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- Topic: Portuguese >
- "There is no salt."
"There is no salt."
Translation:Não tem sal.
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Had the phrase 'there is' been taught in any previous lesson? I could not find it in my notes. Thanks.
It is being taught now. This is how duolingo works. New words are introduced. You get it wrong; you learn it so it doesn't happen again.
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Not when you're doing a "strengthen skills" exercise, though, which is when it first showed up for me. It's supposed to only use words you already know for those.
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I had the same question, but hovered over "there" and saw that the verb "tem" was suggested. I wrote "Não tem sal" and that was accepted as correct.
A similar thing has happened to me before (seeing new words while doing a strengthening exercise). I think that Duolingo doesn't see it as introducing new words, but rather applying the words in different contexts. Either way, it can be confusing.
I asked my portuguese teacher, and they say that at least here (Rio Grande do Sul) há is only used in very formal speech
It's the opposite in portugal; you see cafe signs all the time that say "Há francesinhas", for example. (yum, by the way)
Its like proper , as if i said i aint got salt , there aint. None ....no salt is to be had
Yes, it is. However, Brazilians like to also use it for "there is", replacing haver:
- Tem alguem na porta - There's someone at the door
- Tem sal? - Is there salt?
- Onde tem um supermercado? - Where is there a supermarket?
In all of these cases, it would be better style to user há, but you'll rarely hear that. The only case I've heard haver in speech is in O que houve? "What happened?" (literally: What was there?)
It is when there is a subject. For example, "Ele não tem sal" translates to "He doesn't have salt".
This is how duolingo works. You get it wrong the first time, you remember it so it doesn't happen a second.
In the other lessons we were taught to use an 'e' with an accent over the top for 'is', but this time it was marked wrong
É is "is", but the construct here is "there is" or "there exists". The Spanish have "hay", but in Portuguese you have to use tem. Think of it like "it has" where it is reality.
Thank you. Understanding that reality is the implied subject really made this click for me
In European Portuguese we say "há" (from the special verb haver) instead of "tem".
"there is" is a special kind of English construction, always translate it to "tem".
Can't say that there aren't (não posso dizer que não tem) but I don't remember any.
But now we have, which is great!
In the first lessons we hadn't learned even one word yet, now the count is at about 100. There is always going to be a first time for everything ;)
Being a native Polish speaker this concept was easy for me as in Polish there is the same usage of the third person sing. of 'to have' to express presence. But I agree there should have been a mention of it before in a lesson.
Ha was in the previous set of lessons. Functions just like "hay" in Spanish, but from the comments below it is more formal and "tem" is used more colloquially. It does not have salt. Makes sense if you think about it
as i have understood from the discussion, "ha" is used in portugal but in brazil it is very formal. is that right?
Because "ai" is talking about a place. "Over there". "há" or "tem" is "there is", which is talking about the existence or otherwise of an object. In this case "there is" is a compound construct in English.
You could say "ai é sal", which would point out the location of salt. "há sal" just says there is some salt, but doesn't say where.
Does that make sense?
(Note that "tem" can also mean "you/he/she has". The meaning is dependent on context.)
It's not like that. The whole expression "there is" translates to "tem" in this case. And the word "não" must be before the verb. You could possibly say "Sal, não tem" but that's not so common.
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The issue is that the "THere is no salt" should be translated as "I have no salt" since nao tem sal reads more like I have no salt, one is a statement indicating property and pressence while the other "THere is no salt" is simply an indication of non-existence
I don't really understand what you're trying to say here. The sentence "não tem sal" is an indication of non-existence.
