B1 · 37 Wörter

Friendship and relationships

How closeness begins, how it holds, and how it comes to an end.

The eleventh entry is dar notícias, and it is the sort of phrase that defeats a word-for-word reading. Literally it is to give news, and English cannot say that, because « news » refuses the verb: we give somebody a call, a ring or a shout, but never news. What dar notícias means is to let people hear from you — to write, to phone, to send the message saying you have arrived. So dá notícias quando chegares is « let us know when you get there » or « drop us a line when you arrive », and the imperative is as ordinary in Portuguese as « keep in touch » is here. Two further things are worth holding on to. The negative is the more useful half: não dá notícias há meses is « we have not heard from him for months », where English turns the sentence round and puts the speaker in the subject slot. And notícias here is a plural countable noun, while English « news » is a mass noun taking a singular verb — « the news is good », never are.

Die Wörter

Verb (5)

desculparto forgiveVerbB1

Desculpou-lhe tudo menos a mentira.She forgave him everything except the lie.

trairto betrayVerbB1

Traiu a confiança de quem o ajudou.He betrayed the trust of the people who had helped him.

coscuvilharto gossipVerbB1

Passam a tarde a coscuvilhar sobre os vizinhos.They spend the afternoon gossiping about the neighbours.

separar-seto separateVerbB1

Separaram-se sem discussão nenhuma.They separated without a single argument.

divorciar-seto get divorcedVerbB1

Divorciaram-se ao fim de nove anos.They got divorced after nine years.

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