Tag Archives: brazilian portuguese

Moods – Vocabulary

Posted on
3

I remember the first time I heard my carioca friend say “alto astral“, I thought to myself, “what in the world could that mean?” She tried to explain it to me in simple terms, saying “it’s-a like-e when you are in a good-a mood-je”. Apparently, one can be in a good mood (estar de alto astral), bad mood (baixo astral) or need their mood uplifted (levantar o astral).

A good question to raise is how does one’s ‘astral’ differ from their ‘humor‘ (bom humor/mau humor)? I assume there isn’t much of a difference.

“Apanhar” Takes a Beating

Posted on
Reply

“Dictionaries do not always take note of the semantic extensions that the verb “apanhar” has acquired in Portuguese.

When walking on the street and going into a store in any Brazilian city, it’s hard not to hear enunciations every once in a while like “você vai apanhar!” (you are going to get hit!) or “você quer apanhar?” (do you want to get hit?), as they are frequently said loudly by parents and those responsible for small children whose behavior in public leaves a lot to be desired.

The verbal interaction between child and adult, in most instances, remains as a threat only because no one physically hits anyone, thankfully. Not even a slap! Until now, I never saw a child respond affirmatively to the question about if he or she wants to get hit or not! A real communicative skill sometimes is to remain in silence. The “question” functions as a threat that leads to nothing.” – Source (in PT)

My Take

At almost the same time that I was considering writing a post on the verb “apanhar”, I came across an article on the matter in the Brazilian magazine, Língua Portuguesa. I learned it is often said in jest or as the article above points out, as a mere threat. My ex-girlfriend, a paulistana, used to say it to me (in jest, of course!) and at the time I didn’t know what the word meant but I understood the gist. Using my Portuguese knowledge at the time, I decided it was or should be reflexive and would use it in such a manner (saying “vou te apanhar”), not realizing I was in effect ‘beating up’ the verb in my own way.

The verb has other meanings, which can be seen on Google Translate or in Portuguese at Wikcionário.

The Hypothetical – Curiosities

Posted on
Reply

My Brazilian ex girlfriend used to start her ‘what if’ (hypothetical) questions with ‘E se‘ (And if) and while that’s just fine as she was speaking correctly in her own language, she would translate it into English and ask a ‘what if’ by starting with “And if…” which slightly amused me but only because I understood where she was coming from when she constructed the sentence.

Usually an example would come up while watching a movie, where she’d say “e se ele morreu?” and I would respond, “I don’t know, let’s just watch it,” because I’m annoying like that when watching a good film. In any event, the Portuguese hypothetical started to make sense as a way to get to the point, otherwise one would have to say something like “E o que aconteceria se…”

On a side note, my German ex-girlfriend used to say ‘oder‘ at the end of some sentences and from my basic German, I knew that meant ‘or’, which meant in my English-speaking brain that she was speaking strangely. I started then to add ‘or’ to the end of some of my sentences in English to bother her…but I failed because she thought it was normal. Go figure! Later, I found out that the ‘oder‘ tag means ‘right?’

Camelô – Etymology

Posted on
Reply

Camelô – Traveling Merchant

The origin of the word is the Arabic khamlat, a name that was given to the rustic commercialized fabrics sold in open-air markets and touted loudly by the merchants, the camelôs of the previous century. At this point, the verb cameloter (to sell trinkets) was popularized in France by the street sellers who chose high-traffic areas to sell their wares. It is the street salesman that sells his kitsch to bemused audiences. With their power of persuasion, many times these true artists, when victorious in their craft, become rich and turn into the owners of their empires. The Brazilian media magnant Sílvio Santos has said he will never forget the teeming Largo da Carioca in Rio de Janeiro where he began his vivid career. – Source (translated by me)

It is important to note that camelôs differ from ambulantes in that the former has a fixed location while the latter is ambulatory.

