Breakdown of Nos últimos meses eu tenho guardado dinheiro para viajar com minha família.
Questions & Answers about Nos últimos meses eu tenho guardado dinheiro para viajar com minha família.
In Portuguese, you normally need a preposition + article in this kind of time expression.
- em + os = nos
- em = in / on
- os = the (masculine plural)
- em os meses → nos meses → nos últimos meses = in the last months / in the last few months
Starting with just Últimos meses eu tenho… sounds wrong/unfinished in Portuguese. You need something like:
- Nos últimos meses eu tenho…
- Durante os últimos meses eu tenho…
So nos is required here to express “in the last months.”
They’re completely different words:
nos (no accent)
- contraction of em + os or a + os, depending on context
- here it is em + os = in the
- nos últimos meses = in the last months
nós (with accent)
- subject pronoun = we
- Nós viajamos muito. = We travel a lot.
In your sentence, it must be nos (no accent), because it’s a preposition+article, not the pronoun we.
Adjectives in Portuguese can come before or after the noun, but:
The default position is after:
- meses difíceis = difficult months
Some very common adjectives (like último, primeiro, bom, mau, velho, novo) are normally placed before the noun when they’re being used in their basic, expected sense:
- os últimos meses = the last months
- o primeiro dia = the first day
Meses últimos is technically possible, but it sounds poetic, marked, or odd in everyday speech. Native speakers would almost always say os últimos meses / nos últimos meses.
Yes, that’s completely natural.
Portuguese often drops the subject pronoun because the verb ending already shows the subject:
- Tenho guardado dinheiro. → the -o ending in tenho and the context tell you it’s I.
- So both are correct:
- Nos últimos meses eu tenho guardado dinheiro…
- Nos últimos meses tenho guardado dinheiro…
Including eu can add a bit of emphasis on I, but grammatically both are fine.
Portuguese present perfect (tenho + past participle) does not line up exactly with English.
- Eu tenho guardado dinheiro usually implies:
- a repeated or ongoing action over a period of time up to now
- closer in meaning to “I have been saving money”
It suggests that:
- You started saving some time ago.
- You have been saving repeatedly or continuously.
- It’s still relevant now.
To express a one-time completed action (like English “I have saved (x amount)” in the sense of a finished result), Portuguese more often uses the pretérito perfeito:
- Eu guardei dinheiro. = I saved money (at some time in the past, completed).
So:
- Tenho guardado dinheiro ≈ have been saving money
- Guardei dinheiro ≈ saved money (action seen as finished)
Yes, you can say Eu venho guardando dinheiro, and it’s also correct. The nuance:
Eu tenho guardado dinheiro
- standard way to say you regularly/consistently save money over a period up to now.
- very common in both spoken and written Portuguese.
Eu venho guardando dinheiro
- more explicitly progressive, similar to “I’ve been (increasingly) saving money”.
- sometimes suggests a development or change over time.
In everyday conversation, tenho guardado is more common and neutral. Venho guardando is fully understood, just a slightly different stylistic choice.
Portuguese doesn’t use a direct equivalent of “up” here. The idea of “saving up” is expressed by the verb itself or by using a different verb:
- guardar dinheiro – to put money aside, save money
- juntar dinheiro – to save/accumulate money (very common)
- economizar dinheiro – to economize / save money
All of these can match “save up money” depending on context:
- Tenho guardado dinheiro…
- Tenho juntado dinheiro…
- Tenho economizado dinheiro…
In casual Brazilian Portuguese, juntar dinheiro is extremely common when you mean “to save up money for something specific.”
Yes, there’s a nuance:
guardar dinheiro
- literally: to keep/put away money
- can mean: to save money, especially by setting some aside (e.g., in a bank account, in cash)
- focus: on putting it aside / not spending it
economizar dinheiro
- literally: to economize money
- means: to spend less, to cut costs so that you keep more money
- focus: on reducing expenses
In practice, they often overlap:
- Tenho guardado dinheiro para viajar.
- Tenho economizado dinheiro para viajar.
Both are fine and will be understood as “I’ve been saving money to travel.”
Guardar sounds a bit more like setting aside; economizar more like cutting down on spending.
Para is the normal preposition to express purpose or intention:
- para viajar = in order to travel / so that I can travel
Compare:
- Estudo português para trabalhar no Brasil.
I study Portuguese (in order) to work in Brazil.
Por is used for reasons, causes, exchange, movement, etc., but not for intended purpose in this sense. So:
- para viajar → correct here.
- por viajar → sounds wrong or would have a different, unnatural meaning.
In casual speech, Brazilians often say pra instead of para:
- Tenho guardado dinheiro pra viajar… (very common in spoken Brazilian Portuguese)
Both com minha família and com a minha família are grammatically correct.
In Brazilian Portuguese:
- Using the definite article a before possessives is very common, especially in speech:
- com a minha família
- na minha casa (em + a = na)
- But after the preposition “com”, many people often drop the article, especially in more neutral or formal style:
- com minha família
- com meu pai
Nuance:
- com minha família
- slightly more neutral or “textbook” feel
- com a minha família
- very common in everyday spoken Brazilian Portuguese
You can use either one; you will hear both all the time.
Yes, that sentence is also correct and natural:
- Nos últimos meses eu tenho guardado dinheiro para viajar com minha família.
- Eu tenho guardado dinheiro nos últimos meses para viajar com minha família.
Both are fine. Differences:
- Starting with Nos últimos meses puts a bit more emphasis on the time period.
- Starting with Eu tenho guardado… is more neutral, similar to English word order.
Portuguese word order is flexible, especially with time expressions like this.
Yes, you can, but there’s a slight nuance:
- Nos últimos meses eu tenho guardado dinheiro…
- more specific: refers to the last few months, a clearer time frame
- Recentemente eu tenho guardado dinheiro…
- more vague: recently / lately, not tied to a precise span
Both are correct and natural:
- Recentemente eu tenho guardado dinheiro para viajar com minha família.
- Ultimamente eu tenho guardado dinheiro para viajar com minha família.
(ultimamente = “lately,” also very common)
Nos últimos meses just gives a more concrete idea of time.
You can say Tenho estado guardando dinheiro, and it’s grammatically possible, but:
- it sounds heavier and more formal/unnatural in everyday Brazilian Portuguese
- it’s rarely needed, because tenho guardado already expresses the idea of an action repeated or ongoing up to now
So in real life:
- Tenho guardado dinheiro para viajar…
is what people say.
Tenho estado guardando dinheiro would only appear in more formal or very careful speech/writing, and even there it’s not particularly common.