Breakdown of Eu quero guardar dinheiro para as férias.
Questions & Answers about Eu quero guardar dinheiro para as férias.
In this sentence, guardar dinheiro means “to save money / to put money aside.”
In Portuguese, guardar has a few common meanings:
- to keep / to store / to put away:
- Guardar roupas no armário – to put clothes away in the closet
- to save / set aside (especially with money):
- Guardar dinheiro – to save money
So Eu quero guardar dinheiro para as férias is naturally understood as:
“I want to save money for the vacation.”
Normally, no.
In Portuguese (especially in Brazil):
- guardar dinheiro / economizar dinheiro / juntar dinheiro = to save money
- salvar = to save in the sense of rescue or save a file
- salvar uma vida – to save a life
- salvar o documento – to save the document
So salvar dinheiro sounds strange, as if you were “rescuing” money. To say save money, prefer:
- guardar dinheiro
- economizar dinheiro (emphasizes spending less)
- juntar dinheiro (emphasizes accumulating little by little)
All three can be used when talking about money, but the nuance changes slightly:
guardar dinheiro
- General “save/put aside” money.
- Neutral, very common: Eu quero guardar dinheiro para as férias.
economizar dinheiro
- Emphasizes not spending / cutting expenses.
- Eu preciso economizar dinheiro, estou gastando demais. – I need to save money; I’m spending too much.
juntar dinheiro
- Emphasizes building up an amount over time.
- Estou juntando dinheiro para comprar um carro. – I’m saving up money to buy a car.
In your sentence, all three could work; guardar is simple and very natural.
Yes, you can drop Eu:
- Eu quero guardar dinheiro para as férias.
- Quero guardar dinheiro para as férias.
Both are correct.
Portuguese is a pro‑drop language: the verb ending (-o in quero) already shows the subject is “I”.
In Brazilian Portuguese:
- Keeping “Eu” can add emphasis or just sound more natural in some contexts.
- Dropping “Eu” is also very common, especially in casual speech and when the subject is obvious from context.
In Portuguese, férias (vacation/holidays) is almost always plural and feminine:
- as férias = the vacation / the holidays
- Minhas férias foram ótimas. – My vacation was great.
So we say:
- para as férias – for the vacation (literally: for the vacations)
Using it in the singular (a féria) is not normal for “vacation” in everyday language. So:
- ✅ para as férias
- ❌ para férias (sounds incomplete)
- ❌ para a féria (wrong word form for this meaning)
férias = vacation period, usually several days or weeks
- Vou tirar férias em julho. – I’m going on vacation in July.
feriado = a holiday, usually one specific day (public/bank holiday)
- Na segunda-feira é feriado. – Monday is a holiday.
In your sentence:
- para as férias = for my/our vacation period
If you meant a single holiday day, you would use feriado, but that’s a different idea.
Dinheiro is usually treated like an uncountable mass noun, similar to “money” in English.
- Quero guardar dinheiro. – I want to save money.
- Saying o dinheiro would mean “the money” (a specific amount already known):
- Quero guardar o dinheiro que você me deu. – I want to save the money you gave me.
In your general sentence, you’re talking about money in general, so you don’t use the article:
Eu quero guardar dinheiro para as férias.
In Portuguese, para and por are different:
para is used for purpose, goal, destination
- Guardar dinheiro *para as férias – save money *for the vacation (that is the goal/purpose).
por is used more for cause, reason, duration, means, exchange
- Fiz isso *por você.* – I did this because of/for you.
- Andei *por duas horas.* – I walked for two hours.
In your sentence, you’re talking about the purpose of saving money, so para is correct:
guardar dinheiro para as férias = save money for the vacation.
Yes, in informal Brazilian Portuguese, people often contract para as to pras:
- para as férias → pras férias
Examples:
- Vou guardar dinheiro pras férias. – I’ll save money for the vacation.
Important notes:
- pr/as, pro/s are informal spellings that reflect how people actually speak.
- In formal writing, prefer para as férias.
- In speech, pras férias is very common and natural.
The word order in Brazilian Portuguese is generally Subject – Verb – Object – Complements, similar to English.
Natural order:
- Eu quero guardar dinheiro para as férias.
Your suggested order Eu quero dinheiro guardar para as férias sounds unnatural and is not used in normal speech.
Keep:
- quero guardar (verb + infinitive) together
- dinheiro right after guardar
- para as férias as a complement at the end
In Portuguese, like in English, we often use the present to express a present desire or intention:
- Eu quero guardar dinheiro para as férias.
= I want to save money for the vacation (now / in general).
If you want to emphasize the future plan of saving, you might also say:
- Vou guardar dinheiro para as férias. – I’m going to save money for the vacation.
- Vou começar a guardar dinheiro para as férias. – I’m going to start saving money for the vacation.
So:
- quero guardar = I want to save (focus on desire)
- vou guardar = I’m going to save (focus on planned action)
You can add the possessive minhas (my – plural feminine to match férias):
- Eu quero guardar dinheiro para as minhas férias.
You’ll commonly see the article kept:
- as minhas férias – my vacation
In speech, many Brazilians might also say:
- para minhas férias (dropping as), but
para as minhas férias is very natural and clear.
Approximate Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation (not strict IPA):
quero – KEH-roo
- que sounds like “keh” (not “kwee”)
- r in the middle like a soft, flipped r (similar to the tt in American “butter” when pronounced quickly).
guardar – gwahr-DAR
- gua = “gwa”
- final -r often pronounced like a soft h or barely there in many Brazilian accents (gwahr-DAH / gwahr-DARH).
dinheiro – jee-NYEH-roo
- nh = like “ny” in “canyon” or “onion”
- ei = “ey” as in “say”
- stress on -NHEI-: di-NHEI-ro.
férias – FEH-ree-as
- é = open “eh” (as in “bet”)
- stress on the first syllable: FÉ-rias.