Grammar Lesson 3: Plurals with ‘l’, Gas Stations
The plural of Brazil, if there were two of them, would be “Brasis.” Now that would be a strange word! Spanish speakers aren’t sure how to make those words that end in “l” plural. Orlando, Valdo, Michelle, and José Luís try to tell us that it is as easy as “drop the l and add is,” but we’re sure there is more to it than that.
While they are talking about plurals, Valdo and Michelle also tell us about their experience in getting used to self serve gas stations in the U.S. too!
PODCAST LINK: Grammar Lesson 3
Orlando, are you in an ugly mood in the picture because of self-serve or the price of gas? Oh well, so the plural of REAL is REAIS?
Comment by Edward W. Schiffer — May 22, 2007 @ 3:44 pm
Wow! I just discovered that if I keep clicking on a lesson title, the photographs change! Is there a slide show I am missing somewhere?
Regards,
Ed
Comment by Edward W. Schiffer — May 22, 2007 @ 3:55 pm
Sure enough, our idea was to randomly have different pictures come up, but I guess it is kind of like a slide show!
I always find it hard to talk about ‘reais’ in English because ‘reals’ sounds weird to me. Yes, the plural is reais.
Orlando
Comment by orkelm — May 22, 2007 @ 7:13 pm
Love they way all of you interact! The photos of Rio are fabulous? Did you take them yourself? Dropping the “L” really is a simple rule. Thanks!
Comment by Tamara — May 24, 2007 @ 12:05 pm
“Bombeiro” is also used in Espirito Santo (not too far from Bahia) for the gas station attendant. “Bombeiro” also means plumber and fireman in ES also.
The pdf has a spelling error. It should be “customers” and not “costumers”.
Comment by Jason Weden — May 29, 2007 @ 7:14 pm
uma das primeiras liçoes de portugues foi esta; e é uma das coisas mais obvias para diferenciar o espanhol do portugues na fala
Comment by cynthiaz — September 13, 2007 @ 10:55 am
Me encanta que uma palavra que termina em “l” se torna quando é plural.
Acho que é importante dizer que algumos estados dos Estados Unidos têm esa regra que não podes põr combustível no seu automóvel. Eu gosto que fazem isso em américa latina, mas ao mesmo tempo eu gostaria ter a opção de fazer-lo eu mesmo.
Comment by Kellsey K — September 13, 2007 @ 7:04 pm
Ao apresentar a fórmula de cambiar o “il” singular ao “(x)is” plural sistematicamente, a gravação bem reforça a simplicidade de fazê-lo.
Comment by dmonzingo — September 13, 2007 @ 7:47 pm
Esta mudança na palavra quando se torna plural é um dos meus aspectos favoritos da fala portuguesa. Acho bonita a mudança e faz que a lingua seja mais interessante.
Comment by Amelia Crawford — September 13, 2007 @ 11:00 pm
E dificil a mim as palavras que terminan, no plural, nos sonidos de ‘aes’ ou ‘oes’.
Comment by Chris Morley — September 14, 2007 @ 6:57 am
As vezes é difícil lembrar como se escrevem essas palavras no plural mas se você disser as palavras em voz alta vai perceber que soam como as palavras em espanhol. “Papeles.” “Papéis.” É quase como se o “el” fosse o “éi.” Soa um pouco assim para mim.
Comment by Lisa Martinez — September 14, 2007 @ 4:01 pm
E dificil as vezes a dinstinguir quando uma palavra tem a forma irregular o regular no plural. Muitas vezes quero mudar as palavras que terminam no ‘l’ a irregular, e nao sei se e o nao.
Comment by Chris Morley — October 4, 2007 @ 5:52 pm
Este podcast foi fácil, mas acho que os próximos podcasts vão ser fáceis.
Comment by Eduard Keller — September 4, 2008 @ 6:41 pm
The rules seem simple enough. However, I think I’ll need to practice some more to make them come out naturally. Thanks Tá falado!
Comment by Kyle A. — September 6, 2008 @ 4:47 pm
when the “l” is dropped and the “is” is written, is putting an accent mark on the word a part of the rule? or was it simply a coincidence that the words employed in the examples had accent marks on the plural forms?
Comment by Eduardo Gonzalez — September 8, 2008 @ 4:15 pm
Que bom que não são muitas as exeções da regra. Em ingles, ha muitas exeções para quasi todas as regras gramaticas.
Comment by Shannon Zamora — September 11, 2008 @ 5:05 pm
Fico um pouco confundida sobre quando adicionar um acento em convertir un substantivo singular á um plural. Por exemplo papel -> papéis.
Comment by Elissa Wev — September 11, 2008 @ 11:55 pm
Excelente! Mas faltou citar no caso das palavras terminadas em IL : funil = funis e fácil = fáceis ou difícil = difíceis
Comment by teresa menin — January 8, 2009 @ 11:07 pm
While it takes a while to get used plurals in Portuguese (with ‘l’ and more generally), I really like this aspect of the language. Though, it’s a little embarrassing sometimes as I find myself having to talk to myself aloud to figure out where the stress is in a word to then be able to figure out how to make it plural.
Comment by Mary Slosar — July 1, 2009 @ 9:31 am
I agree with Kyle! I need a lot of practice before I internalize these rules…
Comment by Marina Potoplyak — July 3, 2009 @ 4:45 pm
This rule is pretty straight forward and easy to remember.
Comment by Carlos Barrera — July 12, 2009 @ 4:40 pm
I agree with Carlos.
Although I find Portuguese fascinating because of complexity, it’s nice to learn a succinct rule once in a while.
Thanks
Comment by Kanitra Fletcher — July 14, 2009 @ 1:39 pm