Telling Someone They Smell

Posted on
1

Sometimes there are words that aren’t necessarily in the dictionary but they form part of the culture, so it’s good to know them too…even if they stink! Below, you’ll see quite a few words that you can use to speak of someone’s (bad) smell, with a few extras added in for good measure. Remember that you should use estar (com) with these words to express temporary situations.

Tá fedendo/podre – You stink!
Chulé – Smelly feet (which you might remember from this)
Bafo (or Mau hálito) – Bad breath
Ce-cê (from CC or cheiro de corpo) – Body odor* (aka, BO)

* – You can also say axila, catinga, fedor de suor or even sovaco. Also, the English equivelent of telling someone they have ‘dog breath’ is expressed in Portuguese as ‘bafo de onça‘ (jaguar breath).

A few others as extras so that I don’t have to do another post on this sort of subject! lol

Arrotar – To burp
Peidar – To ‘pass gas’/fart
Remela – Crusties or Eye boogers
Muco – Phlegm
Meleca – Booger

Portuguese Punctuation

Posted on
Reply

Here is some basic punctuation in Portuguese, together with the names in English and the symbol that goes with them. There are always times when you need to express one of these and you have to find a round-about way of doing so.

Ampersand – E commercial (&)
Apostrophe – Apóstrofo ( ‘ ) ( ’ )
At Sign – Arroba (@)
Brackets – Colchetes ( [ ] )
Braces/Curly Brackets – Chaves ( { } )
Colon – Dois pontos ( : )
Comma – Vírgula ( , )
Dash – Travessão ( — )
Ellipsis – Reticências ( … )
Exclamation mark – Ponto de exclamação (!)
Hyphen – Hífen ( ‐ )
Parenthesis – Parênteses ( ( ) )
Period – Ponto final*
Question mark – Ponto de interrogação (?)
Quotation marks – Aspas (“   “)
Semi-colon – Ponto-e-vírgula ( ; )
Slash – Barra ( / )
Underline – Traço inferior (_)

* – not to be confused with ‘período‘, which refers to time.

Being Alone (a depressing post)

Posted on
Reply

Só - Alone, By Itself, Only or But

The word só can be expressed in a few ways. As an adjective, it can take on the meaning of ‘solitary, without company or social circle’ as well as ‘isolated, unique’ and even ‘without a partner, single’. As an adverb, it turns into an adverb of exclusion. I will give examples of each in the order I mentioned them. As an added mention, I will give an example of the usage of ‘but’, which is usually followed by the word ‘que‘.

Ex. Foi ficando um homem só entre os colegas.
Ex. There was only one man among the colleagues.

Ex. Era uma casa só naquele monte.
Ex. There was one house by itself on that mountain.

Ex. Uma mulher só é sempre mais livre.
Ex. A single woman is always more free.

Ex. Contava só com ele.
Ex. He was the only one to be counted on.

Ex. Eu quero, só que não posso.
Ex. I want to, but I can’t.

Sozinho - Alone, Unaccompanied, Abandoned or Without Anyone’s Help

Note the diminutive form (-zinho) of só, which actually acts as an augmentation of aloneness.

Ex. Ele foi sozinho.
Ex. He went alone/by himself.

Ex. Ela conseguiu, sozinho, acabar a tarefa.
Ex. She managed, alone, to finish the task.

Sós – Plural of só

With sós, the possibility exists to place an ‘a’ before the adjective (a sós), which gives it the meaning of sozinho (alone), yet still in its plural sense.

Sós
Ex. Estamos sós agora.
Ex. We are alone now or We are by ourselves now.

A sós
Ex. Estamos a sós agora.
Ex. We are alone now.

Expression

With the expression below, it is important to note that the English version employs “alone” while the Portuguese version (lit. ‘leave me in peace’) does not.

Me deixe em paz!
Leave me alone!

Does ‘vai’ derive from Italian? – Curiosities

Posted on
1

One of my favorite tags in Italian is “dai” which the blog Dolce Vita explains in the following excerpt,

“Dai” said with an irritated tone can mean “enough” or “stop it”. It can also mean “come on” in all its many forms – impatience, encouragement and the gritted teeth of effort or tension if you’re following you favourite football team in that moment and it’s about time they scored a goal.

