of Visigothic rule, Muslim Berbers (known as Moors) began their conquest of the Iberian peninsula.
The Muslim occupation began in 711 A.D. and lasted until 1249 A.D. in Portugal and 1492 A.D. in Spain, although
after 1212 A.D. their realm was reduced to the kingdom of Granada. This Muslim presence left the Portuguese
vocabulary enriched by nearly 4,000 arabic words.
Many Arabic loan-words begin with al, which is the Arabic definite article ('the'):
alcaide (mayor)
alfombra (carpet)
algodão (cotton)
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alquimia (alchemy)
Other Portuguese words borrowed from Arabic include:
arroz (rice)
açúcar (sugar)
jarra (jug)
taça (cup)
Medieval Portuguese
There were two main dialects of Portuguese in medieval times: 1) Galician-Portuguese, spoken in the northwestern
part of the peninsula, and 2) Luso-Mozarabic, spoken in the region between the Mondego and the Tagus rivers under
Muslim control. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, during the conquest of Arab lands and the establishment of
permanent territorial boundaries, these two dialects merged permanently, giving birth to the Portuguese language. The
oldest document written in the Portuguese language dates from 1191 and is called the Escrituras das Partilhas.
As Portugal continued to expand to the South, into Muslim territory, territorial unity and political unity were quickly
followed by linguistic unity. Portugal dialect expanded along with the country's political power. In the thirteenth
century, king D. Dinis I worked hard to develop Portuguese into a literary language, translating a variety of works
from the Latin and mandating that, henceforth, all books and documents to be published by the Crown would be
written in Portuguese.
Another feature of Medieval Portuguese was its extensive borrowing of words from French, Italian and Classical
Latin, particularly during the fifteenth century. Such loan-words include:
monge (French moine, 'monk')
selvagem (French sauvage, 'savage')
beleza (Italian bellezza, 'beauty')
novela (Italian novella, 'short story')
nocturno (Latin nocturnum, 'nocturnal')
sublime (Latin sublîme, 'lofty')
Modern Portuguese
During the so-called 'Golden Age' of Portugal (1434 A.D.-1580 A.D.), Portuguese came to be spoken and written in
its modern form. One of the interesting features of the Golden Age period is the borrowing of words from Native
American languages and also from Indo-Chinese languages. Such loan-words include:
canoa (Arawak, 'canoe')
furacão (Arawak, 'hurricane')
milho (Arawak mahís, 'corn')
chocolate (Nahuatl, 'chocolate')
tomate (Nahuatl, 'tomato')
As mentioned earlier, while Spain was occupied fighting the Moors until 1492 to force them to return to North Africa,
Portugal had done so centuries before. Having control of their country and their destiny, they set out to map a
maritime route to India, to discover new lands and new peoples and take the Portuguese culture and the Christian Faith
to them. The diffusion of the Portuguese language throughout the globe was the legacy of these quests.
Although the language has its roots firmly in Western Europe, with fifteen million people speaking it in Portugal,
Madeira and the Azores, approximately 177 million individuals speak it worldwide in places like Brazil, São Tomé
and Príncipe Island, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde Islands, Goa, Damão, Diu, Sri Lanka, Timor,
and Macao.
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In 1527 A.D., the great Portuguese poet Luís Vaz de Camões was born in Lisbon, descendent of a noble Galician
family and grandson to the poet Vasco Pires de Camões. Camões published the epic poem OS LUSÍADAS in 1572
A.D., giving the Portuguese nation the perfect vehicle to demonstrate to the world the power, the versatility and the
beauty of their language.
Camões died in 1580 A.D., just as Philip II of Spain usurped the throne of Portugal and established a dual monarchy
in the peninsula. For the next sixty years and through the reigns of two additional Phillips, the Portuguese language
and culture suffered from neglect by the Portuguese intelligentsia, who gravitated to the Spanish Court in Madrid in
search of patronage from the Crown. They enriched the Spanish culture at the expense of the Portuguese by writing
more in the language of Cervantes than in the language of Camões.
It was during the Filipine occupation that OS LUSÍADAS became a national treasure, where the common folk, arráia
miúda, found a link to the nations glorious past and the courage to deliver themselves from the Spanish yoke. The
Portuguese restored their independence on December 1, 1640.
Portuguese in the New World
With the discovery and colonization of Brazil, the Portuguese language flourished on the other side of the Atlantic
Ocean. Brazil, with a population of 160 million (the largest in Latin America), speaks Portuguese exclusively. Unlike
so many of their Latin American Spanish-speaking neighbors, very few Brazilians speak a native indian language.
However, there exist two official orthographies, the Lusitanian and the Brazilian, with enough differences to be
prejudicial to the intercontinental unity of the Portuguese language and its prestige around the Globe.
By the initiative of the Brazilian Academy of Letters in consonance with the Academy of Science of Lisbon, several
orthographic accords have been signed in 1931, 1943, 1945, 1971,1975, 1986 and 1990, to reduce substantially the
orthographic divergences between the two countries. These accords have failed to unify the language between the two
countries. Future accords will find it even harder to accomplish this goal, since five lusophonous African countries
have emerged from the Portuguese decolonization and have chosen Portuguese as an official language. What
diplomacy has failed to accomplish in eighty-four years may be attained in the future through television, film,
literature and the Internet's World Wide Web as these lines of communication span the Atlantic to unite the
Portuguese-speaking international communities.
