The most common mistakes… of native speakers! (part 1)

We’ve talked about common mistakes that students do but… how about natives speakers? Yes, unfortunately they can make mistakes as well and some of them can even shock students!

Introduction

If you use to communicate with native speakers, especially to type or if you like to read what they write on social media, you must be aware. Please, don’t do the same mistakes!

In this article we will expose the most common mistakes of European Portuguese native speakers. We will do this by levels. We will start with those mistakes that even beginners students don’t make until the intermediate level.

First lesson

In the first lesson, foreign students learn that men must say “obrigado” (= thank you) and women “obrigada”. However, not every Portuguese person uses it correctly. There are even “theories” affirming that only one form is correct. The fact is that this word agrees with the gender: it can be masculine or feminine.

The word “obrigado” also agrees with number (singular and plural). For a foreign student it makes sense: if agree with gender, why not with number as well? The shocking fact is not that many native speakers don’t use this rule, but that they even think it’s wrong! They think “obrigados” and “obrigadas” isn’t correct.

However, “obrigado” is an adjective, like “grateful”. So, if you’re a man you always say “obrigado”, a woman “obrigada” and a group “obrigados” (men or men and women) or “obrigadas” (only women). By the way, remember that Portuguese is a “sexist” language: if there is one masculine element in a group, we use the masculine form of plural.

Messing past endings and pronouns

In social media, especially in comment sections, sometimes people write past tense verbs with a hyphen. Even beginners know that it’s not correct. For example, if you want you ask “Did you eat?” you can simply say “Comeste?”. Hyphen only appears when we have a pronoun after a verb. For example, “Vi-te ontem” (I saw you yesterday).

Again, it looks logical for a foreigner, but some native speakers can mess that and write surreal things, because they don’t understand the difference. It’s completely different to write “Comeste?” (Did you eat?) and “comes-te?” (Do you eat yourself?).

Finally, there is still a frequent difficulty with the second person of singular in past tense (“tu”): the “extra -s”. Consequently, instead for say and write “comeste” (you ate), “fizeste” (you did) or “gostaste” (you liked), we see the words “comestes”, “fizestes” and “gostastes”. This form isn’t correct for the second person of singular (“tu”) and it is practically abolish from contemporary Portuguese.

Problems with the verb “haver”

The verb “haver” expresses existence:

Há um parque muito bonito nesta cidade. (There is a very beautiful park in this city)

Há muitos parques nesta cidade. (There are a lot of parks in this city)

This verb it’s impersonal and has only one form when expresses existence: “há”. Although, some Portuguese people think it’s necessary to conjugate this verb in past tense. Consequently, they can say errors like “Haviam muitos alunos na minha escola”. The correct form is “Havia muitos alunos na minha escola” (There were many students at my school).

The verb “haver” also means “ago”.

Há vinte anos. (Twenty years ago)

The previous sentence it’s correct, but sometimes people think they must add an extra word and say “Há vinte anos atrás”. This is a redundancy, and the literal translation in English would be something like “Twenty years ago back in time”.

People can also confuse “há” (verb) and “à” (contraction between preposition “a” and article “a”).

Another confusion appears at expression “não ter nada a ver com”, which means “do not have nothing to do with”:

Este documentário não tem nada a ver com política.

(This documentary has nothing to do with politics)

For some unknown reason, some people can write “não ter nada haver” or “não tem nada a haver”, which doesn’t make any sense.

Finally, there is a case when we conjugate this verb: when we express a fact in future that we believe will happen, but we don’t know exactly when. If I say “Vou visitar Tóquio” (I will visit Tokyo), someone can ask “Quando?” (When?). Although, if I say “Hei de visitar Tóquio” it means I believe I will do it but I don’t know yet when, so no one will asks “Quando?”. We use the structure “haver” + preposition “de” + infinitive of main verb:

Unfortunately, for some reason, some people say “hades” instead of “has de” *…

Redundancies

Redundancies are not mistakes, but an ineffective way to talk, because it’s an unnecessary repetition of an idea already expressed in a sentence. They happen in every language and Portuguese is no exception. So, here are four of the most frequent redundancies in Portuguese:

“Subir para cima”. The verb “subir” already means “go up” so it’s not necessary to add “para cima” which also means “up”.

“Entrar para dentro”. “Entrar” expresses the movement of going in or enter. It’s the movement towards a space until get there. So “entrar” can only be “para dentro”.

“Certeza absoluta”. This occurs when someone wants to emphasize that he is “absolutely” sure: “tenho a certeza absoluta” (= I’m absolutely sure). Nevertheless, to be sure means have no doubt about something. Otherwise, the person will be almost sure or not sure:

Tenho quase a certeza. (I’m almost sure)

Não tenho a certeza. (I’m not sure)

“verdade/facto incontestável”. As we used to say, “contra factos não há argumentos” (= against facts there is no arguments). That’s because the true/ the facts have no contest. Again, if it’s a fact, it is mandatorily incontestable (incontestável).

Conclusion

We hope this article, more focused on Portuguese as mother tongue, was interesting for you as well. We’ve tried to give you some practical information as well in order to make it also useful.

Unfortunately, there are more mistakes done by native speakers, so if you liked this content, follow us and wait for the second part.

Até breve!