Tá ou não tá?

Oi, gente! Today I'm focusing on something very simple, tá?
Brazilians say this "tá" all the time, in different contexts, but if you don't have a good dictionary or grammar, you can't find what it  means.
You're already familiar with the verb estar (if not, click here for more info). If we conjugate estar in "Presente do Indicativo, we have:

Eu estou

Tu estás

Você/Ele/Ela está

Nós estamos

Vocês estão

Eles/Elas estão.

Tá is a simplified and informal way for está. And it can happen every time verb estar is spoken (in any conjugation). This simplification was initially phonetic, but now, with text message, e-mails and informal writing, it's even more important to understand it.
This is how it works: remove the first syllable - es - and write the ending the way you would pronounce it:

Eu tô

Você tá*

Ele/Ela tá

Nós tamos

Vocês tão

Eles/Elas tão.

*because this is informal, tu is not likely to be conjugated this way, however, in some parts of the country you can hear/see tu tais or tu tá.

• Eu tô feliz. (estou - I'm happy)
• Eu tava na praia quando você ligou. (estava - I was at the beach when you called me)
• Ele tava em casa. (estava - He was at home)
• Se eu tivesse na escola, teria feito a prova. (estivesse - If I had been at school, I would have taken the test.)

We also use tá as a short way of saying está bem and it means OK, alright, I got it - either in a question or answer. And you may also hear ah, ta as "oh, now I understand", or if someone is being ironic "oh, really?", yeah, right.
If it's Internet language, some people may write without the accents: tah or ta.

• Me liga mais tarde, tá? ( Call me later, ok?)
• Faça os deveres antes de ver TV, tá? (Do your homework before watching TV, ok?)
• Ah, tá! Você tirou 10 na prova! (Oh, really? You aced the test?)
• Ah, tá, primeiro direita, depois esquerda. (Oh, I got it. First right, then left.)

Até a próxima!

Ser ou não ser?

One of the first questions I hear, specially from beginners, is "What's the difference between ser and estar?“. 
Well, in English, we only have "to be" and we understand what's said with other words that are added to the sentence like characteristics, description, jobs, places etc. Well, in Portuguese, is quite simple, but you have to "think in Portuguese" in order to make sense. So, Let's see:


SER = Permanent We use ser, and all its possible conjugations, to talk about permanent things and situations. Real things, something real, unchangeable.


ESTAR = Temporary (conditions, mood, location, weather) We use estar, and all its possible conjugations, to talk about temporary things and situations that have recently changed or that could soon change - locations, places, mood, social status. Regarding weather, we have to be careful, because the verb estar is not the only possible way, but then we'll see it in another post.

• Eu sou mulher. (I am a woman.)
• Ele é rico? (Is he rich?)
• Ela é casada. (She's married.)
• Somos brasileiros. (We're Brazilian.)

These are things that won’t change.

• Eu estou cansado. (I'm tired.)
• Estamos atrasados (We're late.)
• Eles estão no Japão. (They're in Japan.)
• Ela está na aula. (She's in class.)
• Está quente hoje. (It's hot today)

These are not permanent things, they can change or have changed. Now, think about it:

• Eu sou feliz. X Eu estou feliz.
• Ela é casada. X Ela está casada.

What's the diference?

Because estar means something temporary, "Eu estou feliz." is now, because something happened and it made me happy, whereas "Eu sou feliz" is a general characteristic about myself. Like, I'm happy now, or I consider myself a happy person. And the second set of sentence "Ela é casada" is her marital status, but when I say: "Ela está casada" I focus on the fact that now she's gotten married. It's a new situation, it has changed recently.

Let's see if you understood

1) Hoje eu ____________ feliz.

2) Ela ___________solteira. Terminaram o casamento há dois meses.

3) Ele ganhou na loteria mês passado e agora ________ rico.

4) Eu _______ magra. Peso 50 kilos.

5) Eu __________ magra, fiz uma dieta e perdi 20 kilos.

Até a próxima!