Tag Archives: brazilian portuguese

Decifering a language of languages

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I translated this from a book on Portuguese grammar.
“While analyzing our own way of speaking, each one of us is capable of perceiving that we dominate various “languages”, in other words, we have various ways of “registering” our language. Every moment, we are making use of one of these registers.

Observe: a child of two years, when he falls, he can say that he hurt his bum-bum. His mother, upon making him feel better, asks: “Ah, did my baby hurt his bundinha? A more serious problem occurs at this point. Upon taking him to the doctor, the parents will probably say that the problem is in the nádegas. And the doctor? Well, he can write down that the pain is in the region of the glútea…

See that all of these expressions are within our knowledge and we know, almost intuitively, which is the most adequate moment to employ one or the other.”

The point I’m getting at though is that Portuguese presents a problem that is often born organically out of the viewpoint of the learner and the teacher, a problem in the sense of knowing how one wants to teach or learn. Of course, it is said that you must learn the rules before you can break them but in the end, I suppose it’s up to the learner and how or what he or she wishes to learn. The last part of the section I translated speaks to how we must approach the subject and I happen to be in complete agreement with it. Mastering one’s own language and knowing how to navigate through it at will can be very useful in all kinds of situations.

Having an ear for Van Gogh

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Once I heard a friend of mine, a university-educated Brazilian, say something that sounded like Van Gogee (gee such as in the word geezer) and I wondered if he meant Van Gogh (pronounced ‘go’ in English)…apparently he did. I’m not sure if there exists some sort of a foreign word ‘rule’ that means you must pronounce something as it is pronounced in its original language but if the point of communication is to be understood then among Brazilians, saying Van Gogee is fine, I guess.

On the other hand, if I went around saying the President of Brazil’s nickname is pronounced Lulay, then I would be incorrect, right? Perhaps I’m just nitpicking here and none of this matters but nonetheless, I suppose I’ll just keep sticking to my way of doing things, which when it comes to pronunciation, I will do my best to say things in their original tongue (* – see comments).

What is your opinion?

Training your Ears with the News

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While my main focus has always been Brazilian Portuguese, lately I have been getting into the European variety to the extent that I am going to stretch this blog’s focus to include it. A good way to start is by understanding some of the practical differences as well as that which is not always obvious. As an added bonus in this digital age we live in, there’s no need to go to Portugal or to seek out a Portuguese person if you wish to hear them speak.

Expresso is a Portuguese daily and it happens to have a good stream of video reports that anyone can listen to for free. Likewise, O Globo has a multimedia section where, on the righthand side, one can see their video selection. Preferably, I would like to find a variety of Brazilian news sites that offer actual reports in their video section like Diário do Pará’s Youtube channel. If you know of some, let me know!

Six ways to know it’s European Portuguese

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I’ve seen many people in many forums and communities who ask about the differences between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. Some people answer that with a history lesson, some say they are basically the same while others bring up a few phrases that seem funny in one country or the other. I’d like to tell you about 6 practical ways in which you can know if you are reading European Portuguese.

6 Ways to Know it’s European Portuguese

1. The use of the personal pronoun tu (instead of você). I think it’s important to learn how to use ‘tu’ and how to conjugate verbs using it, as even in Brazil, in the North and the South, you’ll hear ‘tu’ used.

2. Reflexive verbs are hyphenated, with the reflective part always following the verb. In Portugal, the phrase “I want you well” would be “Eu quero-te bem” (enclisis), while in Brazil, it would be “Eu te quero bem” (proclisis). There is also something called mesoclisis (see number 6), which is common in Portugal.

3. The use of “Estar + a + verb in the infinitive” instead of “Estar + verb in the gerund (-ing form)”. In Brazil, you would say “Estou pensando” while in Portugal, you would say “Estou a pensar“.

4. The use of se calhar in addition to talvez as a way to say ‘maybe’. The word calhar means chance/happen.

5. The rearrangement of determinors (aqui, aí, lá, ali, etc). In Portugal, you are more likely to see, for example, “eu lá fiquei” (I stayed there) instead of “eu fiquei lá” which would be found in Brazil.

6. Last but not least, in Portugal, you will see the use of the mesoclisis, which is a grammatical term that means ‘within the verb, between the stem and the suffix’. In Continental Portuguese, you’ll see “eu comprá-lo-ei” (I will buy it) while in Brazilian Portuguese, you will see “eu o comprarei“.

Keep in mind, not everything listed is exclusive to either side of the Atlantic (ocean), although it’s best to be prepared, right?

Afterthoughts & a new category – 2fers (2 for 1)

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I think I like the idea of a new category teaching two new phrases per post, which you can see I’ve done in a few of my posts already. By the way, if you don’t know what twofers/2fers means, it’s slang for two-for-one when you get two things for the ‘price’ of one.

