Portuguese grammar questions

[langmaker]

Hello, everyone

I have some questions about Portuguese.

1. My first question is:

What is the meaning, in English, of "Eu não sou professor, pois não?"


2. My second question is:

When I say "O Rui é professor, não é?", my textbook say that I can answer with either "Sim, é." or with "É, é." I am wondering what, if any, is/are the difference(s) between these two responses?

Simarly, I could respond in the negative with "Não, não é." or with "Não, não." to the question "O Rui é professor, não é?". Again, what is/are the differences between these two responses if any?


Thank you in advance for any help on this.

[rfnsoares]

I will try to help you.

In Brazilian Portuguese, the word sim (yes) is not used. We use é, tá, depending on the context. I believe the way the textbook is teaching you is a little bit confusing and too formal.

[DangerDave2010]

1. Without further context, I took it to mean:
I am not a teacher, do you need any thing else?
The person is probably expressing anoyance for for being corrected.

2. You could answer with "Sim, é." (textbook style), or more usually just "É."
"É, é." would be an affected repetition, such as to fend off the asker's insistance. Similarly, in the negative you can say textbookishly: "Não, não é.", or just "não é", or "não."

I'm native Brazilian, in other countries usage or interpretation may differ.

[Serpent]

I won't try to explain but I think you're over-thinking it
If you're a native speaker of English, think of the difference between:
-No.
-Nope.
-Nah.
-No, no.
(bonus: "No!", "No..." - same word, but with a different intonation/punctuation)

Can you explain it without a realistic context?..

Honestly, that's the kind of thing that you pick up when you start using native materials. For now, focus on the direct meaning (is the answer affirmative? negative?) and definitely don't worry about translating it into English.

[tarvos]

Ahh. That's why they look at me so confusedly when I say "sim" like a true Portuguese woman...

[Vricia]

As a native portuguese I will try to answer this.

What is the meaning, in English, of "Eu não sou professor, pois não?"

This would be: "I'm not a teacher/professor, am I?". Literally whatever use you could give to this sentence would be the same in Portuguese. There's no hidden or obscure meaning here.

When I say "O Rui é professor, não é?", my textbook say that I can answer with either "Sim, é." or with "É, é." I am wondering what, if any, is/are the difference(s) between these two responses?

Similarly, I could respond in the negative with "Não, não é." or with "Não, não." to the question "O Rui é professor, não é?". Again, what is/are the differences between these two responses if any?

I agree with Serpent here. Don't overthink this. It's just different ways to say the same with different levels of formality I suppose. Although, I am from Portugal, unlike the other Portuguese natives that answered and I can say that in Portugal you'd say "Sim, é", "É, é", "É, sim", "Sim, sim" or the equivalent negative answers, quite interchangeably.

Hope I helped a bit.