Impersonal expressions in Portuguese

***Warning: grammarphobes may want to skip this article. If you want to learn some of the points here more implicitly, you can practice the expressions here or here. I am adding a category 'avoid if you don't like grammar' so you can stick to the less heavy stuff.***

One of my students asked about impersonal verbs this week, so I thought I would share this with you in case you have similar questions...

...But wait. Don't Brazilians like to get personal? Fear not, you can hold on to the friendly Brazilian stereotypes :-). I don't mean impersonal in the sense of unfriendly or cold. This post is about impersonal in the sense of lacking person agreement (the different person conjugations) on the verb. If you have no idea what I am talking about, don't worry. I'll explain. (If you know what I am talking about you can skip the re-cap :-))

A. Re-cap: (Person) Verb Conjugation 101

Remember that for beginners it can sometimes be tricky to remember all those different verb endings? For example, take the verb falar (to speak) in the past (you can also look at ser and estar):

(1)Eu falei
(2)Você/ele/ela/a gente falou
(3)Nós falamos
(4)Vocês/eles/elas falaram

See how the verb endings are different depending on the subject? These different forms depending on the subject is what I am calling person agreement/ person conjugation. Compare with the English translation, where the verb doesn't change at all:

(1) I spoke.
(2) You/he/she/we spoke
(3) We spoke
(4) You/they spoke

That is because English shows no person agreement for the verb 'speak' in the past and Portuguese does.*


B. Impersonal verbs

If you have trouble remembering the endings you may like this. Not all verbs have different forms for different persons like the ones above. There are verbs that don't have different endings for different subjects... because they have no subject at all!

If you look up 'impersonal verbs' on a grammar, you will probably get the typical impersonal verbs, like some verbs describing the whether:

Nevou muito em Nova Iorque ontem.
(It) snowed a lot in New York yesterday.

The verb nevar in the simple past is always nevou. There is usually no nevei, nevamos, etc. Similarly, in English you can't use different subjects. You can only say 'it snowed', but not 'I snowed', 'we snowed'. Etc.

So we see two properties of impersonal verbs in Portuguese from the example:

Impersonal verbs:
(1) There is no subject.
(2) There aren't different person conjugations.

There are other 'classic' impersonal verbs (e.g., haver/ter (= English 'there is') , meaning to exist). There are also plenty of other expressions that are not these classic impersonal verbs that are grammatically impersonal. Here are a couple of examples of informal examples that we saw on this blog:

We saw one on the last post on cair a ficha (meaning something like 'to click'), notice how the verb cair doesn't change depending on the person:

Eu não estava entendendo nada, mas ontem finalmente caiu a ficha!
I wasn't understanding anything, but yesterday it finally clicked.

Nós não estavamos entendendo nada, mas ontem finalmente caiu a ficha!
We weren't understanding anything, but yesterday it finally clicked.

Eles não estavam entendendo nada, mas ontem finalmente caiu a ficha!
They weren't understanding anything, but yesterday it finally clicked.

The verb dar in the expression dar para (meaning something like 'to be possible (for)') is also impersonal (even though the second verb is):

Não deu para eu chegar cedo ontem.
(It) wasn't possible for me to arrive early yesterday.

Não deu para eles chegarem cedo ontem.
(It) wasn't possible for them to arrive early yesterday.

Não deu para nós chegarmos cedo ontem.
(It) wasn't possible for me to arrive early yesterday.

We will certainly be seeing some more examples of impersonal verbs come up on this blog, though we won't be discussing the grammar so explicitly every time (grammar tips are good in small dosis).

Exercises:
1. Read the blog posts on the expressions 'cair a ficha' and 'dar para' if you haven't already done so (take your time. Don't do everything today!). Do the one exercise there.

2. Google the following phrases to get more examples of these expressions (use the double quotes). Copy 6 sentences that you understood:
a. "deu para eu", "dava para eles", "não dá pra eu", "não da pra elas" (note: pra is an informal reduced version of para)
b. "choveu", "neva", "ventou"
c. "caiu a ficha", "cai a ficha"

3. Write six sentences of your own with the expressions in 2a, b and c.

*English does have some person agreement, but it shows up in only a few cases. If you look at the verb 'speak' in the present (or any regular non-modal verb), you can see that there is a different form of the verb that depends on person. We say 'I speak' and 'she speaks'. This is an example of person agreement. Another example is the verb 'be'. In this case we also have different forms (am,are,is) for different persons, even in the past ('was', 'were').

Expressions of Frequency in Portuguese

The blog is back! ... and the plan is to have a post per week. To get started, how about we look into how to say "once a week" and other similar expressions in Portuguese?

