I am continuing to read news from around the world, as accompaniment for my stingy little single shot of espresso in the morning. But I am still studying grammar, too, and I am perplexed by some things I have come…
I have just spent the past three months reviewing four languages simultaneously. For sure knowing things in one would often help with the others. As I have documented rather extensively, I was often confused. But I could also sometimes guess…
So, I am a few days into Portuguese, and I am still struggling to get my mouth around the pronunciation. It is like Spanish, and like Italian. The Books I Ordered for Portuguese It is also unlike Spanish, and unlike…
I have been looking forward to Portuguese for a long time. I love Romance languages. This is the fourth I have studied, the others being Spanish, French, and Italian. I am still drinking only one shot of espresso a day,…
Today I crossed paths with a triathlon running through my neighborhood. I love when things like that pop up unexpectedly. Aquaphor New York City Triathlon, West 72nd Street People Cheering on the Runner-Swimmer-Bikers I am continuing to do battle…
I have two books called Essential Portuguese Grammar. One of them, published in 1966 and written by Alexander da R. Prista, says something I really like in the introduction: “No self-study or academic course or series of courses…
Portuguese has some odd contractions involving prepositions and articles. Articles in Portuguese are funny to begin with. At least to my eyes and ears at present. “The” is o (masculine) or a (feminine). Those…
My niece and nephews are in town from Italy, so today my husband and I took them to Ellis Island. I hadn’t been in 20 years. Dramatic Cityscape from Boat to Ellis Island Lady Liberty The movie they show at…
In reading through Sheila R. Ackerlind and Rebecca Jones-Kellogg’s book Portuguese: A Reference Manual, I keep getting surprised by how things actually look on a printed page. How they sound in Pimsleur does not always lead…
Yesterday it hailed. Large balls of ice on a day when temperatures were well into the nineties. At the time the ice started pounding the windows, I was teaching a grammar seminar at a client’s midtown location. For…
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