User:Inventorfrog/Language reference

This is the subpage where I'm keeping tables and excerpts for my own personal reference, copied from Wikipedia articles about the grammar of my target languages (mostly Portuguese, at the moment). If this somehow breaks a rule I wasn't aware of, please inform me rather than deleting it -- I spent a lot of time editing it!

Sources:


 * Portuguese verb conjugation
 * Personal pronouns in Portuguese
 * Portuguese phonology
 * Portuguese profanity
 * Portuguese proverbs
 * Differences between Brazilian and European Portuguese dialects
 * Gender neutrality in Portuguese
 * Portuguese language
 * Portuguese grammar

Pronouns

 * Pronouns are omitted whenever they can be inferred from the ending of the conjugated verb or the context.
 * object pronouns are clitics, which must come next to a verb, and are pronounced together with it as a unit. They may appear before the verb (proclisis, lhe dizer), after the verb, linked to it with a hyphen (enclisis, dizer-lhe), or, more rarely, within the verb, between its stem and its desinence (mesoclisis, dir-lhe-ei). In spoken Brazilian Portuguese, where proclisis is nearly universal, mesoclisis never occurs.
 * When a verb conjugated in the 1st person plural, ending in -s, is followed by the enclitic pronoun nos or vos, the s is dropped: Vamo-nos [vamos + nos] embora amanhã ("We are leaving tomorrow"), Respeitemo-nos [respeitemos + nos] mutuamente ("Let's respect each other"), Vemo-vos [vemos + vos] ("We see you"), etc.
 * The possessive pronouns are identical to possessive adjectives, except that they (which "they"???) must be preceded by the definite article (o meu, a minha, os meus, as minhas, etc.) For the possessive adjectives, the article is optional, and its use varies with dialect and degree of formality.
 * In Brazil, the weak clitic pronouns -o(s) and -a(s) are used almost exclusively in writing or in formal speech (e.g. TV newscasts). In colloquial speech, ele(s) and ela(s) replace the clitics as direct objects (e.g. Vi eles na praia ontem versus Vi-os na praia ontem; in English, "I saw them on the beach yesterday"). The standard written variants -lo(s) and -la(s) (used after an infinitive ending in r) are more frequent though in the speech of polite speakers, but seem to be losing ground as well. Note, however, that ele(s) or ela(s) are never used as direct objects in formal writing, such as newspaper articles, academic papers, or legal documents. The use of -lo, -la, etc. replacing "você" as direct object is restricted mostly to the written language (in particular, movie subtitles) although it occurs frequently in a few fixed expressions like Prazer em conhecê-lo ("Pleased to meet you") or Posso ajudá-lo? ("May I help you?").
 * In standard written BP, it is common to use lhe(s) as indirect object forms of ele(s)/ela(s) ("[to] him / her / it / them"), e.g. O presidente pediu que lhe dessem notícias da crise na Bolívia. In the colloquial language, 'lhe' in that context is frequently replaced by para ele, etc., although educated speakers might use lhe in speech as well.
 * The use of lhe and lhes as indirect object forms of você and vocês ("[to] you", plural and singular) is currently rare in General BP, where lhe is often replaced as noted above by te or, alternatively, by para você. On the other hand, lheísmo, i.e. the use of lhe not only as an indirect object, but also as a direct object, is frequent in Northeastern dialects.

Third person direct object clitic pronouns have several forms, depending on their position with relation to the verb and on the verb's ending. If the pronoun is enclitic and the verb ends with a consonant, or if the pronoun is mesoclitic and the root of the verb ends with a consonant, then that consonant is elided, and an l is added to the beginning of the pronoun. If the pronoun is enclitic and the verb ends with a nasal diphthong (spelled -ão, -am, -em, -ém, -êm, -õe, or -õem), an n is added to the beginning of the pronoun. The same happens after other clitic pronouns, and after the adverbial particle eis.

