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- João: Pedro, temos o exame de Geografia hoje. João: Pedro, we have the Geography exam today.
- Estás pronto? Are you ready?
- Pedro: Eu espero que sim, mas não sei. Pedro: I hope so, but I don't know.
- Preciso de ter dezasseis para compensar I need to have 16 [marks, out of 20] to make up for
- o treze do semestre anterior. the 13 from the previous semester.
- João: Dezasseis? João: 16?
- Pedro: Sim, para ter uma nota final de quinze. Pedro: Yes, to have a final grade of 15.
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Vocabulary
o alunostudent AnteriorPrevious CatorzeFourteen compensarto compensate, make up for, offset, pay off conseguirto get, reach, succeed, be able to darto give DecidirTo decide DeusGod DezanoveNineteen 19 DezasseisSixteen 16 DezasseteSeventeen 17 DezoitoEighteen 18 DisciplinasDisciplines, subjects DozeTwelve Escalascale a escolaschool estudarto study o exameexam ExcecionalExceptional O finalThe end geografiageography hojetoday merecerto deserve, to merit a notagrade, score professorateacher(female) QuinzeFifteen SemestreSemester TrezeThirteen a universidadeuniversity VinteTwenty ZeroZero 
Expressions
Boa sorteGood luck Mais altoLouder, Higher Quem sabe?Who knows Estás pronto?Are you ready? É esse o espírito!That's the spirit! Espero que simI hope so Premium Feature: Smart Review
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Como fui estudante, este tipo de dialogo me-lembro strategias é discussão que tivemos na altura, o que é bom para melhor memorizar !
What exactly are the meanings of the verbs conseguir and tirar, as used here?
Olá, Whit. “Conseguir” translates to ‘can’ or ‘to be able to’; “tirar” translates to ‘get’. For example, “tirar uma bota nota” = “to get a good grade”. We can also say “ter uma boa nota” and throughout the shorty, you’ll hear both verbs used interchangeably in this context of grades (“ter” and “tirar”).
Seems like conseguir is common and would be good to include more formally in the A1 lessons.. also it is not in the vocabulary list for this dialogue, and I think it should be.
Sure! We’ve added it to the vocabulary for this episode and I just worked it into the Common Verbs unit in A1
Thanks, Joseph. I thought the primary meaning of conseguir is ‘to get’, the main meaning of poder is ‘to be able to’, and the main meaning of tirar is ‘to take out’ or ‘to throw out’ or just ‘to throw’. Are these verbs in the dialogue being used to express secondary meanings (as opposed to their primary dictionary definitions)?
Conseguir can also mean “to get”, but I would say it primarily translates to “can/to be able to/to achieve”. There is some overlap with the verb poder, but poder often has more to do with permission to do something, rather than ability. Here’s a forum topic where this was discussed: Os verbos conseguir e poder
Regarding tirar, this is indeed an alternative use. The main meaning would be “to take”. “To throw” would be “atirar” 🙂
Hi!
Would “o semestre anterior” and “o semestre passado” have the same meaning?
Obrigado
Yes they would, Matthieu.
Obrigado
Could I also say “Para o caso de Deus decide estudar Geografia?”
I don’t really understand why you use decidir.
Muito obrigado
Olá, Martin. In this case, you can’t use ‘decide’. It’s incompatible with the wording of the sentence, with the preposition para and all, which directs it to the infinitive ‘decidir’. The sentence could also be reworded in the subjunctive mood, which is appropriate, since we’re in the realm of abstraction/hypothesis (e.g. “Caso Deus decida estudar Geografia?” – present subjunctive)
It takes time to get used to all these patterns of use, when it comes to Portuguese verbs, but hang in there. It’s especially challenging when you come from a language where verbs aren’t so extensively conjugated!
Joseph is amazing with his explanations! Obrigado.
Which of these are acceptable translations of
He has been sick for 19 days
and which are grammatically incorrect?
Ele está doente por 19 dias
Ele está doente para 19 dias
Ele está doente durante 19 dias
Ele está doente há 19 dias
We’d only say “Ele está doente há 19 dias”. “Ele está doente por 19 dias” and “Ele está doente durante 19 dias” are grammatically correct, but they’d be interpreted as “He is/will be sick for 19 days” (not has been). Instead of saying for how long his illness has been ongoing, you’d be pre-establishing a total duration for it, which wouldn’t be logical. Like when we say “Ele está de férias por 15 dias” (He’s on vacation for 15 days).
The preposition “para” is not applicable here.
Speaking of “férias”, I recently came across the phrase “Eu vou de férias quinze dias”, which translates to “I’m going on vacation for fifteen days.” I was puzzled that the phrase wasn’t written as “Eu vou de férias por quinze dias”, with the extra “por” included. Is either version correct?
Olá! Yes, both versions (with and without “por”) are fine to use and you should come across both quite often. The preposition “por” is most likely to used in writing than in conversation.
Am I meant to be able to understand these conversations?
I can translate it if I read it, but they’re way too fast for me to pick up anything but a single word in each sentence usually, and that’s not enough to understand what the conversation is even about.
Don’t worry, we don’t expect you to be able to understand the full conversation, or even most of it at this stage. These are just a way to give you exposure to “real” Portuguese. It’s easy to get a bit disconnected from how the language is actually spoken when you’re a beginner, so we think it’s important to keep hearing examples like this.
The idea is to challenge yourself to understand pieces of it, and to read through and connect what you’ve learned to how it may be used in real life. But, we expect you’ll use the Translate toggle button heavily until you’ve been learning for quite a while. For now, maybe you’ll only understand a word here and there, but over time you’ll gradually understand more and more. You can replay it over and over, so sometimes it helps to listen with the translation a few times, and then try to listen again without it to see what bits you can pick up. Or, you can just focus on a few sentences at a time.
As for the speed, keep clicking the 1x button in the player and you can set it to a slower speed, maybe 0.8x, to make it a little bit easier.
A escala ser de zero a vinte. Why” ser “and not” e” ?
Olá! In that quiz question, the answer is phrased in the infinitive to have more of a sense of abstraction/distant reflection, although the simple present (more direct) would also be fine to use. These are the corresponding English translations in each case:
Question: O que deixa o Pedro frustrado? (What leaves Pedro frustrated?)
Answer in the infinitive: A escala ser de zero a vinte, mas a professora não a respeitar (The scale being from zero to twenty, but the teacher not respecting it)
Answer in the simple present: A escala é de zero a vinte, mas a professora não a respeita (The scale is from zero to twenty, but the teacher doesn’t respect it)
Listening carefully, I hear a lot of variation in the way the numbers are pronounced, even with the same speaker. I refer mainly to the OS endings, for example for the various versions of XXXXCENTOS. The ending O is sometimes dropped and sometimes pronounced with the typical oo sound. This seems very inconsistent within the lessons. Is this what we should expect in normal Portuguese experience?
Olá! Yes, I would say this is to be expected in the real world – different people will have different levels of articulation in their speech (or even the same people at different times).
Very theological!
Very funny.