23 Comments
I am brazilian, portuguese is my first language and I understood "o filhote". Please, you should really change the sounds, cause this robot's gonna teach people the wrong way to speak portuguese
you're right! I listened over and over and it still sounded like an 'l' and not an 'm'. When I get to Coimbra, I'm going to sound like a Portuguese Wall-E!
is this "the mound"? I don't understand what a mount means in this context - is that "the slope", "the slant"? Or is it "the hill", "the mound", "the pile"
Sorry! The Portuguese dictionaries do not agree with you; monte = mound, heap, mountain, mount, hill.
And Wikipedia (probably not the best source) says Mount Everest = O monte Everest
The idea of introducing a word that has a variety of meanings isolated from any context is pointless. This kind of exercise generates questions but is not an effective way to teach grammar.
The question isn't whether "o monte" means "the mount." The question is its relevance and usage. I have never referred to anything as a "mount". Mountain, hill, peak, pile, heap, but never "mount." Mount is used in English only when describing a mountain by its name. Mount Everest. Mount of Olives, etc.
I looked in the dictionary Word Reference and it says "monte" is a heap or a pile, (which is what I understood the word to mean...for example "um monte de documentos") and that "colina" is a hill and "montanha" is a mountain. Can some native speaker please clarify the translation of "monte" as other comments here seem to disagree about the translation?
I think Word Reference has let you down on this occasion. Try a more traditional dictionary:
http://dictionary.reverso.net/portuguese-english/monte
or something like Wiktionary:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monte#Portuguese
Or, even better, use a Pt-Pt dictionary as they usually have much more information. For example this entry:
http://www.priberam.pt/dlpo/monte
Says that it is elevated land which is higher than a hill but not as high as a mountain.
Thanks Davu. I particularly like your recommendation of a Pt-Pt dictionary, I hadn't used one before now. (Incidentally the one you proposed gives a second meaning of monte as "Porção considerável" which for me is the same as heap or pile of something, such as "There's a heap of clothes to wash" or "I've a pile of letters to answer").
Yes, Word Reference wasn't wrong, just lacking a definition or two. Other Pt-Pt dictionaries you could try are: http://www.aulete.com.br and http://michaelis.uol.com.br
