Brazilian Literature

ENGLISH----- PORTUGUESE

Present----- Presente
I love------- eu amo
you love----- tu amas
he loves----- ele ama
we love----- nós amamos
you all love--- vós amais
they love ----- eles amam

Past--------- Pretérito
I loved------- eu amei
you loved----- tu amaste
he loved----- ele amou
we loved----- nós amamos
you all loved--- vós amastes
they loved----- eles amaram

Future--------- Futuro
I will love------- eu amarei
you will love----- tu amarás
he will love----- ele amará
we will love----- nós amaremos
you all will love--- vós amareis
they will love----- eles amarão

So, I think English conjugation is very simple, almost no variation.
Now, look at the red letters in portuguese conjugation. That kind of variation is complex.
I've taken Portuguese grammar as example. The same I say about Portuguese is also for any neo-latin language.

Compare:
English--------------Portuguese

I will fly------------------------eu voarei-----another possibility: eu vou voar
you may be flying--- -----------você pode estar voando
they might have been flying-----eles podem ter voado----another possibility: eles estavam voando
I had to fly---------------------eu tive que voar
I can fly-----------------------eu posso voar------other possibility: eu sei voar
I have to fly--------------------eu tenho que voar
I must fly-----------------------eu devo voar

But:
I need to fly---------------------eu preciso voar
We need to fly------------------nós precisamos voar
he flies-------------------------ele voa
we fly--------------------------nós voamos
they fly------------------------eles voam

etc. etc.

Follow me:
I would fly----------------------eu voaria
We would fly--------------------nós voaríamos
Etc...
Always "would" for every person (I, you, we, they...). There is no variation.

Now, look:
they might have been flying-----eles podem ter voado----another possibility:eles estavam voando
you might have been flying-------você pode ter voado----another possibility:você estava voando

English is a very practical language, that's why I like it.

"Any language is practical if you have to speak it, read it, and write it".
- you're right!

Sorry, I did not express my self as good as I should.

Practical language: It means English is easy to learn (the basic grammar) and easy to think. But English has a complex phonetical system!!!! I personally don't like my own accent in English :lol:
Really, I wish to have a London accent, for me, the most beautiful accent!

Portuguese is difficult to learn. Futhermore, all romance languages are very "figuratives" more than English, I belive.

Now look at this:
1- Eu sou doente (it is "I am sick" in Portuguese)
2- Eu estou doente (it is "I am sick" in Portuguese)

But the verb (in red) is different, so as the meaning:
1- means the sickness is my essence, like a name or a profession.
2- means I am sick but it will pass, it is just a ocasional state.

So, in Portuguese you have to say:
1- Eu sou John, eu sou professor, eu sou americano.
2- Eu estou doente, eu estou gripado, eu estou cansado.

In English, it is written and said:
1- I am John, I am professor, I am american.
2- I am sick, I am cold, I am tired.

The differences between "Eu sou/Eu estou" is a almost exclusive in Portuguese and Spanish. Other romance languages do not have this particularity:

Io sono John, Io sono qui (Italian)
Je suis John, Je suis ici (French)
Yo soy John, Yo estoy aquí (Spanish)
Eu sou John, Eu estou aqui (Portuguese)
I am John, I am here (English)



Other detail, the word cold in English has two meanings: 1- a disease caused by a virus and 2- adjective of something that is not hot.

In Portuguese, cold is frio (frio means cold in the second definition). When you refers to the disease you have to say gripe (gripe is cold in the first definition).

We have in Portuguese the verb that means "to get a cold". It is gripar. See the conjugation at the Present:
Eu gripo, Tu gripas, Ele gripa, Nós gripamos, etc...
(=I get a cold, you get a cold, he get a cold, we get a cold...)

The word gripado is the past participle of the verb gripar.
The word gripar is the infinitive form.

If you are a female you have to say: Eu estou gripada
If you are a male you have to say: Eu estou gripado

English does not have declinations by male/female and singular/plural.
English article "a" in Portuguese can assume four forms: um, uma, uns, umas.
English article "the" in Portuguese can assume four forms: o, a, os, as.

