"Eu estou com o meu passaporte."

Translation: I have my passport.

[KTKee-EnglishEng]

Is this construction used for everything? Eu estou com um café, o carro, uma tosse?

[microgriff]

why not use 'ter' here ? strange using 'I am' it seems..

[Paulenrique]

it involves different construction in the languages. In English one would not say "I am with the pen" but "I have the pen". However, in Portuguese, the same sentence is translated as "eu estou com a caneta" and not "eu tenho a caneta".

[vfurmanov]

So do you use the construction "eu estou com" when you're talking about having something in your possession at this very moment?

For example, if you're saying "I have my passport (with me right now)," you would say "eu estou com o meu passaporte."

But if you're saying "I have a passport (in general)" you would say "eu tenho um passaporte."

Is that correct, or am I way off base here?

[ThanKwee]

Yes, that's right. You could also say "Eu tenho passaporte" (in general)

Eu tenho um livro = The book belongs to me.

Eu estou com um livro que leio agora, mas o livro não é meu = I have a book that I'm reading now, but the book doesn't belong to me.

Estar com = temporary

Ter = permanent

[Natka01]

So does this mean you rather use ‘‘sou com‘‘ when you have it now and ‘‘tenho‘‘ when you have it in general, like ‘‘eu tenho filhos‘‘?

[Paulenrique]

Exactly. If you have something for that moment, use “estar com”:

• Quem está com meu gibi?
• Eu!

[NatalyaJoly]

So it's like the difference between 'ser' & 'estar' ? The verb 'estar' is used for the present moment. Is it always the rule when we see the verb 'estar' ?

[Paulenrique]

Well, that's the general rule. I can't think of an exception now...

[microgriff]

thanks.. I wonder if I can ever get this thing to be fluent !!! oh well.

[Paulenrique]

don't worry. These are little (tricky) things you learn over time ;)

[AyrtonSmith]

Would it be acceptable to say "Estou leitura um livro do meu amigo?" As in, "not in this moment, but i am reading it over the week."

[Paulenrique]

No. Leitura is a noun and do not work here. To express a near future, you can say "Vou ler um livro do meu amigo".

[andrewduo]

As far a I can tell, this is a Brazilian construct only, not used in Portuguese Portuguese. Is anyone able to confirm this?

[Gwenchibi]

why do we need "o" before "meu passaporte" here?

[Paulenrique]

Yes, you can use O here!

[Danmoller]

http://www.duolingo.com/comment/199949?from_skill=4e60ac8bd7cfc0d5e3da528381411563

[Franz794840]

Why not "eu tehno meu pasaporte?"

[Paulenrique]

This indicates some differences between languages. If you want to sound more natural, you should use "estar com" in this case.

[gringoton]

Franz, it's just another way of saying the same thing, although there is a slightly different emphasis. In (American) English we might say something like 'do you have your passport on you?' / 'It's not on me.' to mean you have it right now. Do you have any cash on you? It's just one of those things...

[Karl200335]

The 1st hover hint for "eu estou com" is "I have had," which would sound natural if the sentence continued on (such as "I have had my passport for several years.") But, given that Duolingo is so fond of sentence fragments, I used "I have had" in my answer, only to be marked wrong. "I have my passport" is much more natural. Then, why, Duolingo, are you trying to confuse us in the hover hints? WHY?!