Phone calls and appointments

The second entry is daqui fala a Ana, and the word worth stopping on is not the verb but the a standing in front of the name. European Portuguese puts the definite article before a personal name whenever the person is somebody the speaker knows: a Ana, o João, a Dona Teresa, o senhor Silva. It carries no emphasis and no disrespect. It is simply the ordinary form, and leaving it out sounds either very formal or plainly foreign. English has no counterpart at all: « the Ana » is not a stiff version of « Ana », it is nothing, so the article has to be dropped in translation and put back when speaking. Three things follow. The article survives after a preposition and fuses with it, which is where de and em change shape: o carro do João, pensei na Ana. It disappears when the name is used to call somebody or to greet them: Ana, anda cá. And the same habit governs the possessive, where English again refuses one: o meu irmão is only « my brother ».