Once/twice a week:

Eu escrevo no blog uma vez por semana.
I write on the blog once a week.

... uma vez por semana. (once a week)
... duas vezes por semana. (twice a week)
... três vezes por semana. (3 times a week)

You can also use this expression for other time periods:

Eu viajo para o Brasil uma vez por ano.
I travel to Brasil once a year.

Eu vou ao cabeleleiro uma vez por mês.
I goes to the hairdresser once a month.

Exercise: Think of an activity that you do once a week and make a sentence in Portuguese expressing that. think of an activity that you do more than once a week and make a nother sentence. Example: Eu visito os meus pais uma vez por semana. Eu faço ioga duas vezes por semana.

Everyday:

= todo dia (slightly more casual) or todos os dias (slightly more formal):

Eu tiro foto todo dia.
I take pictures every day.

Eu chego ao trabalho às 9:00 todos os dias.
I arrive at work at 9:00 every day.

Exercise: Answer the question: Você estuda Português todo dia?

Every other day:

I like this one. To say every other day, you can literaly say: "one day yes, one day no": um dia sim um dia não:

A Mariana corre na praia um dia sim um dia não.
Mariana runs at the beach every onther day.

Exercise: Answer the question, if you can: Você tem tempo para estudar português um dia sim um dia não?

Once every X days:

You can express every X days by using the expression uma vez a cada X dias. For example, to say "once every three days" you say uma vez a cada três dias:

Eu vou na academia uma vez a cada três dias.
I go to the gym once every three days.

Update: Every Once in a While

You can say de vez em quando:

De vez em quando, eu vou caminhar no Central Park.

Every once in a while, I go for a walk in Central Park.

Exercise:
- Make a table scheduling your major regular activities for the week.
- Based on your table describe your regular activities. Make sure to use each of the four types of expressions that you learnt at least duas vezes!

Bom, that is it for now. I hope to see you here at least uma vez por semana.

Expressions with dar: 'Dar para' em Portuguese

Today's tip will show you how to use the expression dar para in Portuguese. This is a very natural and common way to say that something is possible/ doable. Here are a couple of examples:

Dá para ver a cidade inteira do topo da Sears towers!
One can see the whole city from the top of the Sears towers.

Não dá para dirigir de Los Angeles até Nova Iorque em um dia: é muito longe!
One cannot/ It is not possible to drive from L.A. to NY in one day: it is too far!

Com a nova ponte, vai dar para chegar em casa bem rápido.
With the new bridge, it will be possible to arrive home very quickly.

Mini-dialogue:

(Ananda:) Eu fui no MoMA ontem ver a exposição do Dali, mas não deu pra ver nada: estava muito cheio!
I went to MoMA yesterday to see the Dali exhibition, but one could not see anything: it was too full!

(Dju-Dju:)É, quinta-feira é muito cheio... Amanhã vai estar menos cheio e vai dar para ver melhor.
Yeah, Thursday it is very full... Tomorrow it will be less full and it will be possible to see better.


Deu para entender os exemplos?
Was it possible to understand the examples?

So the structure is:

DAR PARA + VERB(infinitive)
to roughly mean: It is possible to VERB

1. Exercise: Answer however many questions you can:
1. Dá para dirjir de Nova Iorque até Los Angeles em um dia?
2. Dá para dirjir de Nova Iorque até Los Angeles em cinco dias?
3. Dá pra ver o mar da sua janela?
4. Dá para pegar (pick up) a Internet dos vizinhos na sua casa?

Have a look at the verb dar in the examples. Did you notice they are always the verb form (conjugation) for ele (dá, deu, vai dar). That is how you always use the verb in this expression (with the third person singular form of the verb).

That is not to say that you can't 'personalize' them a little bit by saying that an action is possible/doable for specific people, as in the following examples:

Só vai dar para ela chegar em Nova Iorque em três dias.
It will only be possible for me to arrive in New York in three days.

Não deu para eu ir no seu aniversário: eu estava muito ocupada.*
It was not possible for me to go to your birthday: I was very busy.

Não dá para eu ler o cardápio: eu esqueci os meus óculos.
It is not possible for me to read the menu, I have forgotten my glasses.

Dá para você abaixar o volume do seu som, por favor?
Is it possible for you to lower the volume of your stereo, please?

In this case, the structure is like this:

DAR PARA + (EU/VOCÊ/ A MARIA...) + VERBO
It is possible for me/you/Maria... to VERB

Notice that the verb dar is still the form for ele (dá, deu, vai dar...).**

Now let's practice again:

1. Exercise: Answer whichever questions you can:
1. Dá para você ver o mar da janela do seu quarto?
2. Vai dar para você ir no Brasil este ano?
3. Dá para você pegar a Internet dos vizinhos na sua casa?
4. Deu para entender esta dica (=tip)?
5. Dá para alguém dirjir de Nova Iorque até Los Angeles em um dia?

