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Ultimamente, eu interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia.

Ultimamente, eu interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia.
Lately, I am interested in science and technology.
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Questions & Answers about Ultimamente, eu interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia.

Why is it “interesso-me por” and not something like “sou interessado em” or “estou interessado em”?

Portuguese has a specific pronominal verb for this idea: interessar-se por/em = “to be interested in”.

  • interessar-se por literally: “to interest oneself in”, but idiomatically it just means “to be interested in”.
    • Eu interesso-me por ciência. = I’m interested in science.

You can also say:

  • Sou interessado em ciência.
  • Estou interessado em ciência.

These are grammatically correct, but they sound a bit more like a permanent trait (sou) or a current state / situation (estou), and are used less often in everyday speech for general interests.

For “I’m into science and technology (these days)”, a European Portuguese speaker will very naturally choose:

  • Interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia.
Why is it “interesso-me” instead of “me interesso”? I thought the pronoun came before the verb.

This is a key difference between European Portuguese (EP) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP):

  • European Portuguese: usually puts the pronoun after the verb in affirmative main clauses → enclisis

    • Eu interesso-me por…
    • Interesso-me por…

  • Brazilian Portuguese: normally puts the pronoun before the verb → proclisis

    • Eu me interesso por…

So for Portugal Portuguese, interesso-me is the natural, standard order here.
Also note the hyphen: when the pronoun comes after the verb, it’s always written with a hyphen:

  • interesso-me
  • interessa-se
  • interessamo-nos
Does the adverb “Ultimamente” (“lately”) affect the position of “me”? Could I say “Ultimamente, me interesso por…” in Portugal?

In European Portuguese, even with “Ultimamente” at the beginning, the normal pattern is still enclisis (pronoun after the verb) in an affirmative main clause:

  • Ultimamente, interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia.

Putting the pronoun before the verb, as in:

  • Ultimamente, me interesso por…

is typical Brazilian Portuguese and sounds foreign/non‑standard in Portugal.

The comma also helps: “Ultimamente,” is kind of set apart as an introductory time expression, and the main clause starts with eu interesso-me. That main clause follows the regular EP rule: verb first (or almost first) → pronoun after the verb.

Why is the verb in the simple present (interesso-me) when in English I’d say “I’ve been interested” or “I’m getting into”?

In Portuguese, the simple present is often used with time expressions like ultimamente (“lately”) to express something that’s been happening recently and still happens now:

  • Ultimamente, interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia.
    → literally: Lately, I interest myself in science and technology.
    → natural English: Lately I’ve been interested in science and technology / Lately I’m really into science and technology.

You could make it more “progressive” in Portuguese, but it’s not necessary:

  • Ultimamente, tenho-me interessado por… (I have been getting interested in…)
  • Ultimamente, ando a interessar-me por… (These days I’m going around being interested in… – very colloquial)

For most contexts, the simple present with ultimamente is perfectly idiomatic Portuguese.

Why is the preposition “por” used here? Could it also be “em”?

With interessar-se, both por and em are possible, but por is extremely common:

  • interessar-se por algo
  • interessar-se em algo

In European Portuguese:

  • por is the most natural choice for general interests:
    • Interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia.
  • em appears too, but often in slightly different or more specific contexts (e.g., interessar-se em participar, interessar-se em investir, etc.), and is less frequent in this exact kind of “hobby/field” sentence.

So, “interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia” is the most idiomatic version. “Interesso-me em ciência e tecnologia” is understandable, but it’s not what people usually say.

Why is there no article before “ciência e tecnologia”? Why not “a ciência e a tecnologia”?

In Portuguese, abstract or general fields of knowledge can appear with or without the definite article, depending on nuance:

  • Without article → talking about them in general, as areas of interest:

    • Interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia.
      = I’m interested in science and technology (as fields, in general).

