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Lesson Five - Going Shopping

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Edit Dialogue 5 Ricardo: Bom dia. Quero comprar uma camisa. Carla: Sim, certamente. As roupas estão ali. Ricardo: Obrigado. Quero uma camisa branca. Carla: O senhor quer também uma camisa preta? Ricardo: Não. Mas quero um chapéu. Carla: Certamente. Obrigada.

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Here, Ricardo is in a clothes shop. He asks the attendant, Carla, if he can have a white shirt - uma camisa branca. He also asks for something else - um chapéu. This means "a hat". We've come across the words for "a". These are called, properly, "indefinite articles" (as opposed to the words for "the", which are called "definite articles"). This is because the word "a" or "an" is indefinite - it doesn't specify which shirt or hat. Let's have a look at this table.

A/AN	A/AN	SOME	SOME
Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
um	uma	uns	umas

Some examples? Sure.

o gato e um gato - the cat and a cat os pêssegos e uns pêssegos - the peaches and some peaches a casa e uma casa - the house and a house as árvores e umas árvores - the tree and some trees

Quickly, what does that e mean by itself? Simple - e means "and". Let's have some practice.

Convert the following from "the" to "a" or "some 1. Os sapatos = __ sapatos (some/the shoe) 2. As gravatas = __ _ (the/some ties) 3. A saia = _ (a/the skirt) 4. O chapéu = _ (the/a hat) Answers 1. uns 2. umas 3. uma 4. um

Another major word we need to get to know is Quero. This word means "I want". Of course, there are other conjugations...

Você quer alguma coisa? - Do you want something? Sim, quero uma camisa branca. - Yes, I want a white shirt.

O senhor quer também uma camisa preta?

Também means quite simply "also". So we have "Do you want also a black shirt?". But what on earth is this phrase, o senhor? Well, we've already learnt that você is more polite than tu. However, there is another level of politeness used in Portuguese. This form of "you" is used to people you don't know well, or people you have to show respect to, like bosses, or teachers. However, this strange form of "you" (which is roughly equivalent to "Mr." or "Mrs." in English) changes according to the gender of the person you're talking to, plus how many people you are talking to as well!

Have a look at the table below...

o senhor talking to only one male (equivalent to "Mr")

a senhora talking to only one married female (equivalent to "Mrs")

a menina talking to only one unmarried female (equivalent to "Miss")

os senhores talking to more than one male or a mixed group

as senhoras talking to more than one married female

as meninas talking to more than one unmarried female

Go to Lesson Six