Breakdown of Eu quero guardar dinheiro em casa.
Questions & Answers about Eu quero guardar dinheiro em casa.
In Brazilian Portuguese, guardar is quite flexible. In this sentence, guardar dinheiro em casa can mean:
- to keep money at home (the most literal idea: the money stays there)
- to store money at home
- sometimes, loosely, to save money at home (instead of putting it in a bank)
However, for the idea of saving money in the sense of being economical or not spending, the more precise verb is economizar:
- Eu quero economizar dinheiro. = I want to save money (not spend so much).
- Eu quero guardar dinheiro em casa. = I want to keep/store the money at home (instead of, for example, a bank).
So guardar here is closer to keep/store at home than to the more abstract save money in general.
In Portuguese, uncountable, abstract, or generic nouns often appear without an article, especially when you mean money in general:
- Eu quero guardar dinheiro em casa.
= I want to keep money at home (unspecified amount, money in general).
If you say o dinheiro, you are usually referring to specific money already known in the context:
- Eu quero guardar o dinheiro em casa.
= I want to keep the money at home (for example, the money we just received).
So:
- No article (dinheiro) → general, non‑specific money.
- With article (o dinheiro) → specific amount of money you and the listener know about.
Em casa is a fixed, idiomatic expression that means at home.
- em casa → at home (your home, or the person’s home, context‑dependent)
- na casa = em + a casa → in/at the house (a particular house, treated like any other building)
Compare:
Eu quero guardar dinheiro em casa.
= I want to keep money at home (natural, idiomatic).Eu quero guardar dinheiro na casa.
= I want to keep money in the house (a specific house; sounds odd without context).
So for the general idea of at home, Brazilian Portuguese uses em casa, not na casa.
Yes, you can, but it sounds more explicit:
- Eu quero guardar dinheiro em minha casa.
= I want to keep money in my house.
This emphasizes my house, not just at home in a general sense.
In everyday conversation, Brazilians usually prefer the shorter, more idiomatic em casa unless they need to contrast it with someone else’s house.
Yes. Portuguese is a pro‑drop language: subject pronouns are often omitted when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- Eu quero guardar dinheiro em casa.
- Quero guardar dinheiro em casa.
Both are correct and natural.
Leaving out eu can sound slightly more neutral or less emphatic. Including eu can add a bit of emphasis:
- Eu quero guardar dinheiro em casa. (as opposed to someone else, or another plan)
Because quero is the conjugation of querer (to want) for eu (I):
- eu quero = I want
- você/ele/ela quer = you/he/she wants
- nós queremos = we want
- vocês/eles/elas querem = you (pl.) / they want
Since the subject is eu, the verb must be quero:
Eu quero guardar dinheiro em casa.
If the subject were ele:Ele quer guardar dinheiro em casa. = He wants to keep money at home.
Quero guardar is simply I want to save/keep; Portuguese uses an infinitive (guardar) after querer:
- Eu quero guardar dinheiro em casa.
= I want to keep/save money at home.
It does not specifically indicate whether:
- it’s a one‑time act (e.g., one deposit of cash at home), or
- a longer‑term habit (I want to keep doing this regularly).
That nuance usually comes from context or extra words:
- Eu quero começar a guardar dinheiro em casa.
= I want to start keeping money at home. - Eu quero sempre guardar dinheiro em casa.
= I always want to keep money at home.
They are related but not identical:
guardar dinheiro
Focus: where you keep/store money (in your house, in a drawer, etc.).
Eu quero guardar dinheiro em casa. → I want to keep the money at home.economizar dinheiro
Focus: not spending money, being economical.
Eu quero economizar dinheiro. → I want to save money (spend less).
You can combine them:
- Eu quero economizar dinheiro e guardar esse dinheiro em casa.
= I want to save money (by not spending) and keep that money at home.
Here, em expresses location (where the money will be kept):
- guardar dinheiro em casa = keep money at/in home.
Alternatives change the meaning:
- guardar dinheiro para casa
Sounds like saving money for the house (for buying or improving a house), not keeping money at home. - guardar dinheiro a casa
Not correct in this sense. - guardar dinheiro no banco
Here we use no = em + o:
no banco = in/at the bank.
So:
- em casa (fixed expression for at home)
- no banco, na gaveta, no cofre for in/at the bank, in the drawer, in the safe, etc.
No, that kind of reordering is not natural in Portuguese. The normal order is:
- Eu quero guardar dinheiro em casa.
(subject) (verb) (infinitive) (object) (place)
Some acceptable variants:
- Quero guardar dinheiro em casa. (drop eu)
- Eu quero guardar o dinheiro em casa. (specify the money)
But putting dinheiro before guardar (as Eu quero dinheiro guardar em casa) sounds wrong in modern Brazilian Portuguese.
Yes:
- em casa (by itself) usually means at my/your/the person’s own home depending on who is speaking.
- em casa de… or na casa de… means at someone else’s house.
Examples:
Eu quero guardar dinheiro em casa.
= I want to keep money at home (my home).Eu quero guardar dinheiro na casa do João.
= I want to keep money at João’s house.
So em casa is a special, semi‑fixed expression for at home, while na casa de X specifies someone else’s home.
In Brazilian Portuguese:
- dinheiro is roughly: jee-NYAY-roo (in many accents).
Key point:
- nh is one sound, similar to the ny in canyon or the ñ in Spanish niño.
- The e in nhei sounds like the ay in day, but shorter.
- Final -ro varies by region: sometimes closer to hoo, sometimes a soft ro.
So dinheiro has three syllables: di‑nhei‑ro, with nh as that palatal ny sound.