  • With article → tends to sound a bit more specific or more like “the domain/field of …” as a whole:

    • Interesso-me pela ciência e pela tecnologia.
      (pela = por + a)

Both are grammatically correct. In everyday speech, leaving out the articles feels very natural when listing broad areas of interest:

  • gosto de música e literatura
  • interesso-me por arte e história

So the version in your sentence (without articles) is perfectly normal.

Can I omit “eu” and just say “Ultimamente, interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia”?

Yes, and that’s actually more typical in European Portuguese.

Portuguese is a pro‑drop language: the verb ending (-o in interesso) already tells you the subject is “eu”, so the pronoun is usually dropped unless you want to emphasize it:

  • Ultimamente, interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia.
    → normal, neutral
  • Ultimamente, eu interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia.
    → possible, but may sound a bit heavier; can add emphasis on eu (e.g., in contrast to others: I am interested, even if others aren’t).

So if you aim for very natural Portuguese from Portugal, get used to omitting eu when it’s clear from the verb.

What’s the difference between “interesso-me por” and “gosto de” in a sentence like this?

They’re close, but not identical:

  • gostar de = to like

    • Gosto de ciência e tecnologia.
      = I like science and technology.

  • interessar-se por = to be interested in / to have curiosity about

    • Interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia.
      = I’m interested in science and technology.

Nuance:

  • gosto de focuses more on enjoyment/pleasure.
  • interesso-me por suggests a bit more curiosity, engagement, wanting to know more, following news, reading about it, etc.

In your sentence, interesso-me por fits well with “Ultimamente”: it suggests you’ve recently started following or getting more involved/interested in those topics.

What’s the difference between “interessar” and “interessar-se”?

They work in different patterns:

  1. interessar (someone) – non‑pronominal

    • A ciência interessa-me.
      = Science interests me.

  2. interessar-se por/em (something) – pronominal

    • Eu interesso-me por ciência.
      = I am interested in science.

They express the same relationship (science ↔ me), but from different angles:

  • A ciência interessa-me. → Subject = science
  • Eu interesso-me por ciência. → Subject = I

Both are correct; your sentence uses the pronominal structure (interessar-se por), which is very common for talking about interests and hobbies.

How would this sentence look in Brazilian Portuguese?

The vocabulary is the same, but the pronoun position changes:

  • European Portuguese:

    • Ultimamente, interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia.

  • Brazilian Portuguese (more natural):

    • Ultimamente, eu me interesso por ciência e tecnologia.
      or
    • Ultimamente, me interesso por ciência e tecnologia.

So the main visible differences:

  • EP tends to use interesso-me (pronoun after the verb, with hyphen).
  • BP tends to use me interesso (pronoun before the verb, no hyphen).
How is “Ultimamente, eu interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia” pronounced in European Portuguese?

Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation (informal, standard):

  • Ultimamente → ool-chee-mah-MEN-t(uh)
  • eu → eyu (like English “eh-oo” very fast)
  • interesso-me → een-te-REH-su-m(uh)
  • por → poor (with a short, somewhat closed “oo”)
  • ciência → see-EN-syuh (the ci = “see”, ência ≈ “EN-syuh”)
  • e → ee
  • tecnologia → tech-nu-lo-ZHEE-uh (the g as in French “jour” / English “measure”)

Said smoothly:

Ultimamente, eu interesso-me por ciência e tecnologia.
ool-chee-mah-MEN-t(uh) eyu een-te-REH-su-m(uh) poor see-EN-syuh ee tech-nu-lo-ZHEE-uh

In natural speech in Portugal, many final -e and -o sounds are reduced or almost swallowed, which is why they’re written as (uh) above.

What happens to “me” if I make the sentence negative, like “I’m not interested in…”?

With negation, European Portuguese moves the pronoun before the verb (proclisis):

  • Não me interesso por ciência e tecnologia.
    = I’m not interested in science and technology.

So:

  • Affirmative: (Eu) interesso-me por…
  • Negative: (Eu) não me interesso por…

The negation word não attracts the clitic pronoun me to the left of the verb.