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By the way, "agradecer" takes preposition "a". The correct sentence is "O aluno agradece à professora".
"Agradeço a Deus" = "I thank god"
"Agradeço a todos" = I thank everybody
Hi, I really appreciate this clarification/information regarding the preposition. Well done, and many thanks!
Agradecer is the verb. To thank.
"Obrigado" is what you say when you "agradece", which is "thank you" or "thanks (not the verb)".
Obrigado literally means "I am obligated to you" But we translate it as "Thank you" because that is how it is used in Portuguese.
So "agradece" is to be thankful for i.e like receiveing a diploma while "obrigado" is more first person tense saying thanks in general? I'm sorry, I'm trying to figure this out myself.
It's the transitive verb "to thank". Obrigado is translated as "thank you" but literally it comes from "(I am) obligated (to you)".
As pointed out by bigglesworth elsewhere in this thread you can translate "obrigado" by "much obliged" instead to make it less confusing. In this case "thank you" would be very literally "eu agradeço a você".
I always regard "agradecer" as "to say thanks". Hence, "agradecer a alguém por algo" is "to say thanks to somebody for something".
Note, "agradecer" also has another meaning, which is "to appreciate". Here is an example, which can be found on DL: "Nós agradecemos o convite".
Dungna93 I found your post a very helpful way to remember Danmoller's tip that agradecer takes the preposition "a". If it's translated as "to say thanks" as you suggest, it makes it much easier to remember that it requires the preposition "to" = "a" in Portuguese. Eu agradeço a você por isso :-)
I tried "schoolboy" for aluno - is that way off or just not a usual way of translating?
Schoolboy and schoolgirl are old-fashioned terms in American English. They are still used, but not as common as student. More often we would just say boy or girl instead of student, because all school-age kids go to school (even homeschool kids)
what Word is left for the English "professor" when o professor means teacher ?
We still call our college professors "professores", but professors with a PhD can be called "professor doutor/professora doutora".
*American English. In British English, professor means someone holding a departmental chair.
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Important note: O aluno agradece a professora = The student thanks the teacher BUT O aluno agradece À professora = The student thanks TO the teacher. À = contraction of the preposition "a" with the article "a", to avoid 2 "a"s together. Á = this just doesn't exist, so, never write it, it's a common mistake that we Brazilians make. Ex.: Eu chego às 10 horas (correct) Eu chego ás 10 horas (totally incorrect) Obs.: "ás" can be used, but has the meaning of "ace" Ex.: I don't have an ace (eu não tenho um ás) He is the basketball ace (ele é o ás do basquete)
