European Portuguese · A1
Verb “To Be”
The story continues at school during lunch time.
Read the Portuguese below, open the English translations when you need help, then listen and practise in the interactive activity.
Read the conversation
Daniel
Verbo estar: eu estou, tu estás, ele está, nós estamos, eles estão.
Translation
Verb estar: I am, you are, he is, we are, they are.
Daniel
Conseguem usar numa frase?
Translation
Can you use it in a sentence?
Tiago
Sim! Nós estamos na sala de aula.
Translation
Yes! We are in the classroom.
Lukas
Hoje está um dia muito bonito.
Translation
Today is a very beautiful day.
Tiago
A nossa aula está quase a terminar.
Translation
Our class is almost over.
Lukas
Estamos a aprender muitas coisas novas.
Translation
We are learning many new things.
Tiago
O meu pai está lá fora, no carro, à nossa espera.
Translation
My dad is outside in the car, waiting for us.
João
Como correu o vosso primeiro dia de escola?
Translation
How was your first day of school?
Tiago
Estivemos a aprender verbos.
Translation
We were learning verbs.
João
Muito bem! Para celebrar o vosso primeiro dia, hoje temos uma surpresa!
Translation
Very good! To celebrate your first day, today we have a surprise!
Useful expressions
- Nós estamos na sala de aula.
- Use estar for location: “we are in the classroom”.
- Hoje está um dia bonito.
- Está describes how something is at the moment.
- Estamos a aprender...
- Estar a + infinitive means something is happening now.
- Está lá fora.
- Lá fora means “outside”.
Ser and estar are not the same.
Ser is for identity and origin. Estar is for location, temporary states and actions happening now: estamos na sala, estamos a aprender.