Espero que dê para você usar esta expressão agora!

Até a próxima!

*Advanced speakers only: Brazilians have a lot of trouble deciding what form of the pronoun to use over there. I've used the form considered correct in written Portuguese, but colloquially many people may use mim instead of eu.
**The second verb changes for eles and nós... but this will be the tópic for another tip...

'Ter' versus 'estar com'

We have seen the difference between ser and estar... Ter and estar com form another pair that can be confusing, this time for both English and Spanish speaking learners.

Like in Spanish, to say you are cold, hungry, sleepy etc., in formal Portuguese you use ter (have):

Tenho frio/ calor/ fome/ sono. (Written Portuguese)
Tengo frio/ calor/ hambre/ sueño. (Spanish)
I am cold/hot/hungry/tired.

... though we sometimes see this in written text, it sounds very unnatural. In spoken Brazilian Portuguese, it is much more natural to use estar com to say these things:

Eu estou com frio/calor/fome/sono.

[Suggestion: At this point, you may try to make simple phrases on your own now using estar com with different persons (você, a gente, eles...) and different words you may know (frio, medo, sede, raiva, muita pressa, vontade de comer chocolate)... If that is easy, try making up small dialogues using other expressions you may know, e.g.:

João: Você quer água?
Maria: Quero sim. Eu estou com muita sede.]

The main difference between the two is very similar to the difference between ser and estar: In general, Ter is more appropriate to express conditions that are somewhat permanent, whereas estar com is best for temporary states. (... so since frio/calor/fome/sono above are things that are normally temporary, estar com is the best form to be used with them). We can see this more clearly from the following examples:

Eu tenho medo de cachorro.
I am (always/permanently) afraid of dogs.

Eu estou com medo daquele cachorro.
I am afraid of that dog (right now).

Ele tem raiva de todos os politicos.
He is (permanetly) angry at all politicians. ( since he hates all politicians)

Ele está com raiva da Maria, mas vai passar.
He is angry at Maria, but it will pass.

This can also happen in cases indicating possession:

Eu tenho um carro importado.
I have/own an imported car.

Eu estou com um carro importado hoje, emprestado do meu chefe.
I have (temporarily) an imported car today, borrowed from my boss.

Did you get the difference? Now, you could practice by trying to make sentences that emphasize the difference (like the ones immediately above)... or you could do search for estar com to see how people use it on the Internet... Meanwhile, eu já vou: estou com fome!

'Ser' versus 'Estar'

The other day I got a question about ter and estar com from a student again and I thought it would be a great tip to post... but I thought I should back up to a quick look at the use ser and estar for early beginners first.

Just as a quick reminder*, here is the conjugation for the verbs ser and estar in casual spoken Portuguese:

Eu sou
Você/ele/ela/a gente é
Nós somos
Vocês/eles/elas são

Eu estou or tô (common pronunciation in very casual speech)
Você/ele/ela/a gente está or tá
Nós estamos or tamos
Vocês/eles/elas estão or tão

Ser and estar can be most often translated as the verb be in English... Since there is is one word in English for two in Portuguese, no wonder English speaking learners get confused!

Similar to what happens in Spanish, the main idea (it works for most of the cases) is that ser is for intrinsic, somewhat permanent caracteristics, whereas estar is for temporary passing things. I have translated them roughly like that in the following examples, in case that helps (just to get the idea, in reality things are a little more subtle):

Meu nome é Ananda.
My name is (permanently/always) Ananda.

Eu sou brasileira.
I am (permanently/always) Brazilian.

Ele é casado.
He is is (somewhat permanently) married.
(note that in Spanish they use estar here... hmmm :-))

Eles estão cansandos.
They are (temporarily) tired. or They are tired (right now).

A Susan está na academia.
Susan is (temporarily) at the gym. or Susan is at the gym (right now).

The difference between the two is sometimes jokingly used by Brazilians:

Joana: Nossa Maria! Você está bonita!
Wow Maria! You are beautiful!

Maria: Eu não ESTOU bonita, eu SOU bonita.
I am not (temporarily) beautiful, I am (permanently/always) beautiful.

So this is the main idea on ser and estar. When you feel that you have enough practice on this or if this is all old news to you, come back for a post on ter versus estar com.

*Note: If you haven't learnt anything about the verbs ser or estar before, I recommend learning them in a more natural setting, such as part of a conversation first, rather than going straight for the grammar. This post is intended to those who have at least heard these verbs enough to get confused :-).