WhatsApp ou Facebook?

Episódio 51 Língua da Gente Comparar preferências pessoais

Orlando R. Kelm · COERLL / University of Texas at Austin · CC BY 4.0

Step 1 — Listen

🎧 Listen to the podcast episode

First listen: Which app does Silvia prefer for messaging at school vs. at home? What advantage does WhatsApp have?

Língua da Gente · Episode 51

Step 2 — Read the Dialogue

💬 The Conversation

Read along while listening. Notice preferir...ou for choices and quase (almost) adverbs.

Silvia, você prefere usar WhatsApp ou Facebook pra mandar a mensagem?

Silvia, do you prefer to use WhatsApp or Facebook when sending messages?

Bom, na escola, quase que sempre uso WhatsApp, mas em casa eu uso o Facebook.

Well, at school I use WhatsApp, but at home I use Facebook.

Alguma vantagem com WhatsApp?

Any advantage with WhatsApp?

São quase iguais, mas tem muita gente usando o WhatsApp, viu?

They are almost the same, but a lot of people use WhatsApp.

Step 3 — Language Focus

📖 Preferir...ou — Asking about preferences

A asks "você prefere WhatsApp ou Facebook?" — preferir + option A + ou + option B is the standard way to ask someone to choose between two things.

Pronoun	Preferir	English
eu	prefiro WhatsApp	I prefer WhatsApp
você/ele/ela	prefere Facebook	you/he/she prefers Facebook
eles	preferem mensagem de texto	they prefer text messages

📖 Quase — Almost

B uses quase twice: "quase que sempre" (almost always) and "são quase iguais" (almost the same) — a useful adverb for hedging and comparing.

Phrase	Meaning	Example
quase sempre	almost always	Quase sempre uso o celular.
quase iguais	almost the same	Os dois são quase iguais.
quase nunca	almost never	Quase nunca uso Facebook.

📱 WhatsApp no Brasil WhatsApp is by far the most-used messaging app in Brazil, used for everything from casual chats to scheduling doctor's appointments and even school announcements.