Welcome to the second post in the “New to Portuguese?” series. I hope you've read the first post in order to understand the method you can use here. In case you haven't, you can access it here: New to Portuguese? Start here.

Be sure to follow these steps:

  • 1) Listen to the audio for the first time before reading the text, just to get familiar with the content;
  • 2) Listen to the audio again, but this time read the text alongside it;
  • 3) Study the text thoroughly, identifying the meaning of each word and expression in context;
  • 4) (Optional but highly recommended) Copy the full text to a notebook so that you can get familiar with the written language;
  • 5) Add all the sentences to your Anki deck;
  • 6) Listen to the audio alongside the text 5 to 10 times, in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening.


Audio




Text

Olá! Como você está? Eu sou a Anna. Sou brasileira e tenho 21 anos. Atualmente, moro em São Paulo com a minha família. A minha mãe é arquiteta e ela adora projetar belos edifícios. O meu pai é empresário e ele trabalha muito. Ele é um homem muito ocupado. Eu também tenho uma irmã mais nova, Isabel. Ela é engraçada e gentil, e nós gostamos de passar tempo juntas. Nós estamos sempre brincando com o Bill, o cachorro do nosso vizinho. Ele é um animal muito brincalhão e amigável.



Line-by-line Text with Translation

  • Olá! Como você está?
  • Hi/hello there! How are you?


  • Eu sou a Anna.
  • I'm Anna.
  • (In Brazilian Portuguese, it's common to say “a”/“o” (“the”) before your name, just because.)


  • Sou brasileira e tenho 21 anos.
  • I'm Brazilian, and I'm 21 years old.
  • (Portuguese, just like other Romance languages, such as Spanish, French, Italian, and Romanian, uses the verb “to have” when expressing age. So instead of “being” a certain age, you “have” an age. It's also common to omit the personal pronoun when it's implied by the context or the verb conjugation — that's why “eu” (“I”) is omitted here.)


  • Atualmente, moro em São Paulo com a minha família.
  • I currently live in São Paulo with my family.
  • (We use “minha” for feminine words.)


  • A minha mãe é arquiteta e ela adora projetar belos edifícios.
  • My mother is an architect, and she loves designing beautiful buildings.
  • (As you may have noticed by now, Portuguese uses articles in ways English doesn't, and that's totally normal. There's no clear explanation or reason behind that, it's just the way it is. So instead of saying “my mother” or “with my family”, you say “the my mother” and “with the my family”.)


  • O meu pai é empresário e ele trabalha muito.
  • My father is a businessman, and he works a lot.
  • (We use “meu” for masculine words.)


  • Ele é um homem muito ocupado.
  • He's a very busy man.


  • Eu também tenho uma irmã mais nova, Isabel.
  • I also have a little sister, Isabel.


  • Ela é engraçada e gentil, e nós gostamos de passar tempo juntas.
  • She is funny and kind, and we enjoy spending time together.


  • Nós estamos sempre brincando com o Bill, o cachorro do nosso vizinho.
  • We always play with Bill, our neighbor's dog.
  • (In Portuguese, saying something is “de”, “da”, or “do” someone is one way to express possession. Don't worry about these little things — just focus on understanding the text for now.)


  • Ele é um animal muito brincalhão e amigável.
  • It's a very playful and friendly animal.
  • (The pronoun “it” doesn't exist in Portuguese. We say ele or ela instead, depending on whether it's a masculine or feminine word.)