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- Topic: Portuguese >
- "Têm moscas nessas sandálias."
34 Comments
Este/esta = this/that - object or person close to the person speaking. Eg. Este livro, esta caneta
Isto = este coisa/esta coisa
Esse/essa = this/that - object or person close to the person you are speaking to.
Isso = esse coisa/essa coisa
Aquele/aquela = this/that - object or person away from both the person speaking and the person you are speaking to.
Aquilo = aquele coisa/aquela coisa
Deste = de + este Disso = de + isso Daquilo = de + aquilo Etc.
Neste = em + este Nisto = em + isto Naquela = em + aquela Etc.
Well, actually, the preposition is "em" (embedded in the starting "n")
The demonstratives are "este, esse, aquele".
With "em", they turn into: neste, nesse, naquele
With "de", they turn into: desde, desse, daquele
- Este is for things near the speaker (this)
- Esse is for things near the listener (that)
- Aquele is for things far from both (that)
In Brazil, "esse" is very very confused with "este" and it gets both meanings, but never the "far" one.
I agree with Paulenrique. The problem is that in English we have 2 modes for distance while in Portuguese we have 3. So, in reality, Nessa/Nesse is interchangeable, it can mean both this and that.
Nesta / nestas (closest) = This / these Nessa / nessas (close) = This or That / these or those Naquela / naquelas (farther) = That / those
And I don't think Duolingo made this change yet.
It is common in the spoken language to use "tem" without an explicit subject to replace "há" (there is/are). As others have mentioned, Duolingo's sentence uses the plural "têm" not "tem" which is a mistake if the translation is meant to be "there are".
On the other hand, if a pronoun like "Eles" or "Vocês" has been dropped, "They/You have ..." is the correct translation.