Certainly some edifying posts. I got the gist of "ta".
I don't think any Brazilians use achar for "to find" as I always get a quizzical look when I use it this way.
I had mistakenly been using the verb encontrar when I wanted to convey "to meet". So it appears I should exclusively use it to mean "to find". Now my next problem is what verb do I use when I want to mean "to meet". The dictionary I have says to use encontrar.
Help, help.

achar can be used to mean find in certain ways, as is achei a verdade (I found the truth)

Take everything I say with a grain of salt especially my spelling as I am between beginner to intermediate.
Pimsleur is Brazilian Portuguese, accent and phrases are identical to sounds of Rio.
As soon as you master pronunciation, then knowing Spanish, you make a huge leap.
Actually knowing French will help you more than Spanish to acquire Brazilian accent.
If you know only English, good luck acquiring garota's accent. Just try to say "nao" properly.

StayAwayJoe
Do you have a dictionary?
Indeed after checking mine, "meet" has different equivalent words in Brazileiro and encontrar is NOT what you're looking to say. How about using "reunir se com"
Maybe: Eu gostaria de me reunir com voce as 11:00 de manha.

Wilmaflint
My spanish is not that good BUT I am getting back to espanol after Rio trip as I am thinking Buenos Aires in Nov.
Studying Portuguese and Espanol go hand in hand but I do get confused while in TJ now and chicas may not understand my brazileiro/spangualese dialect.

A note of caution in regards to buying DVDs in Brazil. DVDs in Brazil are Region 4, and the US is Region 1. There's no problem in playing them on computers; you can easily change your region. I've never used a DVD player and don't know how easy it is to change regions on them.

Two recent Brazilian movies you should be able to find in your local video store (on tape or DVD) are "Central Station" and "Midnight" (real title: "O Primero Dia"). Both have English subtitles, though the DVDs may have more such options.

Post some good clean conversational Portuguese and I will have my two 25 year old female college students from Brazil who live next door translate it for us.

They also have some very fine friends that I am trying to get to know.

I am also their landlord, so keep it clean for now.

Central Station (Central do Brasil) was on IFC (the Independent Film Channel) last week. It had English subtitles. IFC tends to play some movies over and over again. Check your local listings.

A spinster takes a child under her wing, and they take a journey to find his father in the interior of Brazil. Very enjoyable. Won best film in the Berlin Film Festival.

Couple follow=up notes:

StayAway:

In English, 'meet' has two meanings: to be introduced to for the first time, and to bump into later. Maybe your problem lies somewhere in there when you get quizzical looks...because every one of my usage notes has 'encontrar' in the phrase as the verb 'to meet', at least in the bump=into context, and I certainly used it a lot (as in 'When do I see you again? Where will I meet you?').

Note that what you say when introducing or being introduced to someone in Spanish is a lot different from seeing them on subsequent encounters (and note the English use of encontrar here!). In Spanish you would use presentar for introduce, and your response would be mucho gusto, etc, sort of skipping around the actual concept of 'to meet'. Mucho gusto can be covered by 'Satisfacao!' in P, according to my notes. To say 'I met her at a party' (as in I was introduced to her there) I would use "conhecer" (same as French's connaitre) until somebody corrected me.

Athos:

I might suggest simplifying your sentence
"Eu gostaria de me reunir com voce as 11:00 de manha." to use the verb ver (see) in place of reunirse...the latter feels a bit stilted ("I'd like to reunite with you..."). As in Spanish "Te veo en frente de la iglesia a las tres, OK babes? OK, ciao, nos vemos."

If you are into music DVDs, the Toquinho DVD is fantastic, and it has English subtitles -- even for the song lyrics. The Marisa Monte DVD is a good choice also, and it has English subtitles for the song lyrics.

If you have any Brazilan penpals & you need a spell checker then netscape 6 has a Portuguese speller checker.

http://home.netscape.com/computing/download/spellcheckers.html#builtinURL

I don't know about you guys, but my biggest problem about 3/4 through pimsleur 1 is gender agreement. I'm constantly screwing this up.

I think the best way to learn would be to just move there and have no choice. Hmmm.. not a bad idea.

Dood

YOU BITCH..I knew I would get that in soon!!!

hahaha

t minus 7 days

I nominate "Samba de Orly" as our theme song. If any of us could sing, we could sing to Dood as he leaves:

Go, my brother.
Catch that plane.
You are right to run from this cold.
But kiss my Rio de Janeiro for me...

Check out how that lazy life is going.
And if you can, send me some good news.

Sound clip from Amazon.com:

Samba de Orly

Vai, meu irmão pega esse avião.
Você tem razão, De correr assim desse frio.
Mas veja, O meu Rio de Janeiro...

Vê como é que anda aquela vida à toa.
E se puder me manda uma notícia boa.

All the lyrics can be found here:

Lyrics for Samba de Orly.

Perfect find Wilma. Good job.

What do you think of the music on the rest of the CD?

