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- "Eu bebo leite."
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Some times it is, sometimes it is not. Each case has its own rules.
Normally, no articles mean a general sentence. "Eu bebo leite" = "I drink milk" (I have no problems drinking milk)
And the article identifies an instance: "Eu bebo o leite" = "I drink the milk" (There is "the" milk, probably we are talking about the one that is on the table now, or in the fridge....)
1860
Hello MzDiva242, and welcome to duoLingo!
It is common in many languages that the verb is "conjugated" to agree with the subject that the verb applies to. In Portuguese, this means that the ending of the verb is changed a little to "agree with" the pronoun.
This happens in English, too. For example, you would say "I drink", "You drink", but "She drinks". You would never say "You drinks", right? That's because the verb "to drink" is conjugated as "drink" when the subject pronoun is I/you/we/they, but it's conjugated as "drinks" with the subject pronouns he/she/it.
It's very similar in Portuguese. The verb "beber" (which means to drink) is conjugated as "Eu bebo" (which means "I drink"), "Ela bebe" (She drinks), and there are other conjugations for other subject pronouns "Nós bebemos" (We drink), "Eles bebem" (They drink), etc.
Now, keep in mind that this is present tense -- an action that happens right now, in the present. There are other tenses, too. Things that happen in the past (I drank), the future (I will drink), and on and on. But don't worry about that right now... it'll all fall into place. Learning languages comes pretty naturally for us as humans, it just takes time and practice.
This website will help you with different verbs and conjugations. Try looking up beber on it, and you can see the various ways to talk about drinking!
BTW, make sure and study all the comments in these discussions, you wouldn't believe how useful they can be! Before long you'll be answering questions, too. :-)
Bons estudos! (Good studies!)
Wow! Thank you so much! I understand now.
One other question, if you don't mind...please.
Did you re-test each section repeatedly until you knew the terms, phrases and words by memory; or did you write them down and study them? I am finding that I remember the words and their english translations, but I am not able to form sentences. I guess this will come. I am fairly new so I don't want to beat myself up too tough. I just want to find a system that's effective and efficient.
Thanks again
Crystal
1860
Hello again, Crystal!
Wow! Thank you so much! I understand now.
Good! I'm glad!
One other question, if you don't mind...please.
Not at all. Questions are how we learn. :-)
I'll address your question on your "activity stream", though, since the moderators would probably prefer keeping these sentence discussion forums limited to the specific sentence for which they exist.
The "T" change only happens with "i" sounds. Anywhere in the words. (1)
The "D" change (to something like DJ) happens in the same case, for "i" sounds:
The weak "e" gets an "i" sound. It happens when it's at the end of the word and the last syllable is not stressed. (Some other weak "e"s may become "i", like the words beginning in "des": desfazer, desculpa..., but only for some people)
- Leite - Leitch
- Verdade - Verdadji
- Particular - Partchcular
- Medida - Medjida.
A similar behavior rules the "o", which gets "u" sound when it's weak (but it does not affect D or T):
- Culpado - Culpadu
- Pecados - Pecádus
(1) Some northern regions of the country do change the T for some "u" sounds in the end of the words, but it's best to do it only with "e".
As you say, the pronunciation of word final "te" varies with dialect. You can hear other native speakers saying the word here:
http://www.forvo.com/word/leite/#pt
and the Duolingo voice sounds like the woman called Sirasp (based in SP state according to the map).
What dialect do you consider the "usual" one? I think the Duolingo robot/woman has got a Paulista accent, hasn't she?
My accent is from west of São Paulo state, here it sounds like "leiti". I think it is the most "usual". In south of Brazil, in states as Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, and Santa Catarina (Curitiba is a city, capital of Paraná state, that has the strongest "Ê" in this word) it sounds like "leitÊ", with a strong "e". I have almost never heard this accent with "tche", I think maybe it comes from somewhere of midwest of Brazil. Maybe you would like watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj_buS_MHmo (in portuguese), its about the different Brazilian accents.
Normally it's "leich" (that's what I think Wildley means with "ti", this is generally common in all states of the southeast), here she adds a little "e" sound at the end of the normal speech: "leiche".
So, here we say "leich", and to the south they say "leite", she is like mixing both with "leiche", but it's nothing to worry about in my opinion.
Thank you very much for the interesting information. I watched the video and I didn't hear the Duolingo vesion of "leite". Were you able to listen to the clips on forvo.com? Do any of them sound exactly like your way of saying the word, and which ones do you find unusual? As I said, I think Sirasp sounds like the Duolingo woman, no? (I'm talking about Duolingo's normal speed version, I'm unable to play the slow audio.)
I have listened the clips on fervo.com. FabioR and daltonos sound like the way I say this word. I agree with you, Sirasp sounds exactly like Duolingo's voice. It's hard to say which ones are unusual, because of the great variety of accents, I would say Sirasp and coohrus are the ones that sound me more "strange".
Use "bebe" for "he/she/it drinks" and "you drink"; use "bebo" for "I drink". See: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/1524592
1860
Oi! When you use the Portuguese present tense to say "eu bebo leite" it is essentially the same as the present tense in English. In other words, you are only saying that you drink milk in a general sense, but you aren't making any other assertion, such as, for example, that you're drinking milk at that moment.
If you specifically wanted to say that you are drinking milk at that moment, you would use the Presente contínuo (gerúndio) tense to say "Eu estou bebendo leite".
It is important to not fall into the trap of trying to equate tenses between languages so I also should make note of the fact that the English present progressive tense can be used differently than the Portuguese presente contínuo. In English, when one says "I am drinking milk" it might mean that I'm drinking milk at that moment. But it might also refer to a habitual action, such as, "I'm on a vegan diet, but I'm drinking milk". It could also be used in a future context, for example, "I'm drinking milk tomorrow". The Portuguese gerund isn't used to describe anything beyond what is happening at the moment of speaking, however. (Updated 01-Aug-16 to clean up my rather poor wording in this paragraph)
I hope I've answered your question; let me know if I've missed the mark. Bons estudos!
The Portuguese "gerúndio" can be used with habitual actions. But mostly not for future actions. But sometimes it can, such as in sentences like "estou indo amanhã = I'm going tomorrow".
The simple present, although not commonly, can also have a progressive meaning. But we do prefer using "gerúndio", it's clearer and far more common. Books may use the simple present sometimes.
1860
Thank you for the correction, Daniel. I apologize for the misleading answer. There's constantly more that must be squeezed into the little gray cells. Feliz ano novo a todos!
1860
Hello there! The words "bebo" and "bebe" are conjugations of the same verb beber (to drink). There are many better explanations in these comments which address this exact same question. I'm sure some of them will help you out more than anything I could say. In fact, I've found these sentence discussions to be an enormous resource, and they've helped me a lot. Good luck with your studies!
1764
only in brazilian portuguese. but in european and african portuguese "t" is almost always pronounced as "t" BP: leɪtʃɘ. EP: lˈɐjtɘ
2321
I drink= Eu bebo.
He drinks= Ele bebe
She drinks= Ela bebe
We drink= Nós bebemos
They drink= Eles (elas) bebem.
That's much the same as asking why do we say "I drink" and not "I drinks" in English. The form of the verb depends on the subject and tense. If you have the time to read it, perhaps this will help: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/1524592. If not, you can find all the forms of a verb such as "beber" here: http://www.conjuga-me.net/verbo-beber.