Reading Resources, Books in Portuguese

Olà @Joseph.I have trouble with the perfect past tense and its use in Portuguese (and Spanish).

For example in English we say ‘I have started reading’ but if I translate that to be ‘eu tenho começado ler’ it seems to imply that I have been repeatedly starting at page 1 and never really got much further?

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Hah! :smile: I was being too optimistic.

Structurally, “I have started reading” and “Eu tenho começado a ler” are the same thing. But in terms of meaning, the Portuguese present perfect is actually a much better match to the English present perfect continuous (“I have been starting to read”) - that’s why the two don’t seem to click. To say “I have started reading”, you should only use the Portuguese simple past, “Eu comecei a ler” :slight_smile:

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Hoje eu encontrei um website que eu marquei muitas semanas atrás. Talvez seja um pouco útil para alguns de nós.

maybe its too late, but “o alquimista” is good for beginning

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Muito obrigado, @marek! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Stumbled across this today: https://certaspalavras.pt/

For a verbavore like me - I’m feasting!

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Incrivelmente útil e fascinante! Muito obrigado, @stephencanthony! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Esta lista é do Projeto Gutenberg, um website que lista livros que estão em domínio público. Aqui está uma lista dos livros em português e eles são totalmente gratis. Aproveitem! :nerd_face:

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/languages/pt

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Ótimas sugestões!

Para redações menores, talvez:

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there are Audio Books here: https://librivox.org (go to the Portuguese section)
and
eBooks here: https://elivros.love/

Hi, I’m reading some easy young teenager level ebooks on kindle / iBooks by Pedro Bandeira. They are eBooks because I can highlight any word and pull up the translation. They are fun adventure books, but are in Brazilian Portuguese and the Brazilians use a completely different style for their verbs and different colloquialisms. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for comparable books at that level in European Portuguese. I’ve tried translated adult books like Agatha Christie, John le Carre, but they are much more difficult, and pre-teen books are too boring. What books did you at Practice Portuguese love as kids or young teenagers? some derring do stuff… (sailing, adventure, discovery, mystery, Carlos Ruiz Zafon style, but easier than that…
Thanks for any tips
Actually I think question this should be transferred to the topic: Reading Resources, Books in Portuguese

I loved the series Uma Aventura em… I found it was great for learning everyday vocab and was a great introduction to Portuguese life, culture, history, geography etc… They are a bit like the Enid Blyton Famous Five but written by two Portuguese Educationalists who seem to discreetly introduce new vocab and grammar constructions and then reuse them in different chapters and so different contexts to help embed the new language. Obviously designed to develop the literacy of Portuguese school children but great for us learners of PLE.

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@antonbergh :sunglasses:

I was also fond of those as a kid, but I especially liked the Viagens no Tempo series, written by the same authors. It’s a nice introduction to Portuguese history.

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Here is an example of a book that you can download to read on an e-reader, while simultaneously listening to it as an audiobook. The book itself may be too romantic for most tastes… The audiobook seems beautifully & clearly spoken, at a moderate pace. Listening to it while having the text could help with getting the hang of pronunciation. The book is Amor de Perdição, written by Camilo Castelo Branco, a prolific writer of the 19C (written in 1861). You can read about Camilo Castelo Branco here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camilo_Castelo_Branco or in Português here: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amor_de_Perdição
The book ePub download is here: https://elivros.love/Buscar?q=amor+de+perdição
and the audiobook is here: https://librivox.org/amor-de-perdicao-by-camilo-castelo-branco/
Going further, here is a link to watch the 1943 film adaptation on youtube (no subtitles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_6_UkQTnmI
I can’t find the more recent versions from 1979 and 2009 to watch…

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The first books in Portuguese that I really got into were the Harry Potter series. I already had read them in English and it helped to know what was going on. Since then I’ve read many other translated book like O Jardin Secreto by Francis Hodgson Burnet and O Fisico by Noah Gordan.

Now I’m on a Portuguese-speaking writers personal challenge. Some are not so easy and a bit depressing but entertaining: Os Maias (life of a privileged gentleman in 19 century Lisbon), Memórias Póstumasde Brás Cubas (life of a privileged gentleman in 19 century Rio de Janeiro), Terra Sonâmbula (the results of the conflicts in Mozambique), Ensaio sobre a Cegueira (totally dark – about a pandemic in Lisbon), O Tritão (the life a young boy in Almada, Portugal) and A Desumanização (life of a girl in Iceland – poetically full of the Pretérito Imperfeito do Conjuntivo mode – but also a bit dark) among others.

The more I read, the more I realize I have so much more to learn.

When we traveled to Mirando do Douro a couple of years ago, I saw the Little Prince in a bookstore translated to Mirandês (a recognized regional language in Portugal). It is only spoken in and around this town.

Oh, that’s my favorite book and, in my opinion, the best one that Saramago ever wrote. The location, just like the characters, is actually unnamed, though.

If you can get through a Saramago book and survive, congratulations - your Portuguese reading comprehension must be very good, because his use of punctuation and extremely long sentences/paragraphs trumps even the natives! :slight_smile:

Oh yeah, maybe the book didn’t specify the place. I think in my imagination, it was in the streets of Lisbon and the place of confinement was that old Psychiatric hospital in Arroios. I can’t say I understood everything, but I did enjoy it even though it was a bit depressing during a global pandemic.

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This discussion is incredibly helpful. I’m curious about one thing, though. I would assume that most translations of books into Portuguese are going to be aimed at the Brazilian market, only because it’s a bigger economic opportunity. Is this right, or are there separate translations made for each market? Before buying a book — especially online or an e-book — is there any way to know ahead of time whether you’re going to be able to find a book that uses European Portuguese vocabulary, etc.?

The translated books I read, I try to get the European Portuguese eBook. I was successful in finding this for the Harry Potter books. They are actually translated in both dialects I believe. When I asked my Brazilian friends and family about some of the words in my translation of Harry Potter, they didn’t have a clue … words like malga and peugas. (And I even seen some hot mulled wine offered in a malga in Palmela!)

Usually I’ll look at the publisher or the translater to see where they are from before buying the books.