Lessons and explanations of the infinitive (infinitivo) in European Portuguese, including when to use the infinitive form of verbs and how the personal infinitive works in Portuguese grammar.
These two Portuguese structures, Estar a fazer vs andar a fazer, don’t exactly mean the same thing. If you’re learning European Portuguese, you’ve probably seen both of these: They both look like “to be doing” in English. But they are not interchangeable. And if you use them randomly, you’ll sound slightly… off. Let’s fix that … Read more
Infinitives in Portuguese (unconjugated forms of verbs) are used in two main ways: the impersonal infinitive and the personal infinitive. In this lesson, I’ll walk you through them in a bite-sized way. For more details in each tense, follow the appropriate links. Impersonal Infinitive The impersonal infinitive is the base form of the verb and … Read more
What are the impersonal expressions in Portuguese? If you’re learning the language and have progressed beyond the beginner stages, you’ve no doubt come across this term already. These are the expressions used with some of the subjunctive tenses and the personal infinitive tenses. They are easy to spot because they start off the sentence with … Read more
One of the most confusing words for English speakers learning Portuguese is the verb “to get”. Why? Because Portuguese doesn’t have a single equivalent verb. In English, get can mean: …and many more things besides. In Portuguese, each of these meanings uses a different verb. So instead of trying to translate get directly, think about … Read more