• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Street Smart Brazil

We teach smart Portuguese

  • Contact
  • My Account
  • Cart
  • Policies
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Disclaimer
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Speak Portuguese With Ease
  • Home
  • About
  • Shop for Lessons
  • Starter Kit
  • Testimonials
  • Resources
  • Blog
2 Mistakes Brazilians Make, but You Don’t Have To

2 Mistakes Brazilians Make, but You Don’t Have To

posted on July 15, 2015

 

Speak great Brazilian Portuguese

English is my native language and I surely make mistakes in it here and there. One of my problems is where to put a comma. I don’t always know (and I’m speaking in general, not just about the Oxford comma, for example). It should be a pretty basic thing to fix, yet here I am in my 30s and I still feel like I use commas in the wrong place sometimes. It’s easier to be a speaker of a language than a writer of it. But we all make at least some kind of mistakes, whether written or spoken.

In Brazilian Portuguese, there are two mistakes I hear even educated people make. I know, it’s a rather taboo subject, speaking about what native speakers of other languages say incorrectly. Thats why I started with my own faults first. Plus, we’re not talking about ALL Brazilians, of course, just a portion of them (from different backgrounds, of different ages, and with different levels of education) that I’ve been in contact with over the years.

The interesting thing is this very group of people, who use the two words I mention below, probably know the difference between right and wrong very well.

One of the words in question is aonde (= to what place). It is not the same as onde, but Brazilians mix them up all the time. Street Smart Brazil has a lesson on these words so that you can use them correctly. Visit the lesson here.

The other word is vim. It is the simple past tense of the verb Vir (to come) in the conjugation of Eu. For example:

  • Eu vim aqui para falar com você. = I came here to talk to you.

It is pretty surprising the number of people here in Brazil who use the past tense when they should use the infinitive. For example, they will say: “Pode vim amanhã” instead of “Pode vir amanhã”, which is the correct way. This is a pretty bad mistake in Luciana‘s opinion. It really bothers her.

Looking at my own language and my fellow native speakers of English, we do the same thing. Irregardless of how correct we think we’re speaking, there are mistakes we’re gonna make and words we should of known better.

“To err is human; to forgive, divine.” – Alexander Pope

By the way, in Brazil they say: Errar é humano = To err is human.

Related Posts:

  • 4 language learning hacks for your Portuguese
  • My Favorite Online Dictionaries to Learn Portuguese
  • 5 Ways to Say However in Portuguese – Portuguese lesson

About Adam Lee

Adam is a writer and a researcher who has studied Brazilian culture for over a decade and created several Brazil-themed blogs going back to 2008. Having taught himself Portuguese, he put it to practical use by spending three years doing Brazil on a budget (and living in favelas), from Rio de Janeiro to the Amazon.

He now resides in Lisbon, Portugal, developing a startup and dreaming about having a beachside B&B in the Northeast of Brazil.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Want to see your pic by your comment? Get a free custom avatar at Gravatar.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Brazil
  • Brazilian music
  • Brazilian Portuguese
  • Business Culture
  • Culture and History
  • Flashcards
  • Food
  • Grammar
  • Idiomatic Expressions
  • Learning Languages
  • Pronunciation
  • Resources
  • Video lessons
  • Visiting Brazil
  • Vocabulary

Schedule a Trial Session

Testimonials

My classes are awesome – I’m learning A LOT and it’s fun, convenient, and enjoyable. My instructor is a wonderful teacher, and she gives me a nice balance of grammar and oral & written comprehension.… Read more
Vanessa
Especially if you are in Rio de Janeiro, I highly recommend this class! You don´t have to fight traffic to get to class, your teacher will show up on time, you can make your own schedule, and the ma… Read more
Sarah
The quality of the instruction is outstanding. The instructors are flexible to schedule classes in times which are convenient. Being able to use SKYPE for face to face without traveling place to plac… Read more
Jennifer
I really enjoy studying with Street Smart Brazil. I have learned a tremendous amount and always look forward to the class. In June I traveled to São Paulo, Brazil, to visit my girlfriend and meet her… Read more
Drue

Find Resources

Make your learning fun and easy with good resources.
Learn More

51 Portuguese Idioms – Speak Like a Brazilian

You will learn each expression inside a real-life context: everyday situations that could happen to any of us.
Purchase Now >

Recent Posts

  • Meio or Meia? How to say KIND OF in Portuguese
  • Family Vocabulary in Portuguese
  • The Power of Rehearsal to Improve Language Learning
  • Learn the Numbers in Portuguese: All you need to know
  • The Difference Between ESTE, ESSE, ISSO in Portuguese

Search

Cart

Classes

  • Trial Lesson
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Subscription
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Packages
  • Celpe-Bras Prep Classes with Street Smart Brazil

Footer Subscribe

Books

  • 51 Portuguese Idioms
  • Master the Word MESMO in Portuguese

Footer Video CTA

Subscribe to my YouTube channel to get all the new video lessons

Subscribe

https://youtu.be/xoNtWBolAzE

Footer Full CTA

Book a Trial Lesson today to get started.

Get Started Now

Footer CTA

Street Smart Brazil

  • About
  • Shop For a Portuguese Class
  • Testimonials
  • Blog

Portuguese Classes

  • Trial Lesson
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Subscription
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Packages
  • Celpe-Bras Prep Classes with Street Smart Brazil

Books

  • 51 Portuguese Idioms
  • Master the Word MESMO in Portuguese


Street Smart Brazil, LLC

phone 415.573.8180
email info@streetsmartbrazil.com
Oakland, California

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Disclaimer
  • Sitemap

© 2014–2023 Street Smart Brazil, All Rights Reserved.