Something that is useful when learning a language, as Khatz discusses somewhere, is to learn the most natural ways of saying things. In English, this happens to be the Germanic words much more often than the Latin words. In Portuguese, the situation is similar, these words are often smaller. Some verbs: pegar, fazer, faltar, ir, ver, ouvir, chegar (like já chega!), dar all short, quick words that carry a lot of meaning. Same with mesmo, é, embora...