MP3 Audio (Lesson) | MP3 Audio (Dialog)
We all hope that someday, as a foreigner in Brazil, you have the opportunity to buy flowers. There is a delightful mix of the excitement in seeing the many new flowers, the relatively cheaper prices, and the fun of the exchange with the flower sellers. In this lesson we should learn some of the Portuguese that you’ll need for your flower-buying experience.
| A: | Boa tarde. Em que eu posso ajudar senhor? Good afternoon. How may I help you? | |
| B: | Boa tarde, queria comprar umas flores para minha esposa. Good afternoon, I wanted to buy some flowers for my wife. | |
| A: | Está bem. Que tipo de flores? Fine. What type of flowers? | |
| B: | Quem sabe um buquê de rosas. Perhaps a bouquet of roses. | |
| A: | Que cor o senhor prefere? What color do you prefer? | |
| B: | Essas vermelhas talvez. Que mais você tem? Maybe these red ones. What else do you have? | |
| A: | Bom. Essas brancas também são lindas. Também tem essas cor-de-rosa e essas amarelas. Well, these white ones are pretty too. We also have these pink ones and these yellow ones. | |
| B: | Essas amarelas são lindas. Me dá uma dúzia delas. The yellow ones are pretty. Give me a dozen of them. |
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A few questions here:
-What is the difference in the context given for “Em que eu posso ajudar senhor” and “Como que eu posso ajudar senhor”?
-Is it normal to say “…ajudar senhor” or would someone more likely say “… ajudar o senhor”? (I noticed you used the “o” later in the sentence “Que cor o senhor prefere?”
-In the sentence “que mais voce tem?” Could one say “que mais que voce tem?” or would that sound weird?
-Do all three words of “cor de rosa” mean “pink,” or does the single word “rosa” mean pink? For example, could someone say “olha esta bola que tenho na minha mao, o cor dela e rosa.” or would one say “… o cor dela e cor de rosa.”?
Thanks for the help to anyone willing.
All great questions. Let’s take them on.
1. em que vs. como is like asking in English about the difference between In what way vs. how (in what way can I help you, how can I help you). Either is fine, but “em que” sounds a bit more high class.
2. 100% use o senhor (or a senhor) and never simply senhor, this when referring to the person as “you.”
3. We can almost say that it’s never weird to add an extra “que.” Brazilian oral speech adds que everywhere, and your sample sentence is a good example for that. Nice job Sam!
4. Cor de rosa (and similarly cor de laranja) are actually pretty tricky to use. First off, notice the lack of agreement: casa vermelha, livro vermelho, but casa cor de rosa, livro cor de rosa. Literally you are saying “the color of a rose.” You could get away with simply saying rosa, but generally Brazilians do repeat “cor de rosa” rather than simply “rosa.” And for an extra freebie, in Portuguese “cor” is feminine (unlike Spanish where it is masc.). So, you’ll want to say “a cor.”
Hope that helps.
A tremendous help! And I love that final freebie. I too often use “o cor.” (Puxa!)
Orlando, your help is invaluable. Thank you so much.