Grammar Lesson 11: Topic-Comment Patterns, Special Needs Privileges
Just look at that barriga! Clearly the polite thing to do, at least in Brazil, would be to have a special line at banks, post offices, and supermarkets for those that have ’special’ needs. However, the other day, in this condition, with that barriga, Michelle had to wait in line at the U.S. post office just like one of the ‘regular’ people.
Grammatically, Orlando seems to love topic-comment patterns almost too much. Is it possible that grammar is really that interesting?
PODCAST LINK: Grammar Lesson 11
I´m from Rio de Janeiro, I do not use “Meu pai por exemplo, ELE sempre…”
We never use this “ELE” here
It´s funny
Comment by Marcio — September 5, 2007 @ 8:38 pm
Nos exemplos todos são sobre gente: minha mãe (ela), meu pai (ele), as grávidas (elas), etc. A regla se usa também para coisas como o parque, por exemplo, né?
Comment by Elisa — October 11, 2007 @ 6:24 pm
Nunca tinha percebido isso antes. Eu sempre corrijo meus filhos quando fazem isto em ingles. Acho que e uma falta bastante comum e grande.
Comment by Monica Mitre — October 11, 2007 @ 8:59 pm
Acho que isto vai ser algo muito dificil para mim usar na fala. Parece tão “redundant”!
Comment by Amelia Crawford — October 11, 2007 @ 11:21 pm
Quando eu era crianca, meus profesores sempre me dizeram que esta maneira de falar era tao incorreto. Entao, va ser dificil aprende-la.
Comment by ryanc — October 12, 2007 @ 5:09 am
Eu acho que era muito interessante ouvir Valdo dizer, “criancas de colo.” Eu nunca e ouvido isso.
Comment by Kyle — October 4, 2008 @ 4:25 pm
Lembro que quando estava no aeroporto no Brasil, uma idosa estava usando esse “direito” e uma mulher no frente da fila disse, “Aqui é a fila!” A idosa a olhou e disse “Idosa!” e continuou. Eu só sorri e pensei que essa mulher na fila devia ser americana.
Comment by Ebony Jackson — October 4, 2008 @ 9:59 pm
Interesting, we do not have that in Spanish! But, is it mandatory to add the topic-comment patterns in a sentence or is it just optional?
eg: os cidadãos americanos, eles não têm essas facilidades. Can I simply say “os ciudadãos americanos não tem essas facilidades.”?
Comment by Eduardo Gonzalez — October 6, 2008 @ 10:27 pm
“Por falar nisso” eu nunca vi. Pode dizer “por falar disso” com a mesma sentido?
Comment by Eric — October 8, 2008 @ 10:03 pm
Estranho… eu nunca notei isso antes, que o Brasil tem essa “regra”
Comment by Liana Depew — October 9, 2008 @ 11:41 am
Eu encontrei isso no Brasil quando meu mestre de Capoeira falou, “O angoleiro, ele é suave.” Eu pensei que ele estava sendo dramático! A tradução literal seria, “The Angoleiro, he is sauve/slick,” e eu já ouvi isso em inglês mais de uma vez, essa construção. Me parece que, nos Estados Unidos, nós usamos isso para criar drama, como se estivesse contando uma historia épica.
Comment by Clyde Sheble — October 9, 2008 @ 4:35 pm
Eu achei alguma coisa na tradução do Português pro Espanhol: quando Michele fala “idoso,” Jose Luis fala, “mayores de edad,” mas para mim, um “mayor de edad” é um adulto de 18 ou 21 anos, depende do pais, e um “anciano” é um idoso.
Comment by Shannon Zamora — October 9, 2008 @ 7:09 pm
Os ta falados, eles me ayudam. Obrigado, Brazilpod!
Comment by Eduard Keller — October 9, 2008 @ 10:04 pm
Nunca tinha ouvido a expressão “criança de colo.” Literalmente, o que quer dizer isso?
Comment by Erin — October 9, 2008 @ 10:39 pm
I’ve never used this pattern when speaking, but maybe it’s another one of those things to distinguish native from non-native speakers.
Comment by Golden Dale Oehlke — October 9, 2008 @ 10:54 pm
I have a question about one of the final examples Dr. Kelm gives after the port/span dialogue. I believe he says “Essa barriga, regime já!” (”This belly, diet now!). First I think that this kind of topic-comment is really interesting (two noun “ideas”, no verb, ). My question, though, is about the use of “já” here. I hear it sometimes in these construction, stuck at the end of a sentence to give it this “alright already” flavor, or like “go ahead and…” Does anyone have any ideas?
Comment by Tommy — May 20, 2009 @ 7:26 pm
Oi Tommy,
You know, some day I’m going to sit down and figure out all of the uses of ‘ja’. Brazilians have tons of ways to use this word. In this example, we see a powerful “right now” attached to the end of the sentence. As I think of other example, this end of phrase position has that meaning a lot, ’sai de frente já’ (get out of the way right now), ‘faz a comida já’ (prepare the food right now).
Thats a good start anyway.
Comment by orkelm — May 21, 2009 @ 10:07 am
Thanks for the response! This whole lesson made me think of Japanese particles, actually, with the topic-comment construction (-は “wa”)and this usage of ‘ja’ at the end of a command (-よ “yo”).
In Japanese, the particles (は、が、を…)are actually quite functional for formal speech and explanations (some tend to drop out and disappear into the context of regular conversation). In Portuguese there is no particle to mark topic-comment or any other part of speech, so I guess the “marker” is just the unique rhythm of the pronunciation? Maybe this is why topic-comment doesn’t really exist in English or Spanish…
The sentence-ending particles like ‘ja’ are one my favorite parts of languages because they really give that local flavor. I hear similarities in other Romance languages to ‘ja’ (ya, deja, gia, ja), but I wonder if it used similarly.
Comment by Tommy — May 21, 2009 @ 11:04 pm