I don't have the linked cd, but Chico Buarque is one the most famous Brazilian singers and lyricists and one of the best-looking men in Brazil--or the world. He was especially popular in the 60s-80s. I don't know much about Brazilian music, other than what little I've read and heard. I got the translation to the song off the Toquinho DVD. Chico Buarque and Toquinho sing Samba de Orly together on the DVD--wonderful. There's a story behind the song, which Tocquino tells, but I'm trying to keep the post short.

Here is an excellent compilation cd, which also has the song and many other great Brazilian standards. The mulheres probably know most of the songs on it by heart:

Brazil: The Essential Album

I don't know if you guys know that TV Globo is available on satellite. I record RJ TV, the local Rio news, in the morning on a DVR then watch it along with Jornal National live when I get home from work.

I agree with Wilmaflint, Os Normais is a hoot. They're on Sunday evenings.

For all those who would like to supplement their Portuguese lessons while they are here in Rio.

I now have a Portuguese language teacher that has been teaching Portuguese to foreigners both Conversation and Business courses, for the last 2 years in one of the best schools in Rio on my payroll. She will be available in the afternoons from 12 noon until 2 PM every weekday.. Cost is 100reais for one (1) hour a day for 5 days.

ok Who is the king of Portuguese here...I need an email translated..I have worn out my program and the net trying to figure it out...it is a short note so should be easy for someone who read and writes it

layne@preferred.com

,,,thanks

post it here, I will translate it for you

Can you get your point across in basic spanish?? I know Portugese and spanish are differnt but I was just wondering how one might fare by speaking some spanish.

Ironmike - very well although you should probably spend a couple of months listening to the 1st couple of sets of Pimsleur tapes as there are a number of very common words that will confuse someone with only a Spanish background.

I'm sure Powerslave & others can give more knowledgeable comments on this issue.

IronMike
Many garotas will pick up some basic Spanish.
You will probably not understand much Portuguese as accent is totally different.

Mim de noticis de você sinto sua falta de verdade.

all translators give some babble about lack of truth??? but I see no context completely...

thanks

Someone thinks your not telling her the truth about something

Wait a sec.. I think that means that she truly misses you. More literally, she feels your absence, truthfully.

But I'm no expert.. More opinions welcome

Layne

"Mim de" is ovbiously "Manda" the word send in English.

Translation:

Send news about yoruself. I truly miss you.

Malandro- Nice job...my translation was WAY off..

Thanks a bunch...

Dood pretty good for a rookie on the second try..how did you get that...your first try was like mine...

Layne, here falta means your absence
There seem to be spelling mistakes in it, but it means "No news (letters/communications) from you, I REALLY miss you. (I really feal your absence)

Layne,

3 hours of portuguese a day... 1 hour of www.rosettastone.com and 2 of pimsleur.

I have 57 dvd's and I just combed through all of them looking for a portuguese track or subtitles. Only one has it. As a matter of fact, it has both..

I feel kinda lame for admiting this, but it's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I guess that's a start

I'll have no problem asking for everlasting gobstopper.

Pimsleur Port 3 is now available.

I ordered it direct from Simon & Shuster, and they matched the cheapest price I could find online. Here's the info:

Call Alexandra in sales at: 1-800-831-5497

Tell her you would like to order Portuguese 3, and a frind said you would match the alldirect.com price of $204.55

Have fun

I will give you $100 for #2!

Here is some Portuguese for Rio newbie hombres:

tudo bem (todo beng) - how is everything?
como estas (como eshtash) - how are you?
como vai - how are you?
muito bem, obrigado - very well, thank you
bom dia (bon djia) - good morning
boa tarde (boa tardje) - good afternoon
boa noite (boa noitche) - good evening
por favor - please
cuantos? - How much?
conta? - get me the check
garcon - waiter
fazer amor - make love
com licensa (con licensa) - pardon me
disculpe me (djesculpa me) - excuse me
que pena - what a shame
ate logo (a te logo) - goodbye
tchau - bye
cuidado - take care
vai com deus - bye as in go with god.
beijos - kisses (when saying goodbye on the phone)
de onde e? (dje ondje e) - where are you from?
girl from rio will say carioca, from sao paulo paulista, other city or region Manaus, Mine Gerais, Salvador, Bahia, Vittoria...
direita (djereta) - right
esquerda - left
perto daqui - close from here
longe daqui - far from here
na semana que vem - next week
eu vo embora - I am leaving
eu fico por duas semanas - i am staying 2 weeks
viage de feiras - vacation trip
eu gosto de loiras y de morenas - I like blondes and brunettes
note: loira means fair skin ladies while morenas they use it for everything else blacks, mulattas, dark brown hair, morenas.
um real (ung reau) - one real
dos centos reals (dois centos reais) - 200 reals

smell and sounds of rio
cheiroso - smells nice (when a garota smells your neck and likes your perfume)
carinhoso - affectionate (when garota enjoys being caressed and making out)
legal (legau) - this is cool
que lingua - what a tongue you have
orgasmo - orgasm
oi - garota moaning (sometimes she will say o instead)

cuantos anos voce tem? how old are you?
y voce? and you?
faculdade (faculdadje) - university
voce vai a escolar? - do you go to school?
voce tem filhos? do you have children?
criancas - children
namorada - girlfriend
marido - married
Eu moro en Baton Rouge nos Estados Unidos - I live in Baton Rouge in the USA

Now can someone help?, I keep forgetting how they say: fuck me, give it to me, pussy, dick.

