A2 Text: At the Market

A Brazilian feira (open-air street market) is a crash course in transactional A2 grammar: asking prices, requesting quantities, checking quality, and the warm, slightly playful tone vendors use. In a few lines you'll meet a wh-question (quanto custa), a famously colloquial imperative (me vê), the estar-of-ripeness, and the diminutive that's everywhere in Brazilian speech. Here's a completely natural exchange at a fruit-and-veg stall.

The text

The customer (C) is at a barraca (stall); the vendor (V) — the feirante — is behind the produce:

This is the rhythm of the feira: price, quantity, a quality check, a friendly tag, and the total. Let's annotate the grammar.

"Quanto custa" — the wh-question for price

Quanto custa...? (How much does ... cost?) is the standard price question. Quanto is a wh-word ("how much / how many"), and like all wh-questions in Brazilian Portuguese, it goes to the front of the sentence and — crucially — needs no auxiliary verb and no inversion. You just put quanto first and let the rest follow in normal order:

Two things English speakers must drop: there's no "does" to insert, and the subject doesn't flip. The verb custar simply agrees with what's being priced — custa (singular: o quilo) vs custam (plural: as bananas). At the end the customer asks Quanto deu? — literally "How much did it give?" — an idiomatic way to ask for the running total (dar = to come to / add up to).

"Me vê" and "me dá" — the colloquial imperative

Here's a phrase no textbook prepares you for but every Brazilian uses at a market: Me vê dois quilos — literally "Show me / let me have two kilos," meaning "Give me two kilos." Vendors and customers also say Me dá uma dúzia (give me a dozen). Three things are going on:

1. The verb form. Vê and dá are the você imperatives of ver (to see/look) and dar (to give). In speech these double as polite-but-casual requests.
2. The proclitic pronoun. Standard written grammar says an object pronoun shouldn't start a sentence — it should attach after the verb (veja-me, dê-me). But spoken Brazilian Portuguese overwhelmingly puts the pronoun before the verb: me vê, me dá, me liga, me passa. This "proclisis at the start of a sentence" is the single most characteristic feature of Brazilian word order.
3. "me" as indirect object. Here me means "to me / for me" — me vê dois quilos = "let me have two kilos."

This is friendly, not rude — softened by the casual register and a smile. The written, formal equivalent would be Dê-me dois quilos, por favor (enclitic, with the formal dê), which you'd use in a letter but which sounds stiff at a stall.

"Estão maduras" — estar for ripeness

When the customer asks as bananas estão maduras? (are the bananas ripe?), the verb is estar, not ser. Ripeness is a temporary, changeable state — a banana is green today, ripe tomorrow, overripe the day after — and estar is exactly the verb for conditions that change. Ser would imply a permanent, defining trait, which fruit ripeness is not.

Compare the contrast that trips learners up: A banana é amarela (bananas are yellow — a defining trait, ser) vs A banana está madura (this banana is ripe — a current state, estar). Same fruit, different verb, because one fact is permanent and the other is a passing condition. The vendor's reply Estão, sim ("they are, yes") echoes the same verb — a natural way to confirm with the verb of the question.

"Docinhas" — the affectionate diminutive

The vendor closes the sale with Bem docinhas! — from doce (sweet) + the diminutive -inho/-inha. Here the diminutive isn't about size at all; it's affectionate and persuasive, making the bananas sound especially sweet and appealing. This emotional, intensifying use of the diminutive is pervasive in Brazilian Portuguese.

Note the agreement: docinha agrees with the feminine plural bananas → docinhas. The intensifier bem ("really/nice and") in front of a diminutive is classic market talk — bem fresquinho (nice and fresh), bem maduro (good and ripe). It softens, warms, and sells.

Vocabulary and expressions

• feira — open-air street market; feirante — the vendor; barraca — stall.
• o quilo — kilo; produce is priced per kilo (o quilo de tomate).
• freguês / freguesa — "customer/regular," used warmly by vendors to address you.
• uma dúzia — a dozen (12); commonly used for bananas, eggs, pão.
• maduro / verde — ripe / unripe (green); mole — soft; fresquinho — nice and fresh.
• Quanto deu? — "What's the total?" (lit. "how much did it give?").

Cultural note

The weekly feira livre is a fixture of Brazilian neighborhoods — vendors call out prices, offer samples, and toss in a little extra (um agradinho) for regulars. Light haggling and quality-checking (estão maduras?) are expected and friendly, not confrontational. The whole interaction runs on warmth: diminutives, the address freguês, and me vê / me dá requests all signal an easy, personal rapport that's part of the experience.

Common Mistakes

Key takeaways

• Quanto custa/custam...? — front the wh-word, no "does," verb agrees with the item.
• Me vê / me dá + quantity — the colloquial market request, with the pronoun before the verb (Brazilian proclisis).
• Ripeness and freshness are temporary states → estar (estão maduras), not ser.
• The diminutive -inho/-inha is often affectionate/persuasive, not literal size: docinhas, baratinho.
• Confirm with the question's verb: Estão maduras? — Estão, sim.