18 Comments
Don't know if this will help you, but I use "vários(as)" when I mean "several" and "muitos(as)" when I mean "many". I would have translated that sentence as "I have several questions." If I wanted to say "I have many questions.", I would use "Tenho muitas perguntas." as you wrote below.
This is what I do too, and when I was forced to select ‘some’ or ‘many’ in this exercise, I decided that it wasn't necessarily many, so I'd better say ‘some’ instead. Wrong!
I think without more context, "I have various questions." should be accepted here. Am I wrong?
various adj (several) vário adj Various people volunteered to help.
various adj (different) diferente vário adj
vário various, variegated, multicoloured
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I don't think so. The words 'various' and 'varios/varias' are false friends.
"I have various questions" was just accepted for me now, though.
Are you sure about that...? "Várias" seems to always be translated to either "various" or "several" as far as I have seen from different sources.
Out of all the possible translations the one using the cognate (aka word with the same root, various) is not accepted...
Are there any tips/rules on when to use várias as oppose to muita/s. Or is it just choice.
Could I say - Eu tenho muitas perguntas ?
Looks like "Skyjockey's" reply above is the most reasonable on this question. 'Varias' applies to the DIFFERENCE in any number of questions while 'muitas' refers to the great AMOUNT of questions
It's quite confusing, because (according to WorldReference). In Portuguese, "many" is indeed one of the meanings of "vário(s)/ vária(s)". In other languages though, "several" really means "some, but not many". While "various" means "some different ones, but not many". Therefore our confusion at first. We have to accept that the Portuguese native speaker (not just the Brasilian one), doesn't really diffrentiate here. So WE can make the difference and make it easier on us while speaking, but have to keep an open mind, that when a native speaker says "vários" , he or she may mean "many"...
