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Acolá instead of alí/lá in Portuguese

  Tags: Portuguese | Grammar
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1e4e6
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 Message 1 of 6
07 December 2013 at 10:35pm | IP Logged 
I was reviewing my Portuguese grammar with a book, and it mentions "acolá" as a form of
"there", but I do not often hear or see this (although most of what I watch in Portuguese
is RTP). Is there a special meaning here, like if osmeone says, <<Verei-vo-mos no
restaurante nessa rua acolá amanhã pela noite>>?

Edited by 1e4e6 on 07 December 2013 at 10:35pm

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Sepp
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 Message 2 of 6
08 December 2013 at 11:16am | IP Logged 
I've never heard "acolá" actually used, though I've seen it in books. If you really want to know all about it, why not ask Google, more than a million results to satisfy your curiosity.
Btw, I haven't quite worked out what you mean by "Verei-vo-mos" as verei is 1st person singular 'eu verei', whereas the ending -mos refers to a 1st person plural subject 'nós'.
You have the choice between
   ver-vos-ei (I'll see you) or:
   ver-vos-emos (we'll see you)
I personally would never say either, sounds very bookish.
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Luso
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 Message 3 of 6
08 December 2013 at 12:57pm | IP Logged 
"Acolá" is still used by elderly people in rural areas, when giving directions.
It means "over there", quite literally. From the Latin, "eccum illac".
You must be looking towards the place when you say it (and, ideally, pointing at it).


Sepp wrote:
You have the choice between
   ver-vos-ei (I'll see you) or:
   ver-vos-emos (we'll see you)
I personally would never say either, sounds very bookish.


This is correct, but not completely enlightening.

Let me have a shot at it:

- ver-vos-ei (I'll see you all) => bookish, no one uses it
- ver-vos-emos (we'll see you all) => same thing
- ver-te-ei (I'll see - just - you) => same
- ver-te-emos (we'll see - just - you) => yep, the same

In practice, we say / text:
- vemo-nos no restaurante (we'll see each other...) => affirmative or interrogative
- vejo-te no restaurante? (will I see you there, will you go?) => mostly interrogative, affirmative also possible, less frequent
- other variants in number: vejo-vos (one to several), vemos-te (several to one), etc.

To summarise, we just use the present as future (like Italian, for instance). "Vemo-nos" is the best, because it covers all bases (affirmative, interrogative, singular, plural, etc.).

Edited by Luso on 08 December 2013 at 1:08pm

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Sepp
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 Message 4 of 6
08 December 2013 at 3:44pm | IP Logged 
Luso wrote:

To summarise, we just use the present as future (like Italian, for instance). "Vemo-nos" is the best, because it covers all bases (affirmative, interrogative, singular, plural, etc.).

That's exactly what I would have said. The OP used future tense, but wrong forms, which I corrected, adding, like you do, that it is bookish and nobody would say it.

But if we're talking correct usage, then there actually is something else that bothers me: the use of 'essa rua acolá'. If you want to use acolá, you'd have to change essa to aquela. Essa rua points to something nearer, acolá to something further away, never the twain shall meet!
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1e4e6
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 Message 5 of 6
08 December 2013 at 8:50pm | IP Logged 
Right, I messed up the conjugation, it should have been "ver-vos-emos", I split the
infinitive in the incorrect part. But I suppose the "acolá" sounded new somehow, since I
have not heard what I see seems to be the Spanish equivalent, "acullá" either.
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Sepp
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 Message 6 of 6
08 December 2013 at 11:55pm | IP Logged 
1e4e6 wrote:
I suppose the "acolá" sounded new somehow, since I
have not heard what I see seems to be the Spanish equivalent, "acullá" either.

Exactly, both are old hat, though in Spanish the expression "aquí, allá y acullá" seems to still be used at times in the meaning of "a little bit of everywhere".


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