“Ma dai” can indicate mild suprise, incredulity or even suspicion that your interlocutor is pulling your leg. It can be a kind of “as if” or “stop having me on”. “Dai” said with a lowered tone and widened eyes will often be found in gossip and can mean “tell me more”!

 In Portuguese, ‘vai’ can be used as an informal tag on the end of a statement such as when someone says “me leva, vai!” (c’mon, take me!). Just a hypothesis based on the huge influx of Italians to Brazil during the time prior to and just after the turn of the last century.

Porques & Podes

Posted on
Reply

There are quite a few ways to write both porque and pode and I’ll go over them with you.

Porque vs Porquê*

When you see porque as one word, it means “because” (which often has the same meaning as ‘pois‘). When the word has a circunflexo on the final letter (ie, porquê), it gives cause, reason or motive to what is being said.

Ex. Ele faltou à prova porque não sabia a data de sua realização (He missed the test because he didn’t know the day it was to be administered).

Ex. Ele não sabia o porquê de suas lágrimas (He didn’t know the reason for his tears).

* – Another way to express cause, reason or motive is to use the word motivo. It is natural to think that using the Portuguese word for reason (razão) would suit your needs but that is incorrect. You will learn how to use razão in good time and with practice.

Por que vs Por quê

Both mean “why” although they can be placed with or without a question mark on the end, just as in English. The rule is that when the word comes at the end of a sentence, it gains the circunflexo on the final letter.

Ex. Por que não compraste aquele livro? (Why didn’t you buy that book?)

Ex. Não compraste aquele livro, por quê? (You didn’t buy that book, why?)

Pode vs Pôde

Coming from the verb poder (to be able to), pode means it/he/she can or is able to. It is the 3rd person present indicative. Pôde, on the other hand, carries the same placement although it is used to speak of the past.

Ex. Ontem, ele não pôde sair mais cedo, mas hoje ele pode (Yesterday, he couldn’t leave earlier, but today he can).

Using Accents & Other Lexical Annotations

Posted on
6

An accent is used over vowels to indicate a stressed syllable or the fusion of vowels. Learning where and when to place accents on words is just part of the learning process but I’d like to map it out for you in case you have any doubts. The section on the trema (¨) has a lighter font because due to the Spelling Reform, the trema is no longer used on words of Portuguese origin (only on foreign words now).

Agudo (´)
It’s use is conditioned by the rules of graphic accentuation, including stressed and open vowels such as a, e, and o or above the stressed vowels i and u.

Ex. Macapá (capital of Amapá state), médico (doctor), tórax (thorax), vovó (grandmother), língua (language/tongue), múltiplo (multiple).

Circunflexo* (ˆ)
Used above stressed and closed vowels such as a, e and o, in accordance with the rules of graphic accentuation.

Ex. lâmpada (lamp), você (you), ônibus (bus), vovô (grandfather).

Grave (`)
Indicates a crasis (contraction of a vowel or diphthong), such as the fusion of two a‘s (in general, a preposition and the article).

Ex. Fui à festa sem ser convidado (I went to the party without being invited).

Til (˜)
Used above a and e to indicate nasality.

Ex. pão (bread), mamões (papayas), ímã (magnet). 

Cedilha (ç)
Used only with the letter c when followed by a, o and u, to indicate the sound of the phoneme.

Ex. maçã (apple), estação (station, season), espaço (space), açúcar (sugar).

Trema (¨)
Used above the letter u when pronounced yet unstressed in the pairing gu and qu, when followed by either an e or an i.
Ex. ensangüentado (bloodied), lingüiça (sausage), conseqüencia (consequence), tranqüilo (calm).

Apóstrofo (‘)
Used to indicate the supression of a phoneme in a word, in order to avoid repetition or cacophony (harshness in sound).

Ex. d’água (of water).

* – The circunflexo is also called “chapeuzinho” (little hat) informally.