Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): A motorista do táxi fala comigo com calma para eu não ficar nervoso. - The female taxi driver talks to me calmly so I don't get nervous.

Motorista is one of those profession nouns that end in -ista (like jornalista, pianista, turista). The form of the word itself doesn’t change for masculine or feminine; the article shows the gender:

o motorista = the (male) driver
a motorista = the (female) driver

So A motorista do táxi… tells you explicitly the driver is a woman. If it were a man, it would be O motorista do táxi… with the rest of the sentence unchanged.

Why is it do táxi instead of de o táxi, or just do taxi without an accent?

In Portuguese, the preposition de combines with the masculine singular article o to form the contraction do:

de + o = do
de + a = da
de + os = dos
de + as = das

So:

de o táxi → do táxi (literally “of the taxi / the taxi’s”).

About the spelling:

The correct word is táxi, with an acute accent on á.
The accent shows where the stress is (TÁ-xi).
Writing taxi without an accent is incorrect in standard Portuguese.

Why is the verb falar used here and not dizer? What’s the difference?

Falar and dizer roughly correspond to two English ideas:

falar = to speak / talk (the act of speaking, the conversation itself)
dizer = to say / tell (specific words, statements, messages)

In this sentence, the focus is on the act of talking calmly to reassure the passenger, not on what specific words she says. That’s why fala comigo com calma (she talks to me calmly) is more natural than diz-me com calma (she says to me calmly), which would sound a bit odd here.

You would use dizer more for:

Ela diz que já estamos a chegar. – She says we’re almost there.
Ela diz-me para ter calma. – She tells me to stay calm.

Why is it fala comigo and not fala para mim or fala a mim?

Falar com alguém is the standard way to say “talk to/with someone” in everyday European Portuguese:

falar comigo – to talk to me
falar contigo – to talk to you (informal singular)
falar com ele / com ela – to talk to him / her

Falar para mim can be used, but it has a slightly different feel:

falar para alguém often implies speaking in someone’s direction or addressing someone, not necessarily having a two‑way conversation (e.g., a teacher speaking to the class). In many contexts it’s more natural in Brazilian Portuguese than in European Portuguese.

Falar a mim is grammatically possible but sounds quite marked and is rarely used in everyday EP. You’d more likely hear a mim used for emphasis after a preposition:

Ela fala a todos, mas a mim não diz nada. – She talks to everyone, but to me she says nothing.

So, fala comigo is the normal, idiomatic choice here.

What exactly does com calma mean, and why not just use an adverb like calmamente?

Com calma literally means “with calm” / “with calmness”, and it functions as an adverbial phrase, so in practice it means:

calmly, in a calm way

This prepositional structure (com + noun) is very common and sounds natural and conversational:

Ele fala com calma. – He speaks calmly.
Faz isso com cuidado. – Do that carefully.
Ouvi-te com atenção. – I listened to you attentively.

You could say calmamente (a direct adverb), but:

calmamente sounds more formal or written.
com calma is much more frequent in everyday speech.

Using calmo here (fala calmo) would be odd; calmo is an adjective (“calm”), and you’d normally use it to describe a person or a thing, not how they speak:

Ele está calmo. – He is calm.
Ele fala com calma. – He speaks calmly.

Can the order fala comigo com calma be changed, for example to fala com calma comigo?

Yes, you can change the order; both are grammatical:

A motorista do táxi fala comigo com calma…
A motorista do táxi fala com calma comigo…

The default, most natural order keeps the shorter, more tightly linked complement (comigo) closer to the verb, and then adds the adverbial phrase:

fala comigo (talks to me)
com calma (calmly)

If you put com calma earlier (fala com calma comigo), it still works, but may slightly emphasize how she speaks rather than to whom. In everyday speech, the original fala comigo com calma is more typical.

In para eu não ficar nervoso, why is it eu and not mim after para?

Because eu is the subject of the verb ficar (“to get / become”), not an object.

In Portuguese:

Use eu when it’s the subject of a verb:
- Eu ficar nervoso – I get nervous.
Use mim after prepositions when it’s not followed by a verb you control as subject:
- para mim
  - noun or idea:
    - Isto é difícil para mim. – This is difficult for me.

In para eu não ficar nervoso:

para = for / so that
eu = the one who will (not) get nervous → subject
ficar = verb (“to get / become”)

So structurally it’s “for I not to get nervous”, which in correct English becomes “for me not to get nervous,” but in Portuguese the equivalent is para eu não ficar nervoso, not para mim não ficar nervoso.

