What is the difference between Ai and Ali...i learned that you say aqui, ai, and la...but i read something that said..a senhora paga ali?? what is ali..shouldnt it be ai?

Both mean "there"

aí - near you (when something is where the person who we are talking to also is)
ali - far from both of us ( when something is where the person who we are talking to aren't and neither do we)

"The school is aí" (same place than you, near you)
"The school is ali"

"How are things going on aí?" (where you are)
"The accident was ali" (was there, in that place)
"How is the weather aí?" (in US)
"I have to go ali but I'll be back soon"

as Catarina sais, both mean "there".

aqui - used when something is close to who is speaking

aí - used when something is close to who is listening

ali - used when something is far (but not too far) from both the speaker and the listener

lá - used when something is far from both

I'll try to give examples for each one of them.

"O livro está aqui." = "The book is here."

"A chave está aí." = "The key is there (near you)"

"Você deve ir ali" = "You should go there (a bit far from us)"

"Fui lá" = "I went there (quite far from us)"

There are more: além, ali, acolá, cá...

In Madeira they say "acolá lém"

" In Madeira they say "acolá lém" "

Seriously? Hahaha, how funny!

tadinha da menina gente , vai fazer uma confusão hahaha


além = beyond

that's it , alí is something a bit far away , like not too much , but we arent in that place , and aí is when i'm talking to you , aí onde você mora (there where you live) , alí onde ele mora (there where he lives ) its basically 2nd n 3rd person , and lá is something far from us both , so much more far , something that we both have to achieve.. its like that kk , its not that hard

Muito obrigada! the first person I asked that to said they mean the same but ai comes from ali..like esta ali which is the correct form..and ta ai...is that true also?

No, aí exists. On the example you showed "ta" is the shortened version of "está". But aí exists, and it's like the folk above explained =D

naomipena wrote:

Muito obrigada! the first person I asked that to said they mean the same but ai comes from ali..like esta ali which is the correct form..and ta ai...is that true also?

hmm , when i think about alí related to some object , i look around , to my right or back , its like something kinda closer , and aí is usually nearer , in your front.... , and alí is closerer to the people who is talking ,_<