Portuguese Year 4: Texts that tell and texts that describe
Portuguese, Year 4 (Portugal): Read longer texts that tell and describe: follow the action, the place and the characters, and see how description mixes with the story.
Telling and describing
A narrative text tells what happens: who does what, where and when, in order, with a narrator who tells it. A descriptive text says what something is like: a person, a place, an object, using what you see, hear, smell, touch and taste, with words such as adjectives and comparisons. In longer texts the two come mixed: the story moves on and, now and then, stops to describe.
So you do not lose the thread or the clues
Texts in Year 4 are longer, and it is easy to get lost. If you tell apart what is told (action verbs: «subiu», “climbed”, «abriu», “opened”) from what is described (adjectives, smells, colours), you know where the story moves on and where it stops to show you a place or a character. You read the same way in a book or on a screen, but a screen has more distractions, so hold on to the thread.
An attic, step by step
Text: «A Marta subiu a escada do sótão. Os degraus rangiam e o ar cheirava a madeira velha. Lá em cima, num raio de sol, havia uma caixa azul, pequenina. A Marta abriu-a.» (Marta climbed the attic stairs. The steps creaked and the air smelled of old wood. Up there, in a ray of sun, there was a blue box, tiny. Marta opened it.) Step 1: the actions, in order: «subiu», «abriu». Step 2: the description: «rangiam» (hearing), «cheirava a madeira velha» (smell), «azul, pequenina» (sight). Step 3: place: the attic; character: Marta; the narrator is not a character and tells from outside.
Skipping descriptions loses clues
Many people skim the parts that describe, because “nothing happens”. But the description tells you where you are and what the characters are like, and it often hides a clue: the «azul, pequenina» box in the attic may matter later. It is also not true that a text is only narrative or only descriptive: nearly all mix them. Ask yourself: in this bit, does the story move on or stop to show something?
Books, magazines and screens
You find texts that tell and describe in adventure books, in magazines, in tales and in digital books on a computer or tablet. You read for pleasure, to learn more or even to do something, and that changes what you look for: in an adventure, the action; in a text about a place, the description. The medium (paper or screen) changes, but the questions stay the same.
Test what you learned
Which of these sentences is a description?
- a) «A Marta subiu a escada e abriu a porta.» (Marta climbed the stairs and opened the door.)
- b) «A escada era estreita, escura e cheirava a madeira velha.» (The stairs were narrow, dark and smelled of old wood.)
- c) «Depois, a Marta ouviu um barulho.» (Then Marta heard a noise.)
- d) «No dia seguinte, a Marta voltou ao sótão.» (The next day, Marta went back to the attic.)
Correct answer: b) «A escada era estreita, escura e cheirava a madeira velha.» (The stairs were narrow, dark and smelled of old wood.) — Yes: it says what the stairs are like, with adjectives and a smell. Nothing happens.
You read: «O Rui entrou na cozinha. Era pequena, quente e cheirava a pão fresco. Tirou o pão do forno.» (Rui went into the kitchen. It was small, warm and smelled of fresh bread. He took the bread out of the oven.) What does the middle sentence do?
- a) It tells a new action by Rui
- b) It introduces a new character
- c) It says when the story happens
- d) It describes the kitchen: what it is like and what it smells of
Correct answer: d) It describes the kitchen: what it is like and what it smells of — Yes: «pequena», «quente» and «cheirava a pão fresco» say what the place is like. The story stops to show it.
A classmate skips the sentences that describe, “because only what happens matters”. Why is that risky?
- a) Because descriptions may give clues about the place, the characters and what comes next
- b) Because descriptions are always the funniest part
- c) Because descriptions are shorter
- d) It is not risky: descriptions say nothing
Correct answer: a) Because descriptions may give clues about the place, the characters and what comes next — Yes: descriptions often hide what matters later, such as an odd box in an attic.
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