Portuguese As She Is Spoke

I’ve been studying Portuguese using the Duolingo app. I’m far from fluent, and so far I am almost done with Unit 2. I am up to the pretérito perfeito do indicativo (which is the past tense).

The way Duolingo works is that it gives you sentences to complete and/or translate. It doesn’t describe the rules—you are meant to pick them up through use. It is a different way to learn a language than what I have experienced before. I like it, but ask me again in a couple of years if it worked. (And ask me in Portuguese.)

But one thing I’ve noticed is that sometimes the sentences that Duolingo feeds you don’t make sense. You get a sentence that one can’t imagine coming up in conversation. After a while, this happened frequently enough that I started writing them down when it happened. Here are a few examples:

• Ele joga um gato nela

• He throws a cat at her

(I’m trying to imagine a circumstance where this would happen.)

• O homem fica amarelo

• The man becomes yellow

(I guess it could be about a man who has jaundice…)

• Nós estamos aqui e nós somos um espelho

• We are here and we are a mirror

(It makes me think of the Velvet Underground and Nico song, “I’ll Be Your Mirror”)

• O meu travesseiro não fala

• My pillow does not speak

(OK, I can see someone trying to convince someone to sleep with him by explaining how discreet he is by telling his would-be lover that his pillow will tell no secrets.)

• Vamos manter o urso no banheiro

• We will keep the bear in the bathroom

(Why not?)

I thought the previous post would be the last post for 2021. But I think this post is for real my last post of the year. Happy New Year!

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