Grândola Vila Morena

Today's vocabulary

🫂 Fraternidade [femin. noun]: Fraternity, brotherhood📥 Dentro: In, inside👉 Ti: You 🕋 Esquina [femin. noun]: Corner🧓 Rosto [masc. noun]: Face🟰 Igualdade [femin. noun]: Equality🌓 Sombra [femin. noun]: Shade, shadow🌳 Azinheira [femin. noun]: Holm oak💭 Saber: To know🖐️ Jurar: To swear👫 Companheira [femin. noun]: Companion🔥 Vontade [femin. noun]: Will

Words in the song

Ó can be used to call someone from a distance or when calling someone by name (Hey!). It can also express surprise or dismay (Oh!).

There are more examples of Portuguese interjections and their use in the song Andorinha da Primavera.

Companheira is the feminine of companheiro (companion). The word is used in a variety of ways. It can refer to someone:

• Attending the same class, and in these cases it means classmate.
  • Aluno agrediu duas companheiras de turma. (Student assaulted two classmates.)
• Playing in the same team, teammate.
  • O Rui é um excelente companheiro de equipa. (Rui is an excellent teammate.)
• Sharing the same house, flatmate, housemate.
  • 🗓️ Há três anos que somos companheiras de casa. (We've been housemates for three years.)
• With whom one has a romantic relationship, partner.
  • Apresento-te a minha companheira, a Teresa. (I'd like you to meet my partner, Teresa.)

Sombra’s primary meaning is shade or shadow.

It is also the word used for the eye-shadow.

• 📅 Hoje vou pôr sombra nos olhos. (Today I'm going to put on eye-shadow.)

There are a few expressions with the word sombra. The most relevant are:

• Sem sombra de dúvidas (without a shadow of doubt)
  • Estas medidas contribuem, sem sombra de dúvidas, para minimizar o contágio. (These measures contribute, without a shadow of a doubt, to minimising contagion.)
• Nem por sombras (by no means)
  • Este não foi, nem por sombras, o primeiro caso de derrame de petróleo. (This was by no means the first case of an oil spill.)

Azinheira is a holm oak and is a very common tree in the Alentejo. Holm oaks are used in Alentejo in the montado. The montado is a man made ecosystem that brings together pastoralism, agriculture and forestry.

Holm oaks have been protected in Portugal by a decree since May 2001.

This is the protruding angle formed by two surfaces and is the exterior corner formed by two walls of a building. It is also the name given to the intersection between two streets.

Some phrases include:

• Dobrar a esquina (to go around the corner)
• Ao virar da esquina (very close, around the corner)

In Portuguese, the word face is represented by the words rosto and cara.

• Tenho muitos cremes de rosto. (I have many face creams.)
• Quero falar com ele cara a cara. (I want to talk to him face to face.)

The word cara also represents the heads side of a coin.

• Queres cara ou coroa? (Do you want heads or tails.)

Grammar bites

Ti is a personal pronoun for the 2nd person singular (you) used after prepositions, such as para, por, de, a, sobre, among others.

• Ele está doido por ti. (He’s crazy about you.)
• Estão a falar sobre ti. (They’re talking about you.)
• 🍰 Esse bolo é para ti. (That cake is for you.)

You can find out more in our article about prepositional pronouns.

In this verse, meaning that no longer knew its age, the verb saber (to know) is in the imperfect past, because this is the tense used to make descriptions of the past. In this case, the verb represents no action but rather a circumstance or a context being depicted.

About Zeca

Songwriter and singer José Afonso (1929-1987), more commonly known as Zeca Afonso, is known for his political activism and his music's strong political and social commentary.His songs played an important role in the Portuguese resistance movement against the authoritarian regime that ruled the country for almost half a century. His songs were often banned by the government, and he was arrested and imprisoned several times for his political views.Despite the government's attempts to silence him, Zeca Afonso's music continued to inspire and he is celebrated today as one of the most important figures in Portuguese music and politics.