The third person forms o, a, os, and as may present the variants lo, la, los, las, no, na, nos, and nas:

The usual pattern in Romance languages is for clitics to precede the verb; e.g. Sp. Yo te amo, Fr. Je t'aime "I love you"; Fr. Tu m'avais dit "You had told me" (proclisis). The opposite order occurs only with the imperative: Sp. Dime, Fr. Dis-moi "Tell me" (enclisis). Spoken Brazilian Portuguese has taken more or less the same route, except that clitics usually appear between the auxiliary verb and the main verb in compound tenses, and proclisis is even more generalized: Eu te amo "I love you", but Me diz "Tell me", and Você tinha me dito "You had told me".
 * The variants lo, la, los, and las are used after verbal forms ending with a consonant, which is elided. Examples: seduz + a = sedu-la, faz + o = fá-lo, diz + o = di-lo, destróis + os = destrói-los (different from destrói-os, in which the verb is conjugated in the imperative mood), comes + a = come-la (different from come-a = come + a), apanha-las (apanhas + as), amá-lo (amar +o), fazê-lo (fazer + o), partire-lo (partires +o), tem-la (tens + a—the n changes to m). Exceptionally, quer + o gives quere-o, rather than *qué-lo (qué-lo is still permitted, but uncommon).
 * This also occurs when the pronoun is in mesoclitic position: matá-lo-ás (matarás + o), fá-lo-ias (farias + o), feri-lo-ias (feririas + o), comê-lo-ias (comerias + o).
 * The variants no, na, nos and nas are used after a verbal form ending with a nasal diphthong. Examples: põe-no (põe + o), tem-na (tem + a), comeram-nos (ambiguous, can mean comeram + os "they ate them", or comeram + nos "they ate us").
 * The pronouns o, etc. present the same forms as above when they follow other clitic pronouns, such as nos and vos, or the adverbial particle eis. Examples: ei-lo aqui (eis + o), deram-no-lo (deram + nos + o), "Não vo-lo [vos + o] quero dar a entender."

Still, in formal Portuguese the clitic pronouns always follow the verb in the infinitive (Brazilian too?).

Contractions with the preposition com
The following prepositional pronouns contract with the preposition com.

Verbs
The rest of this section contains Portuguese verb conjugation tables edited to include only features of Brazilian Portuguese.

Forms marked by an asterisk (*) are derived directly from the infinitive. The PLUPERFECT, FUTURE, CONDITIONAL, and PERSONAL INFINITIVE of a regular verb is always derived directly from its infinitive (except for the subjunctive pluperfect).

There are few irregular verbs in the conditional and future tenses (only dizer, fazer, trazer, and their compounds – also haver, ter, ser, ir, pôr, estar, etc. – for the subjunctive future imperfect). The indicative future imperfect, conditional, and subjunctive future imperfect are formed by adding to the infinitive of the verb the indicative present inflections of the auxiliary verb haver (dropping the h and av), the 2nd/3rd conjugation endings of the preterite, imperfect, and the personal infinitive endings, respectively. Thus, for the majority of verbs, the simple personal infinitive coincides with subjunctive future.

pôr
(The verb pôr is derived from Old Portuguese poer (Latin ponere) and is sometimes categorized as a second-conjugation verb, though it is highly irregular. Other verbs with infinitives ending in -or, such as depor, compor, and propor, are derivatives of pôr, and are conjugated in the same way.)

Pronunciation of present verb conjugations
In the present tense, the stress fluctuates between the root and the termination. As a rule of thumb, the last radical vowel (the one that can be stressed) will retain its original pronunciation when unstressed (atonic) and change into, (subjunctive or indicative 1st pers sing/infinitive), or  (subjunctive or indicative 1st pers sing/infinitive) – depending on the vowel in question – in case it is stressed (is in a tonic syllable). Other vowels (u, i) and nasalized vowels (before closed syllables) stay unchanged, as well as the verbs with the diphthongs -ei, -eu, -oi, -ou; they always keep a closed-mid pronunciation; e.g. deixo (deixar), endeuso  (endeusar), açoito  (açoitar), roubo  (roubar), etc. Alternation in stem-stressed forms is blocked when a nasal consonant (,  or ) follows, in which case the higher alternant (i.e.,  or ) is used in all forms. For example, in the verb comer, all of the forms como, comes, come, comem have.

Example: Consider the conjugation of correr (analogous to comer, presented above) in the Indicative Present Simple. The first-person singular corro has in the stressed vowel, while other forms corres, corre, correm have.

In Brazil, the following difference applies: Stem-unstressed forms consistently have or  for most speakers in most verbs, but there are exceptions, with some dialects (e.g. northeastern Brazilian dialects) likely to present an open form  or. At times, the difference is not particularly clear, producing, , particularly in transition zones like the states of Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais and the Brazilian Federal District, unless vowel harmony is involved (e.g. comove "move, touch (emotionally)" ).

This also has repercussions in the imperative and present subjunctive, for their inflections are constructed from the indicative present simple and indicative present simple in the 1st singular person respectively.