Much of the information in this article is discussed in greater detail in the following sources:
Historia de Portugal I & II, Editorial Verbo, Lisbon, Portugal, 1966, edited by Jose Carlos Amado. It is an excellent
two-volume guide to the history, literature and language of Portugal from the pre-Roman era to Prime Minister
Salazar's government.
Prontuário Ortográfico e guia da língua portuguesa, 29 Edição, Magnus Bergström/ Neves Reis, Editorial Notícias,
1996.
See Also:
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Pronouns
Prepositions
Articles
Conjunctions
Interjections
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Contents | Previous Topic | Next Topic | Glossary
Pronunciation
Vowels and Diphthongs
Consonants
See Also:
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Pronouns
Prepositions
Articles
Conjunctions
Interjections
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Contents | Previous Topic | Next Topic | Glossary
Vowels and Diphthongs
The recognizable sounds (phonemes) of any language are generally divided into two main groups: vowels and
consonants. Vowels are 'voiced'; that is, their sounds are produced by the vibration of the vocal cords without
restriction of airflow through the mouth. They are: a, e, i, o, u. Vowels may be oral or nasal.
Oral vowels are emitted through the mouth, as in words like rua, só, tu, vi, pé, vê, vôo.
The acute accent mark over a, e, o indicates an open pronunciation (in forming the sound there is a large opening
between the roof of the mouth and the tongue): Glória.
The circumflex accent mark ( ^ ) over a, e, o indicates a closed pronunciation (a smaller opening between the roof of
the mouth and the tongue): ângulo, cômodo, lê.
Nasal vowels are emitted through the mouth and nasal cavities, and may be nasalized by a tilde ( ~), m or n, as in
irmã, rã, tampa, lenço, jardim, som. It also indicates stress unless there is another written accent mark: órfão (OR-
fão); bênção (BEN-ção).
Note: When you make nasalized vowels, do not pronounce the accompanying n or m; these letters should be regarded
only as signals of nasalization.
The vowels i and u are also called semi-vowels, because in the formation of diphthongs. Their sound rate is halfway
between a vowel and a consonant.
Examples: caio, quatro, sua, rio.
A diphthong is a combination of two vowels or of a vowel with a nasal consonant (m or n) pronounced in a single
emission. Like vowels, diphthongs may be oral or nasal.
Oral diphthongs: ai, au, ei, eu, oi, ou, iu, ui.
Examples: pai, pau, farei, breu, foi, souto, pediu, uivo.
Nasal diphthongs: ãe, ãi, ão, am, em, en(s), õe.
Examples: mãe, cãibra, pão, amam, bem, parabéns, põe.
See Also:
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Pronouns
Prepositions
Articles
Conjunctions
Interjections
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Contents | Previous Topic | Next Topic | Glossary
Consonants
Unlike vowels, consonants are articulated by the teeth, tongue, lips and palate, which work in combination to restrict
or cut off the air flow through the mouth. According to their order in the Portuguese alphabet, they are:
b, c, d, f, g, h, j, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, z.
Consonants are classified according to their manner of articulation.
STOPS or MUTES
The air flow is compressed and then released.
Lips pressing together: p, b
Front of tongue and hard palate: t, d, r,
Back of tongue and soft palate: c (hard), k, q, g (hard)
NASALS
The air vibrates in the nose: m, n, nh
LIQUIDS
The air vibrates in the mouth: l, lh
FRICATIVES or SPIRANTS
The air hisses through a constricted passageway.
Lower lip and top teeth: f, v
Front of tongue and hard palate: ç (c-soft), s, z
Back of tongue and soft palate: g (soft), j
The letter x is a double consonant ch which ends in a spirant.
Consonants may be voiced or unvoiced, depending on whether they involve a vibration of the vocal chords.
Voiced: b, d, g (hard), l, lh, m, n, nh, v
Unvoiced: c, ch, f, g (soft), k, p, q, s, t, x
See Also:
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Pronouns
Prepositions
Articles
Conjunctions
Interjections
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Contents | Previous Topic | Next Topic | Glossary
Parts of Speech
Parts of speech are the basic building blocks of any language grammar. They include nouns, verbs, adjectives,
pronouns, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, and interjections.
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Pronouns
Prepositions
Articles
Conjunctions
Interjections
See Also:
History of the Portuguese Language
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Contents | Previous Topic | Next Topic | Glossary
Nouns
A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing or idea.
João (John)
Portugal (Portugal)
casa (house)
amizade (friendship)
Proper Nouns
Common Nouns
Singular and Plural Nouns
Noncount Nouns
Gender of Nouns
Expressions of Quantity with Nouns
For the use of definite and indefinite articles with nouns see Articles.
For the use of nouns in sentences see Noun Phrases and Noun Clauses.
To learn about prefixes, suffixes, and compound nouns see Noun Formation.
See Also:
Noun-Adjective Agreement
Subject-Predicate Agreement
History of the Portuguese Language
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