I have looked but maybe I have missed this. Is there a unit on contractions. There seem to be many contractions in Portuguese… á, pelo, do, da, na etc. Is there a list of all of the contractions? Do they follow any kind of rules? When do you use contractions?
Olá, Michael. As a general case, all these contractions have prepositions as their starting point, so when you study prepositions, you also learn about the ways in which they can be contracted with other words. In Practice Portuguese’s Learning Studio, there are 3 units fully dedicated to prepositions, and they also appear in most other units by necessity, since they’re essential to create complete sentences. We also have open access Learning Notes on all main contractible prepositions:
By default (with few exceptions), in European Portuguese, whenever two “compatible” words are next to each other, we contract them. Not doing so actually makes the sentence sound very awkward, unlike in English where, let’s say, “would not” and “wouldn’t” can both sound just fine.
- Eu estou em o trabalho. (I’m at work)
- Eu estou no trabalho. (I’m at work)
I can give you more examples if you’d like!
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Thank you Joseph. This is very helpful. If you have a moment I would love to see further examples but I do believe I understand. And I will explore the units you mentioned. Thanks again.
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Just an update😊 . Not a unit, but a quick guide to the Portuguese contractions can be found here: Portuguese Contractions
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