Evitar as armadilhas nativas

Avoiding Native Traps in Portuguese

Even at C2 level — and indeed among native speakers — Portuguese has persistent traps that stem from the gap between spoken and written norms.

Dequeísmo and queísmo are mirror-image errors. Dequeísmo inserts an unnecessary de: Penso de que vai chover (wrong — pensar takes que directly). Queísmo removes a required de: Lembro que ele disse isso (wrong — lembrar-se requires de que). The test is simple: replace the clause with isso and check if the preposition is needed: Lembro-me disso (de + isso = disso, so de que is correct).

Concordância atrativa occurs when the verb agrees with the nearest noun rather than the true subject: A maioria dos alunos aprovaram — while increasingly accepted in speech, formal written Portuguese prefers A maioria dos alunos aprovou (singular verb, agreeing with maioria).

Pleonasmos are redundancies that creep into even educated writing: subir para cima (go up upwards), sair para fora (go out outside), elo de ligação (link of connection). Some, like há anos atrás (there are years ago — mixing two temporal markers), are so common that speakers no longer notice them.

Gerundismo — the excessive use of estar a + gerúndio constructions (Vou estar a enviar instead of Vou enviar) — is stigmatised in European Portuguese as a Brazilianism or call-centre speak.