That is why I think English is simple and easy. You don't have to conjugate verbs and there is (almost) no declination.

See how it is complex? And this is only one example!

I know, there are a lot of beautiful poems in English and they are very "figurative". Portuguese has figures of speech (as English) too, but in addition has a more complex grammar. Imagine!

So, it is a hard thing to explain. If you knew portuguese it would be easier! But ask your husband about French.

French is a romance language too. You can make a debate with him.
Have fun!;)

Present----- Presente
I love------- eu amo
you love----- tu amas
he loves----- ele ama
we love----- nós amamos
you all love--- vós amais
they love ----- eles amam

English does not have a plural form of you

I have to define vós = all of you (or you all)

All romance languages have the plural form:
voi, vous, vosotros, vós (italian, french, spanish, portuguese)

"In English the same word can have a very different pronunciation and mean something very different." - Yes, but all languages I speak have this too. This is not an English particularity.

But Portuguese is easy to learn and speak the basic things. You can learn if you want it.

Le 900 milliones de personas qui parla portugese, francese, espaniol, italiano, romaniano, etc. e mesmo le parlatores de anglese comprende un texto technic in interlingua sin studio previe. Illo tamben es relativemente intelligibile a eruditos parlatores de linguas germanic (germano, per exemplo) e slave (como le russo).

Tell me if you have undestood it.

That is Interlingua (international auxiliary language)

My oppinion:
All the ocidental world must study Interlingua at school.

Know more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interli...n_illustration

I do not think Portuguese is very hard at all, neither english - But Portuguese is a more elaborated language with specific turn about of rules while english is a language more favorable for the flow of the text. Almost as if one is Prose and the other poetry but is just silly.

Original:
Le 900 milliones de personas qui parla portugese, francese, espaniol, italiano, romaniano, etc. e mesmo le parlatores de anglese comprende un texto technic in interlingua sin studio previe. Illo tamben es relativemente intelligibile a eruditos parlatores de linguas germanic (germano, per exemplo) e slave (como le russo).

Translated
Nine hundred million people which speak Portuguese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian, etc. and even English speakers can understand a technical text in interlingua without previous study. Also, it is relatively undestandable to erudit speakers of the germanic languages (German, for example) and Slavic languages (like Russian).

Votre français n'est pas mal! Je voudrais parler avec toi, moi aussi, je pense que le français est trés difficile et j'ai besoin de pratiquer.

A bientôt!

ma preferisco l'italiano per che è una lingua più musicale.

But yes, I want to talk with you in French.

I don't know if it is allowed here, it is an English forum. Maybe someone protest against us!

Do you remember the rules?

Anyway, there is a French forum of Literature. I am a member too.

I'll try to keep contact, although my vacations will end and I will not have the time to write as much as I wrote here.

Let's see what future brings.
Nice to talk with you.;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Antiquarian

Really? Spanish and Portuguese always seemed to flow so wonderfully to me. English and German can sound so harsh at times, at least to me. Now, the harshest language I've ever heard is Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese. It sounds like the people are yelling at you when they're really just talking normally for them.

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Spanish is a bit baroque.
That makes me remember an anedote that Jorge Luis Borges told in a interview. He and Neruda are heads of the latin american literary world but they never liked much each other. After decades of little attacks they meet each other in the 70's, already very old.
But the rivalirty remained. So Borges told that each other started to joke to not give an "opening" to the rival about not being able to write poetry anymore because spanish was wrong for such thing and they should only write in english from now on. They ended making a pact to never write poetry anymore but in english and praising the english poetry. Of course the pact was broken by both without any remorse.
Flow is a bit out, all languages have a flow, but English does seems more close to the oral universe, the order of the words in a phrase more loose... While portuguese uses an strong structure in the sentences, it is a more precise language when writen.
Both of course flow wonderfully, that is why I said I was silly :D