Causes and consequences in Brazilian Portuguese

Level B1

Causes and consequences in Brazilian Portuguese

A meeting has moved from ten to nine, but one colleague never received the message. Explain both perspectives, then use the same connectors in a travel problem. A reason explains why something happened; por isso points from it to a result or to a conclusion, which may be mistaken.

Words for the two perspectives

Reunião is “meeting”, recado is “message”, and erro is “mistake”; use a reunião, o recado and um erro. Receber means “receive”, enviar “send”, começar “start”, achar “think/believe”, saber “know”, ser “be”, chegar “arrive”, and entender “understand”. Porque introduces a reason with a verb; por causa de introduces a named cause.

Recover a reason and a past belief

Eu cheguei às dez porque não recebi o recado means “I arrived at ten because I didn’t receive the message”: porque gives the reason after the event. Eu is “I”, você is “you”, não negates the following verb, and às nove/às dez mean “at nine/at ten”. The completed past forms are cheguei “I arrived”, chegou “you/he/she arrived”, recebi “I received”, recebeu “you/he/she received”, enviei “I sent”, começou “it started” and achei “I thought”. In achei que, que introduces the belief, as it introduces reported information after disse que (“said that”); keep the Portuguese que even when English omits that. Era means “was” for the meeting’s scheduled time, and você sabia means “you knew”: these imperfect forms describe the past background, rather than a new completed event.

Ana and Bruno compare what happened

A is Ana, who sent the new time yesterday; B is Bruno, who arrived at ten and did not receive the message because of a mistake. The message was about moving the meeting to nine, but Bruno still believed ten was correct. Ontem means “yesterday”, and agora eu entendo means “now I understand”. Listen to the five lines as one conversation: Ana’s belief that Bruno knew is corrected by his explanation. The conversation does not identify who made the mistake.

Name the cause with por causa de

Eu não recebi o recado por causa de um erro names a cause: “because of a mistake”. Here de is followed by a noun group, um erro, rather than a complete clause. Compare because of a mistake with because I didn’t receive the message: Portuguese also distinguishes por causa de + noun from porque + clause. De combines with the definite articles o/a as do/da; the later example por causa da chuva means “because of the rain”.

situação por causa de nome da causa

Start with the reason: como

Como eu não recebi o recado, cheguei às dez puts the reason first, followed by a comma and the result. In this use, initial como means “since/as/because”, rather than the question “how?”. The reason includes a conjugated verb, recebi; it is not just a noun after de. Como eu não recebi o recado, achei que a reunião era às dez explains Bruno’s belief in the same way. Keep this causal como at the beginning of the sentence in the pattern practised here.

Como motivo com verbo, resultado

Look back with por isso

Eu não recebi o recado. Por isso, cheguei às dez first states the reason, then gives its result: por isso means “so/for that reason”. Unlike porque, por isso introduces what follows from the earlier information, not the reason for it. In Eu enviei o recado ontem. Por isso, achei que você sabia, the sending led Ana to a conclusion: “I thought you knew”. It did not prove Bruno received anything, and the dialogue shows her conclusion was wrong. A connector can organise an inference without making it true.

Your turn: repair the misunderstanding

Before reading the models, speak as Bruno: explain your arrival in one sentence beginning Como, then in two sentences joined by Por isso. Keep the same reason in both versions: you did not receive the message. Now speak as Ana and acknowledge this fact with Agora eu entendo, without accusing Bruno of ignoring the message. Compare the three audio models, then retell the problem in your own words, keeping Ana’s belief separate from Bruno’s information.

A different cause: the journey

Ônibus is “bus” and chuva is “rain”; use o ônibus and a chuva. Chegou tarde means “arrived late”: tarde here is “late”, not the afternoon. You already have cheguei “I arrived” and às dez “at ten”. These are all the words needed for the next task.

Transfer: explain a transport delay

On another day, the rain delayed your bus, so you arrived at ten; the message problem does not apply. Before reading the models, explain the whole chain in two sentences: name the rain with por causa da chuva, then introduce your arrival with Por isso. Next explain only the link between the bus’s late arrival and yours, in one sentence starting Como. Compare and listen to both models; then replace the time with a time you know and explain a real journey, keeping the cause and result in the right order.

Check which way the explanation points

Use por causa de + noun to name a cause, and initial como + clause to put the reason first: Como eu não recebi o recado, cheguei às dez. Use por isso to move from earlier information to a consequence or conclusion. Ask whether the next part answers “why?” or says “what follows?”. When expressing your own past belief, use achei que (“I thought that…”): a belief is not automatically a fact.

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