In a nutshell, determinants are words that precede nouns and tell you things about them, like gender, number, location, etc.. Think of the English equivalents: 'a pencil' has a different meaning than 'the pencil'.
I just said that one of the things they give information on is gender and number. If you remember the contents of the last lesson, though, you might be wondering, 'if the nouns have different forms for masculine and feminine, singular and plural, why should I care about determinants?' The thing is, the gender and number are not always apparent in the noun. For example: the word 'lápis' (pencil) is exactly the same in singular and plural, and 'pianista' (pianist) could be either masculine or feminine. Determinants help clear up ambiguities like these.
There are several kinds of determinants, depending on what type of information they give you, but one thing they all have in common is that they are always accompanied by a noun and their number and gender are the same as those of the noun they refer to.
Artigos Definido e Indefinido (Definite and Indefinite Articles)
Definite Articles are used when you want to talk about a specific object out of many of its kind. For example, 'o livro' (the book) refers to just one book, that one, regardless of how many other books exist throughout the world.
If you didn't care whether it was this or that book, and just wanted to reference a token object of its kind, you would use an indefinite article. For example, 'um livro' (a book) is a lot less specific.
Definite Articles (the):
O (masculine singular)
A (feminine singular)
Os (masculine plural)
As (feminine plural)
Indefinite Articles (a, an):
Um (masculine singular)
Uma (feminine singular)
Uns (masculine plural)
Umas (feminine plural)
As you can see, the articles follow the gender and number rules of the previous lesson to a 't'. Rejoice! It's rare to find classes of words as well-behaved as these.
Example 1: Um vestido (a dress)
Example 2: As calças (the pants)
Example 3: Uns botões (some buttons)
Determinantes Demonstrativos (Demonstrative Determinants)
These determinants indicate the location of the referred object in relation to the speaker and the listener. In English, the equivalents would be 'this' and 'that', but since determinants vary according to number and gender, these words also come in quadruplicate in Portuguese. Don't worry, it will become second nature - eventually, hehe.
1. When something is close to the speaker (this):
Este (masculine singular)
Esta (feminine singular)
Estes (masculine plural)
Estas (feminine plural)
2. When something is close to the listener (that):
Esse (masculine singular)
Essa (feminine singular)
Esses (masculine plural)
Essas (feminine plural)
3. When something is far from both (that):
Aquele (masculine singular)
Aquela (feminine singular)
Aqueles (masculine plural)
Aquelas (feminine plural)
English does not differentiate between the last two forms, so here is an impromptu chart to explain the difference (the symbol 'S' denotes the speaker, 'L' is the listener, and '1', '2', and '3' are different items):
S 1xxxxxL 2xxxxxx3
The speaker would say:
(About 1) Este objecto (this object)
(About 2) Esse objecto (that object)
(About 3) Aquele objecto (that object)
How far away 3 has to be to no longer be considered a 2 is completely subjective, so don't sweat it if you can't decide between one or the other. Item 3 could be completely out of the listener's reach, or it could be really close but fall under the third category because there was an item 2 between 3 and the listener.
Additionally, note that these determinants also follow the gender and number rules that we applied to nouns in the previous lesson. If you keep those rules in mind, you only really have to memorise three words: 'este', 'esse' and 'aquele'.
Determinantes Possessivos (Possessive Determinants)
This is where it gets tricky. As the name indicates, possessive determinants indicate who owns the object in question. I've been using the word object in these brief definitions, but this does not mean that they only apply to inanimate objects. All of these determinants are used equally for animals and people.
First person singular: meu, minha, meus, minhas (my)
Second person singular: teu, tua, teus, tuas (your, when refering to a single individual)
Third person singular: seu, sua, seus, suas (his, her)
First person plural: nosso, nossa, nossos, nossas (our)
Second person plural: vosso, vossa, vossos, vossas (your, when refering to more than one individual)
Third person plural: seu, sua, seus, suas (their)
Those are a lot of words, right? But it's simple once you get into it.
Out of all these 'first person singular', 'second person plural', etc., you choose the one that matches the owner of the item. For example, if 'we' own the item, then you need to use the 'first person plural'.
Then, out of the four forms of 'first person plural' (nosso, nossa, nossos, nossas), you pick the one that matches the item in gender and number. For example, if you're talking about a single pen ('a caneta') - you need to use the feminine and singular form 'nossa'.
The end result: 'a nossa caneta' (our pen).
A couple of extra notes:
1. Possessive determinants have to be preceded by either an article or a demonstrative determinant. There are exceptions to this, but they are very specific cases, so don't worry about them for now.
2. 'Seu' is a rather ambiguous form. It doesn't distinguish between third person singular or plural and sometimes, in more formal conversations, it can even indicate second person! It can be confusing for the listener to understand who the owner is, so we tend to reserve its use to more formal situations and writing. When speaking, we generally use an alternative to the determinants for the third person. Rather than saying 'his pen', we literally say 'pen of him' (which is done using a contraction of a preposition and a personal pronoun, if you want to know the gritty details). Here's the alternate portion of the table:
Third person singular: dele, dela (his, her)
Third person plural: deles, delas (their)
Now, you wonder: why are there only two forms for each person? Like I said, these aren't determinants, so they don't have anything to do with the object they're appended to. They relate only to the owner. If 'he' owns it, you'll want to use third person singular, masculine form: 'dele'. If a bunch of girls own it ('they') you use the third person plural in its feminine form: 'delas'. (Remember that in mixed groups you should use the masculine form, even if there are 99 girls and just 1 boy.)
Also note that whereas determinants precede a noun, these alternate forms always come afterwards.
Examples:
'O seu carro' can mean either one of these:
1. 'O carro dele' (his car)
2. 'O carro dela' (her car)
3. 'O carro deles' (their car, m or mixed group)
4. 'O carro delas' (their car, f)
5. 'O teu carro' (your car, sing.) *
6. 'O vosso carro' (your car, pl.) *
* I'm just illustrating how tricky it is to use 'seu'. Don't bother trying to understand why 5 and 6 are there for now. We'll get back to this later on, after we cover verbs.
Vocabulário (Vocabulary)
O (m) - the
Um (m) - a, an
Este (m) - this
Esse (m) - that
Aquele (m) - that (farther away)
Meu (m), minha (f) - my
Teu (m), tua (f) - your (single owner)
Seu (m), sua (f) - his, her, their
Nosso (m) - our
Vosso (m) - your (more than one owner)
Dele (m) - his
Hear what these words sound like!Exercícios (Exercises)
1. Write ten 'determinant + noun' combinations (use the vocabulary from lesson 1 or look up some new words if you like).
2. After completing the first exercise, take a break, have some ice-cream, then go back and see if you can translate everything you wrote back to English.
3. Listen to the recording and practice saying the words.
4. Listen to the recording and try to write the words without looking at the lesson.
Feel free to post your answers if you want me to correct them. Also, if you have any other questions, ask away!
Good luck! wink
