eu escrevo uma carta
In Portuguese, "I write a letter" is said as eu escrevo uma carta.
This phrase is used to state that someone is composing a written message to another person. If you want to specify that you are writing a formal or business letter, you can say Eu escrevo uma carta formal/de negócios.
How does it change in a sentence?
In Portuguese, the subject pronoun eu is often omitted in natural speech because the verb ending escrevo already indicates the first-person singular. Therefore, you can simply say escrevo uma carta to mean "I write a letter". If you wish to change the phrase to the past tense to say "I wrote a letter", change escrevo to escrevi.
Did you know?
- In Brazil, the word carta is also used to describe a playing card or a menu in a restaurant.
- The word carta shares a common ancestor with the English word 'chart', as both stem from the Greek word for papyrus.
- While escrever means 'to write', the expression escrever para alguém can imply starting a long-term correspondence or a romantic courtship in older literature.
Examples in context
- Sempre que estou triste, eu escrevo uma carta.Whenever I am sad, I write a letter.
Example conversation
Juliana and Felipe are talking about their hobbies.
- JulianaO que você faz no seu tempo livre?What do you do in your free time?
- FelipeEu gosto de ler livros antigos.I like to read old books.
- JulianaEu escrevo uma carta para amigos distantes.I write a letter to distant friends.
- FelipeIsso é muito romântico, Juliana.That is very romantic, Juliana.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries carta, eu, uma, CC BY-SA 4.0.
