I want to become fluent in 4 languages. I invite you to join me. Let’s learn Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
Working at Strommen I come into a lot of contact with different languages and cultures.
Over the last 7 years of teaching Italian, studying Spanish and practicing my broken French, I began noticing that Portuguese was also starting to make sense. I noticed a sort of snow-ball effect with all 4 languages. The reason for this can surely be attributed to the fact that they are all romantic languages; they share the common ancestry of Latin.
Let’s start with a nice example of this.
The verb “to love” in English is conjugated like so:
To Love
I love
you love
he, she or it Loves
we love
you plural (or as I like to say ya’ll) love
they love
Many English speakers don’t even think of verb conjugation, as verbs don’t really change in English. Note that for 6 conjugations there are only two forms “Love” and “Loves”
Let’s take a look at Latin:
Amare
Amo – I love
Amas – You love
Amat – He loves
Amamus – We love
Amatis – Ya’ll love
Amant – They love
Italian:
Amare
Amo – I love
Ami – you love
Ama – He, she, it loves
Amiamo – We love
Amate – Ya’ll love
Amano – They love
Portuguese:
Amar
amo – I Love
amas – you love
ama – he, she it, loves
amamos – We love
amais – Ya’ll love
amam – They love
Spanish (including the Vosotros used in Spain)
Amar
amo – I Love
amas – you love
ama – he, she it, loves
amamos – We love
amáis – Ya’ll love
aman – They love
French: (the personal pronouns “I” “you” “he” etc. are required unlike in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese) Note that to love also means to like in French.
Aimer
j’ aime – I love / like
tu aimes – You love / like
il / elle / on aime – he she or one loves / likes
nous aimons – we love / like
vous aimez – you love / like
ils aiment – they love/ like
Lets compare those in a chart (the blue text shows exact matches across all four languages)
Latin: Amare | Italian: Amare | Spanish: Amar | Portuguese: Amar | French: Am | English |
Amo | Amo | Amo | Amo | j’ aime | I love |
Amas | Ami | Amas | Amas | tu aimes | You love |
Amat | Ama | Ama | Ama | il aime | He loves |
Amamus | Amiamo | Amamos | Amamos | nous aimons | We love |
Amatis | Amate | Amais | Amais | vous aimez | You (pl) love |
Amant | Amano | Aman | Amam | ils aiment | They love |
Looking at this chart it would male sense that as my Italian and Spanish improve so would my portuguese.
If you’re like me the idea of tackling these languages at the same time sounds fun. Try to memorize these verb conjugations. I will post a video soon, but in the mean time feel free to use the videos below to practice your pronunciation. A lesson on pronunciation will be in episode #2.
Italian:
Spanish:
Portuguese:
French: