Quando Você Voltar – Legião Urbana

I’ve recently been listening to quite a lot of Legião Urbana (Urban Legion), described by a Brazilian friend of mine as the Brazilian Smiths. It also sounds like late-80s, early-90s R.E.M. and the Cure which is no bad thing, in my opinion.

Anyway, there’s a little track toward the end of their “A Tempestade” album which is short but contains a nice little love story in the lyrics. You can hear the song in the video above (I’m sorry it’s one of those home-made jobs, but I couldn’t find a video of Legião Urbana actually performing the track).

Imperative Verbs again!

The song mixes imperatives and other forms of verb conjugation in Portuguese. (Read here for an introduction to imperatives). Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to listen to the song (which is sung helpfully slowly) and listen out for how the 14 verbs listed below are conjugated – only the infinitive is given below. Some of them are imperatives. I’ve attempted an English translation of the song below if you want to check what it means. Click answers above for the solution.

Vai, se você precisa (ir=to go).
Não quero mais (brigar=to fight) esta noite
Nossas acusações infantis
E palavras mordazes que (machucar=hurt/injur) tanto
Não vão (levar=to lift/to rise to a conclusion) a nada, como sempre
Vai, clareia um pouco a cabeça
Já que você não quer (conversar=to converse/ to talk).
Já (brigar=to fight) tanto
Mas não vale a pena
Vou (ficar=to stay) aqui, com um bom livro ou com a TV
(Saber=to know) que existe alguma coisa (incomodar=to bother/trouble) você
Meu amor, cuidado na estrada
E quando você (voltar= to return)
(Trancar=to lock) o portão
(Fechar=to close) as janelas
(Apagar=to turn on) a luz
e (saber=to know) que te amo…

Quando Você Voltar – Legião Urbana
English translation / Tradução Ingles.

You go, if you need to go
I don’t want to fight more tonight
Our infantile accusations
and biting words that hurt so much
they won’t conclude anything, as usual.
You go, clear your head a little
You already don’t want to talk
We already fought a lot
But it’s not worth it
I will stay here with a good book or with the TV
I know that something is troubling you
My love, careful on the road
And when you return
Lock the door,
Close the windows
Switch off the light
and know that I love you…

(ps. for me, this song has an uncanny resemblance to a lot of Ryan Adams songs, in particular Nobody Girl and the other stuff off his Gold record).

Imperatives (Look! Enjoy! Dream!)

Imperatives – what are they?

Imperatives are a strange beast in Portuguese. An imperative is a way of forming a verb to add emphasis. It is used for commands and orders, instructions (for example in recipes) and to sell products in advertising or in speech to stress what you want somebody else to do or understand. In other words, it’s what you think is “imperative” for other people to act on.

If you never studied English grammar (like me) I’m sure you’d never stopped to think about them before. This is because in English imperatives are the same as the present simple tense. We say “You look at the shop” and “Look at the shop!” and we use the same word in both sentences “look”. Or, “They read the instructions” and “Read the instructions” have different meanings and stress but the same word “read”.

Yes, but in Portuguese – what are they?

In Portuguese, you change the ending of the verbs like this: -ar verbs finish with e, and -er and -ir verbs finish with a. (Click here to read more if you don’t know what I’m on about). This totally scrambled my brain when I was taught it in Portuguese class a few years ago. It wasn’t until I came to Brazil and it heard it in practice that I could comprehend the strange logic behind it. I now think having this extra way of providing emphasis lends Portuguese a subtlety lacking in English.

Anyway, let’s get to some examples. Common imperatives I have to use while raising my two year old son are:

Olhe! = Look! (from the verb olhar)
Pare! = Stop! (from the verb parar)
Sente! = Sit! (from the verb sentar)
Coma! = Eat! (from the verb comer)

And some from adverts…

Aproveite! = Enjoy! (from the verb aproveitar)
Relaxe! = Relax! (from the verb relaxar)
Aprenda! = Learn! (from the verb aprender)
Sonhe! = Dream! (from the verb sonhar)

An example of the last one is given in the video above. The video is an adidas advert, in English with Portuguese subtitles, featuring famous footballers visiting San Marino. The adidas slogan for this campaign is Sonhe Grande – Dream Big. The video also includes an irregular imperative – the verb ver (to see) which becomes veja and not va. Veja (see!) is also the name of Brazil’s most popular news magazine.

Irregular Imperatives

The are several irregular imperatives which, if you need more help, I recommend looking up in a grammar book. But, here are four important ones:

The verb ir (to go) is vá. For example: A mother says to her child “Vai para cama” (You go to bed) and then when the child disobeys she turns the suggestion into an order “Vá! Agora!” (Go! Now!)

The verb ser (to be) is seja. For example: Seja bemvindos – Be welcome
The verb estar (to be) is esteja. For example: Esteja aqui – Be here
The verb come (vim) is venha. For example: Venha cá – Come here

Portuguese that looks like English

Finally, it’s strange to me that some regular imperative -ar verbs, by losing the -ar and gaining an -e, end up looking exactly like English. The following four verbs appear exactly the same in English as in Portuguese: Imagine! Compare! Ignore! Use! The only problem, of course, is we don’t pronounce them the same…