Conectores discursivos: contraste, consequência e adição
B2 writing lives or dies on CONNECTORS — the small words that tell your reader whether what comes next pushes back, follows from, or piles onto what came before. Portuguese has whole families of them, and the one you pick announces your register: mas is everyday, no entanto and contudo are neutral-to-formal, todavia is bookish. Three families do most of the work: CONTRAST (no entanto, contudo, porém, todavia), CONSEQUENCE (portanto, por isso, assim, consequentemente), and ADDITION (além disso, ademais, ainda por cima). Brazilian speech runs on a shorter, warmer set — mas, só que, então, aí, fora que — so part of this lesson is knowing which shelf to reach for.
Contrast — no entanto, contudo, porém, todavia
All four mean roughly 'however': they warn the reader that the next clause pushes back. What separates them is weight. no entanto is the neutral default — a work email, a news piece, a careful conversation. contudo is one step more formal, the language of reports and editorials. porém is the one Brazilian journalism loves; it lands a little harder than contudo, and it's the only one of the four that sits comfortably at the end of a clause: Ele veio; não ficou, porém. todavia is the bookish extreme — academic and legal prose, essentially never speech. Estudei muito; no entanto, não passei na prova. A proposta era boa. Contudo, foi rejeitada. In everyday Brazilian speech, none of the four is your first choice: you say mas, or the very Brazilian só que — Eu ia sair, só que começou a chover. Save the heavy four for writing, where three mas in one paragraph reads thin.
Consequence — portanto, por isso, assim, consequentemente
This family announces a result. portanto is the standard neutral 'therefore', a bit weightier than English 'so': Está chovendo. Portanto, a gente vai ficar em casa. por isso is the spoken everyday one, 'that's why': Estava cansado; por isso, fui dormir cedo. assim means 'thus' when it introduces a consequence — separate from its manner uses. consequentemente is heavy and almost purely written; once per page is plenty. logo is the tight, syllogistic 'therefore' of arguments and proofs: Penso, logo existo. Careful with that one: as a time adverb the same logo means 'soon' — até logo, and logo logo = any minute now. Brazilian speech adds two connectors no textbook lists: então — Estava chovendo, então a gente ficou em casa — and the narrative aí, which shoves a story forward: Aí eu peguei o ônibus e fui embora. Perfect in conversation, out of place in a formal text.
Addition — além disso, ademais, ainda por cima
além disso is the workhorse: neutral, safe anywhere, and the best replacement for a tired também. ademais is formal and written — in Brazil it carries a distinctly legal flavor, at home in petitions and editorials. ainda por cima is colloquial and almost always piles onto a complaint: O ônibus atrasou e, ainda por cima, começou a chover. Two more you'll hear constantly in Brazil: fora que — O aluguel subiu, fora que a internet vive caindo — and sem contar que, the same idea in a slightly more neutral coat. de quebra adds a bonus instead of a grievance: Comprei o celular na promoção e, de quebra, ganhei a capinha. For a B2 text, além disso with maybe one ademais is the right dose; keep the colloquial ones for speech.
Position and punctuation
These connectors travel with commas, in one of three positions. (1) Sentence-initial, comma after: No entanto, ele veio. (2) Mid-sentence, commas on both sides: Ele, no entanto, veio. (3) After a semicolon, comma after: Estudei; no entanto, não passei. That third slot is formal and looks sharp in an essay. mas is the exception — it sits at the joint between clauses and takes at most a comma before it: Estudei, mas não passei. Multi-word connectors obey the same rules as single-word ones: O ônibus atrasou e, ainda por cima, começou a chover. É, portanto, um problema grave. Two things to avoid: dropping the commas around the big connectors, which reads as careless, and stacking two of them — mas no entanto is a doubled 'however', and Brazilian teachers circle it in red.
Other useful B2 connector families
REASON: porque (the everyday one), pois (formal, and in Brazil almost exclusively written — Não saímos, pois estava chovendo), já que, uma vez que, visto que, plus clause-initial como: Como estava chovendo, a gente ficou em casa. PURPOSE: para que + subjuntivo, a fim de que (formal). CONDITION: se, caso + subjuntivo (caso você precise), a não ser que, desde que. CONCESSION: embora + subjuntivo, mesmo que + subjuntivo, apesar de + infinitive. EXAMPLE: por exemplo, a saber (formal). SUMMARY: em suma, em resumo, resumindo (spoken), por fim, enfim. REFORMULATION: ou seja, isto é, and em outras palavras — that last one is the Brazilian phrasing; a book from Portugal writes 'por outras palavras' instead. A B2 paragraph rotates three or four of these; a paragraph built on nothing but mas, porque and a chain of ands reads as B1 no matter how good the vocabulary is.
Register hierarchy and BR notes
Contrast, from most casual to most formal: mas < só que < no entanto ≈ porém < contudo < todavia < não obstante. Addition, with a plain 'and' sitting below all of them: também < além disso < ademais. Consequence: aí < então < por isso < assim < portanto < logo < consequentemente. Pick by audience. A WhatsApp message runs on mas, aí and então; a work email or an exam essay wants no entanto and além disso; a legal opinion reaches for todavia and não obstante. Brazil and Portugal share essentially this entire inventory — the difference is taste, not grammar: Brazilian papers reach for porém where Portuguese papers reach for contudo. One last Brazilian habit worth copying: in speech, a connector often gets a small pause and a rising tone around it, which is the spoken version of those commas. The real B2 move is breaking the mas and porque rut and rotating the rest in.
