Page 254 - Portuguese Dictionary Phrasebook (The Rough Guide)

Tu is used when speaking to one person and is the familiar
form generally used when speaking to family, close friends
and children.
V Você and vocês are more formal and are used to address people
you don’t know well. They take the third person forms of f
verbs: você takes the same form as ‘he/she/it’; vocês takes the
same form as ‘they’.
There is another way of saying ‘you’, which is used to address
complete strangers or in formal situations. These forms all take
the third person of the verb, i.e. the same as ‘he/she/it’ for the
singular and ‘they’ for the plural:
singular plural
masculine o senhor os senhores
oo sin-yohr oosh sin-yohrish
feminine a senhora as senhoras
a sin-yora ash sin-yorash
HOW THE LANGUAGE WORKS
(Note that Senhor also means ‘Mr’ and r Senhora means ‘Mrs’.)
N
a senhora é a mãe da Rita?
a sin-yora eh a mayng da reeta
are you Rita’s mother?
In Portuguese the subject pronoun is usually omitted:
Personal
não sabem está cansado
nowng sabayng shta kansadoo
they don’t know he is tired
But it may be retained for emphasis or to avoid confusion:
Pr onouns
sou eu! somos nós!
soh ay-oo sohmooJ nosh
it’s me! it’s us!
eu pago as sandes e você paga as cervejas
ay-oo pagwash sandsh ee vosay pagash sirvayJash
I’ll pay for the sandwiches and you pay for the beers

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