Muito obrigado, carioca Athos.
Como se dezir en Portuguese:

May I....?
I'd like....
Would you like...(to have something to drink/eat)?
Do you like....?
Are you busy/occupied?
Do you have...(a gf who you think would like to be with us)?

gostar de means "to like" in Portuguese; unlike its Spanish counterpart "gustar" which means something like "is pleasing to". So in Portuguese, one just conjugates gostar de like any normal verb.

I would like - Eu gostaria
Would you like - Você gostaria algo para comer/tomar?
I like - Eu gosto muito desta comida (I like this food very much).
Do you like - Você gosta de pescar (to fish)?
Do you have - Você tem
Are you busy/occupied? - Você esta ocupado?

YT,
BluesTraveller here. I am certainly no expert on Portuguese but the girls taught me a few expressions. One of them is gustozo (not sure spelling is correct), which I would translate loosely to mean enjoyable, but also can be used in a similar way to legao.

Any ways that's what I think I have learned. The phrase that I liked was

El sexo es muito gustozo.

BluesTraveller

BT - if you get a gostoso out of a brasileira, you are doing very well. Typically when I hear it they are almost chanting it.

Of course I forgot the major session line: voce gostoso (or simply gostoso) or you can tell the garota voce gostosa.

Youngtom, muito obrigado. It looks like lots of words are similar to Spanish but are pronounced differently. Muito legal.

Exactly Sakebomb. If one tries some of the different approaches suggested in the various Learning Portuguese threads, Spanish speakers can leverage their spanish & communicate fairly well in Portuguese.

OK-1st trip to Rio is fast approaching. It was very short notice and I would have liked to get the Pimsleur series, but I woudn't have had the time to really go through it. I speak spanish, so it's been pretty easy so far.

I did get a beginner Pimsleur 4 CD set from a bookstore and I'm glad I did to hear the crazy pronunciation. After getting used to it I like it though.

I've also searched the main verbs & conjugation on the internet and I've been practicing a lot.

I have a question. I assume that when speaking to garotas you use Voce right? The Pimsleur tapes use Senor and Senora as a formal way to address (You), but I'm sure that can't be used in practice, right? Just want to make sure.

Any other suggestions, maybe some slang?

Thanks,

HC1

'o senhor' and 'a senhora' means 'you' but when with friends you can use 'voce' instead.
Just smile and say 'Tudo bem' and you'll get laid.

Hombrecito1,

Just make that effort and it will pay big at the end. But the more you speak the better of-course. Brazilians are some of the warmest people on this planet and everyone will be eager to help you with the girls specially the girls themselves. When you get in town and need some assistance or just some much needed newbie tips. just drop me a line. I'll be glad to share my experiences.

You can find additional info on my many services on the "tour guide" link of the "Rio de Janeiro" page. I also have a basic language translator in a "learn portuguese" link on my site.

Take care

Jose
21-9317-5567

hombrecito1 - you'll have a great time in Rio even with limited skills. I didn't bother to learn any portuegese until after my 3rd trip and I still had the time of my life prior to that.

The biggest prob for those that don't speak any portuguese is that they are unable to make small talk with the girls. With no portuguese skills, conversations tend to be along the lines of "My name is YT and I have $1000 to go back to my hotel" which is followed by $2000 is better from the girl; with some language skills, one will have more fun (and the girls will spend more time with you) and you won't be as likely to be gouged on the garota prices at Help/Lido. Termas are great places for language handicapped guys.

Note: above prices are way,way out of line and should not be used in real negotiating talks.

YT,

I've been working on the basics, but I've been learning a lot of verbs too-for the most part they're similar to Spanish-ser,estar,ficar,ter,etc.....

Sentence structure is also simlar with some key differences. I'm finding I can understand over 1/2 of what's said most of the time. My problem is that I've memorized differences in structure and pronunication for several things I want to say, but if something comes up I don't know, I immediately revert back to Spanish. I figure the garotas must know some Spanish too, so I think I'm ok. I know it's not critical, but I've found making latinas laugh and like you first can lead to great rewards later. After reading the reports I'm afraid to think what some of these garotas would do if they really liked you.

Thanks,

HC1

Hombrecito,

You are going to do great. I met a friend of Athos's down in Rio my first trip, and he was Mexican and spoke fluent Spanish. He had little to no difficulty communicating. Since you are already learning some Portugese, it will make your trip all the more pleasurable.

It is good to know some of the differences in pronunciation between the two. I just bought a little English - Portugese dictionary ($7 at Amazon) and have been paging through it in my free time. It really seems like almost all of the conjugation of the verbs is the same, and about 40% of the vocabulary translates with only slight changes in pronunciation.

Boa Suerte,

BT

BT,

I'm ready to leave today. I don't know if I can wait much longer.

Before the internet boards I'd always heard stories about Rio, but it was reading about the Termas here that really got me going and posts by you, Youngtom, Athos, and others along with the photos pretty much sealed the deal.

Thanks,

HC1