They-Forms and Negation

Dialog — A Trip to the Park

Sandra tells Paulo about her early-morning plans to visit the park and tries to get him to come along. This unit introduces they-forms of verbs, the construction ir + infinitive for talking about the future, diphthong review, and the open/closed e distinction.

Portuguese	English
Sandra
Nós vamos sair às sete da manhã.	We’re going to leave at seven in the morning.
Paulo
Vocês pretendem chegar lá bem cedo?	Do you plan to get there real early?
Sandra
Isso mesmo. Às oito e meia, mais ou menos.	That’s right. At eight thirty, more or less.
Paulo
Vocês vão evitar todo o tráfego.	You’re going to avoid all the traffic.
Sandra
Vamos… Você não quer levantar cedo também?	Right! Don’t you want to get up early too?

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Notes on Grammar

Diphthong Review

A diphthong is a combination of a stressed vowel and an unstressed i or u within the same syllable.

Diphthong	Example	English
ai	mais, vai	more, goes
au	Paulo	(name)
ei	solteiro	single
eu	eu	I
ou	outra, estou	other, I am
oi	noite, oito	night, eight

Some diphthongs can be nasalized: bem contains a nasalized ei, and não / vão contain the nasalized ão diphthong.

Open E and Closed e

Portuguese distinguishes between an “open” E (like the e of English “bed”) and a “closed” e (like a clipped version of the ay in “say”). The open E appears in words like festa, até, ela, é, and José. The closed e appears in você and ele.

Open E	Closed e
ela (she)	ele (he)
elas (they, fem.)	eles (they, masc.)
sete (seven)	você (you)

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They-forms

The they-form is used when “they” or “you (plural)” is the subject. For -er type verbs, they-forms end in the unstressed nasal diphthong -em:

He-form	They-form	English
pretende	pretendem	plan(s) to
pode	podem	can
quer	querem	want(s)
conhece	conhecem	know(s)
come	comem	eat(s)

They-form subjects include plural nouns, vocês (“you all”), eles (“they,” masculine), elas (“they,” feminine), os senhores / as senhoras.

Portuguese	English
Eles querem sair.	They want to leave.
Vocês pretendem ficar?	Do you (all) plan to stay?
Elas podem vir.	They (fem.) can come.

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Ir + Infinitive — Future

The construction ir + infinitive is the common way to express future actions in Portuguese, just as “going to + verb” is in English.

Portuguese	English
Nós vamos sair.	We’re going to leave.
Vocês vão evitar o tráfego.	You’re going to avoid the traffic.
Você não vai comer?	Aren’t you going to eat?
Eu vou dar um telefonema.	I’m going to make a phone call.

Subject	Form of ir
eu	vou
ele/ela/você	vai
nós	vamos
eles/elas/vocês	vão

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Practice Drills (Selected)

They-form + Infinitive

Portuguese	English
Eles querem comer.	They want to eat.
Eles querem sair.	They want to leave.
Elas pretendem chegar.	They (fem.) plan to arrive.
Vocês pretendem ficar?	Are you (pl.) planning to stay?
Vocês podem vir.	You (pl.) can come.

Ir + Infinitive (We and They)

Portuguese	English
Nós vamos sair.	We’re going to leave.
Nós vamos ficar.	We’re going to stay.
Eles vão evitar o tráfego.	They’re going to avoid the traffic.
Elas vão visitar o parque.	They (fem.) are going to visit the park.

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Comprehension

Portuguese	English
Vocês pretendem ficar?	Are you (pl.) planning to stay?
Vocês querem evitar o tráfego?	Do you (pl.) want to avoid the traffic?
Eles querem ficar.	They want to stay.
A Yara e a Maria podem levantar cedo.	Yara and Maria can get up early.

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Key Vocabulary Summary

Portuguese	English
vamos	we go; we’re going (we-form of ir)
vão	they go; they’re going (they-form of ir)
vocês	you (plural)
eles / elas	they (m/f)
pretendem	plan to (they-form)
querem	want (they-form)
podem	can (they-form)
conhecem	know (they-form)
levantar	to get up (infinitive)
evitar	to avoid (infinitive)
o tráfego	the traffic
todo	all
também	also, too
lá	there
isso mesmo	that’s right, exactly
oito	eight
meia	half
mais ou menos	more or less
a manhã	the morning
sete	seven