For today, I’ll let Fábio at English This Way do the teaching! Click the links below to find the following phrases in Portuguese!

Come to think of it

On Second thought

Easy as pie – Moleza

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I was perusing the site Proz, which I mentioned in the last post, when I came across these words/phrases as a way to say “all easy street”, or as I would rather put it, easy as pie (or even ‘piece of cake’). One of the words, you should already know! ; )

moleza (weakening) / sopa no mel (soup in the honey*) / mamão com açúcar (papaya with sugar)

Spelling reform comic – Part 1

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(click to enlarge)

In the quadrinho (comic strip) Grump by Orlandeli, last year’s acordo ortográfico (spelling reform) was used as the subject matter of a series he did in January of 2009. Little by little, I will be going over the spelling reform here on Eyes on Portuguese because most sites teaching Portuguese haven’t adjusted their lessons to the new reform. Below, I will translate each quadro (square) of the comic.

Primeiro quadro

“I had an idea. I am going to ask for help from my nephew to understand the agreement. For these kids, it’s a cinch. They are learning now. They don’t have our bad habits because we have been using the old rules for a long time now.”

Segundo quadro

“Hello, nephew. Everything good? By chance, are you in the know about the rules of the spelling reform?”

Terceiro quadro

“Wazzzzuppp Tuimmmm! What’s crackin? Ain’t no thang, yo. Why don’t u roll on thru cuz we can learn dat ish togetha! looool”

“It’s probably best I come up with another idea.”

In the first square of the comic, the words molecada and moleza are used, both of which are slang. Moleque (often misspelled ‘muleque‘) is how you would call a bratty kid in English a “little punk”. It is also used in a general sense to speak of someone who is immature or not yet acting like a man. Since in Portuguese the suffix -ada can be used to speak of a group or of an action (see the end of this post I just linked), molecada means a group of moleques. The second term, moleza, is equivalent to saying something is easy, a cinch, nothing complicated.

For the third square, I improvised in the translation to best represent what it might sound like if an American teenager (influenced by hip-hop culture) would have said it. In Portuguese, the sad state of the nephew’s writing is called miguxês or neo-miguxês, something which I will address in the next post. The second line of the third square is what I would consider the equivalent in English to what was written in the comic.

Thanks to Street Smart Brazil for emailing this comic a while back.

Glossary of a Brazilian translator w/o time to lose

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This I found on the SK language school site in the humor section, although most of the humor is in English.

GLOSSÁRIO DE UM TRADUTOR BRASILEIRO QUE ESTUDOU NUM CURSINHO RÁPIDO, PORQUE NÃO TINHA TEMPO A PERDER:

Layout ……………………………… Fora da lei
Go home ……………………………Vá a Roma
He is my son ……………………… Ele e maçon
US Mail ……………………………. Meio dos Estados Unidos
I don’t care ……………………….. Eu não quero
Go ahead ………………………….. Gol de cabeça
Broken heart ……………………… Coração bronqueado
Are you sick? …………………….. Qual e seu CIC?
What time is it? ………………….. Que time é esse?
They go jogging all the time … Eles vão jogar com todo o time
An ice cream ……………………… Crime cometido com frieza
Because ……………………………… Inflamação no bico
Fourteen ……………………………. Pessoa baixa e forte
Corn flakes ………………………… Cornos e frescos
She must go ……………………….. Ela mastigou
It’s too late …………………………. É muito leite
Free shop …………………………… Chopp de graça
Good stuff ………………………….. Boa estufa
A hot day ……………………………. Arrotei.
With noise ………………………….. Conosco
Yellow river ………………………… Ela e horrível.
The boy is behind the door ……. O boi esta berrando de dor.
I’m a man ……………………………. Eu mamei
Once more ………………………….. Onde você mora?
Merry Christmas …………………. Maria foi crismada.
Today’s payday ……………………. Hoje peidei.
In French ……………………………. Em frente.
Netscape …………………………….. Nescafé americano
Fuck ………………………………….. Fuca

You can’t come to Brazil – Portuguese

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Fabio at English This Way reminded me of a common problem that non-native Portuguese speakers run into while in Brazil. In terms of the verbs ‘ir’ (to go) and ‘vir’ (to come), Americans see them as interchangable while Brazilians don’t.

Example

In English – “I’m coming to your house right now” (Right)
In Portuguese (but translated back, it means) – “I’m going to your house right now”

Inglês – “Eu estou vindo para sua casa agora” (Wrong)
Português – “Eu estou indo para sua casa agora” (Right)

In Brazil, you can’t go to a place by coming there, you can only go there by going. Likewise, someone can only come to you, you can’t come to them. Questions?