You may hear para mim não ficar nervoso in colloquial speech, but it’s considered incorrect in standard grammar.

In para eu não ficar nervoso, why is the verb ficar in this form? Is it infinitive or subjunctive?

The verb form ficar here is the personal infinitive (infinitivo pessoal), which is a feature of Portuguese that English doesn’t have.

For ficar, the personal infinitive is:

eu ficar
tu ficares
ele / ela ficar
nós ficarmos
vocês / eles / elas ficarem

So para eu não ficar nervoso uses:

para
- eu
  - personal infinitive (ficar)

This is a very common structure in European Portuguese to express purpose when the subject of the second verb is explicit and (especially) different from the subject of the main verb.

You could also say:

…fala comigo com calma para que eu não fique nervoso.

Here fique is the present subjunctive. Both are correct, but:

para eu não ficar nervoso (personal infinitive) sounds more natural and conversational.
para que eu não fique nervoso (subjunctive with que) sounds a bit more formal or careful.

What nuance does ficar add here? Could we use another verb like ser or estar?

Ficar is very often used with adjectives to mean:

to become / to get / to end up in a certain state.

So:

ficar nervoso = to get nervous, to become nervous

That’s exactly the idea here: the driver speaks calmly so that I don’t become nervous.

Other verbs:

ser nervoso – to be nervous as a trait, a generally nervous person (more like character).
estar nervoso – to be nervous at a particular moment, state, or situation.
ficar nervoso – to become nervous (emphasises the change from not nervous → nervous).

So:

para eu não ser nervoso would mean “so that I’m not a (by nature) nervous person” – a different idea.
para eu não estar nervoso would be “so that I’m not (currently) nervous”, which is close in meaning, but less focused on the process of getting nervous.
para eu não ficar nervoso is the most idiomatic and precise choice here.

Why is it nervoso and not nervosa? How does adjective agreement work in this sentence?

Adjectives in Portuguese agree in gender and number with the noun or pronoun they describe.

Here:

The adjective nervoso is describing eu (the speaker).
If the speaker is male, then nervoso is correct.
If the speaker is female, it should be nervosa:
- …para eu não ficar nervosa.

Some other examples of agreement:

Eu estou cansado. (male speaker)
Eu estou cansada. (female speaker)
Nós estamos nervosos. (group of men or mixed group)
Nós estamos nervosas. (group of women only)

So nervoso vs nervosa depends on who eu refers to.

Could we say para eu não ficar tão nervoso or para eu ficar mais calmo instead? Would the structure change?

Yes, both options are possible and the structure stays the same:

…fala comigo com calma para eu não ficar tão nervoso.
– “…so that I don’t get so nervous.”
…fala comigo com calma para eu ficar mais calmo.
– “…so that I get calmer / feel calmer.”

You still have:

para
- eu
  - personal infinitive (ficar)

The only change is the adjective or adverbial phrase following ficar:

nervoso → tão nervoso (so nervous)
nervoso → mais calmo (calmer)

All of them are natural in European Portuguese; they just express slightly different nuances.

Is there a more usual way in European Portuguese to refer to a taxi driver than motorista do táxi?

Yes. In everyday European Portuguese, you very often hear:

taxista – literally “taxi driver”

So a very natural version of the sentence would be:

A taxista fala comigo com calma para eu não ficar nervoso.
(if the driver is a woman)
O taxista fala comigo com calma para eu não ficar nervoso.
(if the driver is a man)

Motorista do táxi is not wrong at all; it just sounds a bit more descriptive (“the driver of the taxi”), while taxista is the specific job title and the more common term.

Could we omit eu and just say para não ficar nervoso? When is it okay to drop the subject?

Yes, you can say:

…fala comigo com calma para não ficar nervoso.

Grammatically, that’s fine. Portuguese is a pro‑drop language, so subject pronouns are often omitted when the subject is clear.

However:

Without eu, para não ficar nervoso is more ambiguous – it could mean so that I don’t get nervous, so that you don’t get nervous, or so that one doesn’t get nervous, depending on context.
With para eu não ficar nervoso, it is crystal clear that eu (the speaker) is the one who might get nervous.

In this sentence, because the main subject is A motorista (she), and the second clause refers to a different subject (me), it’s usually better style to keep eu and avoid ambiguity.