John Whitlam was a freelance writer, university lecturer and lexicographer based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He authored a number of language teaching books and project-coordinated and co-authored four best-selling bilingual dictionaries of Portuguese and English.

Agripino S. Silveira is Lecturer in Portuguese at Stanford Language Center, Stanford University, USA.

Preface to the third edition

Preface to the second edition

Introduction to this book

Introduction to Brazilian Portuguese

Glossary of grammatical terms

Part A Structures

1 Pronunciation and spelling

2 Gender and gender agreement

3 Number and number agreement

4 Articles

5 Adjectives and adverbs

6 Numbers and numerical expressions

7 Personal pronouns

8 Demonstratives

9 Possessives

10 Relative pronouns

11 Interrogatives

12 Exclamations

13 Indefinite adjectives and pronouns

14 Negatives

15 Regular verb conjugations

16 Semi-irregular and irregular verbs

17 Gerunds, past participles, compound perfect tenses and the passive

18 Use of the tenses

19 The infinitive

20 The subjunctive

21 The imperative

22 Reflexive verbs

23 Ser, estar and ficar

24 Verbs used in auxiliary, modal and impersonal constructions

25 Prepositions

26 Conjunctions

27 Word order

28 Word formation

Part B Functions

I Social contact and communication strategies

29 Making social contacts

30 Basic strategies for communication

II Giving and seeking factual information

31 Asking questions and responding

32 Negating

33 Reporting

34 Asking and giving personal information

35 Identifying people and things

36 Describing

37 Making comparisons

38 Expressing existence and availability

39 Expressing location and distance

40 Expressing possessive relations

41 Expressing changes

42 Expressing cause, effect and purpose

III Putting events into a wider context

43 Expressing knowledge

44 Remembering and forgetting

45 Expressing obligation and duty

46 Expressing needs

47 Expressing possibility and probability

48 Expressing certainty and uncertainty

49 Expressing supposition

50 Expressing conditions

51 Expressing contrast or opposition

52 Expressing capability and incapability

53 Seeking and giving permission

54 Asking and giving opinions

55 Expressing agreement, disagreement and indifference

IV Expressing emotional attitudes

56 Expressing desires and preferences

57 Expressing likes and dislikes

58 Expressing surprise

59 Expressing satisfaction and dissatisfaction

60 Expressing hope

61 Expressing sympathy

62 Apologizing and expressing forgiveness

63 Expressing fear or worry

64 Expressing gratitude

V The language of persuasion

65 Giving advice and making suggestions

66 Making requests

67 Giving directions, instructions and orders

68 Making an offer or invitation and accepting or declining

VI Expressing temporal relations

69 Talking about the present

70 Talking about the future

71 Talking about the past

Appendices

Bibliography

Index of words and topics