algarcia66

Formal / Informal (4)

3. SUMMARIZING

Well, to simplify things (it means you shouldn't have read all the rest, unless you're really interested in details, just like me), let me show you:

i. The way I used to learn conjugation at school:

SER

EU SOU

TU ÉS

ELE É

NÓS SOMOS

VÓS SOIS

ELES SÃO

ii. The way foreigners should learn conjugation (in my opinion, of course):

SER

EU SOU

VOCÊ / O SENHOR / A SENHORA É

ELE / ELA É

A GENTE É / NÓS SOMOS

VOCÊS / OS SENHORES / AS SENHORAS SÃO

ELES / ELAS SÃO

iii. The way I learned pronouns at school:

iv. The way foreigners should learn pronouns (in my opinion, of course):

Too complex? Perhaps... More accurate, though. It's clear that the first table doesn't match the truth, if you compare it to the second one, which presents all the current variables and excludes the archaic ones.

4. THE IMPERATIVE STUFF

At last, but not least, let's talk about imperative. The way we learn it at school:

FAZER

And we used to conjugate it using the pronouns, exactly the way it's written above. The truth, however, is that we don't use the pronouns when we say things in imperative form. Instead of "façamos nós" or "façamos", people say "vamos fazer" for the first person of plural. For the second person of singular we just say "faz" or  "faça", without explicit distinction of whom we are talking to. And here comes the paradox. "Você" is informal, right? "Tu" is half-dead, right? Getting down to the point, as everything, it has also become a linguistic mess. The actual difference is between spoken and written speech, and there are no changes in negative form:

   WRITTEN                  SPOKEN

You must be wondering what those stars are doing there. Well, "vós" is dead, remember? So, we don't have a current form for spoken plural imperative. You could use the written one, but it would sound strange, unnatural. A native would try a friendly question, such as "Vamos fazer?" or "Vocês não querem fazer?" or even "Que tal vocês fazerem?" or a demanding yell, as in "Vamos fazer!", "É pra vocês fazerem!" or "Vamos lá, vocês têm que fazer!".

The written form is sometimes spoken, when the speaker represents a company talking to its customers or something very formal. Machines and electronic answering systems also use the written form, even though they're speaking. In all other spoken situations, you'd rather use the "tu" form.

In Portugal, the imperative shows formality or informality. There's this famous story about a Brazilian man visiting Lisbon, and while walking in those narrow streets, after having turned a corner, he bumped into a local old lady, who fell down to the floor. He apologized immediately: "Desculpa." The old lady yelled at him, apparently angrier after the apologies: "Primeiro leva-me ao chão, depois oferece-me o tu! O tu!!!" There he should've said: "Desculpe."

And that's all, folks!

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