10 extraordinarily useful Brazilian Portuguese phrases

Hi, I’m brazilian. Good article, and the phrases are pretty much correct (lot of laughs on number 6)! But Brasília, Brazil’s capital, is NOT in the middle of the Amazon! It’s way below!

Hi,
I’m from portugal and obviously i speak the European Portuguese. Point number 5 is completely false. I agree that the construction of the phrases are a little different and the accent too, but any portuguese understand Brazilian portuguese. The Brazilian TV shows in Portugal, never had to be translated, much less subtitled. I do not know where you get or who say to you such a thing.

Thanks for the comments, all! As for the subtitles thing, I know that the reverse is true (European tv shows being brought to Brazil. I must have assumed that it worked both ways…appreciate the correction, though.

I remember the first time I heard a Portuguese speaker stick their pronoun in the middle of their verb (“ir-me-ei encontrar com ele”). Confused the hell out of me.

brazucas (brazilians) love to interject ”po” (short for porra, which can mean either shit, semen, crap, etc.) at the beginning or end of sentences as a form of exclamation, for example: ”po mano, ta me zuando” – ”are you making fun of me bro?”. but you can use it almost all the time when ur angry/annoyed/surprised etc.

then there is ”falou” (ok/see ya), ”valeu” (cheers/thanks/bye), ”demorou” (ok, yes for sure, etc..), all used daily

and of course swear words like caralho, puta que pariu, fudeu mermao, etc. etc. but its best not to go throwing them around till u have a better grasp of the language!

Hm, I would say that 2, 3, 5, and 8 aren’t so useful. Interestingly enough, Portuguese for Dummies did a great job at the end of their book where they go over 10 very Brazilian phrases. Perhaps using Google Books, it can be viewed online.

I’m not a native speaker but I’ve spent 8 years studying the language and consider myself fluent. Half on this list, I never heard anyone actually say.

On 3, it’s more common to hear “Não dá” (basically, “it’s not possible”) than “Não posso fazê-lo” (fazer when followed by lo or la, requires the “chapeuzinho”, or little hat, over the ‘e’). If around friends, you could say “nem fudendo” but I wouldn’t suggest it until you know the people very well.

On 5, you might want to change “Como?” to “Oi?”. People with a background in Spanish tend to use “como?” in this way when in Brazil, when Brazilians say “Oi?”

On 10, Brazilians tend to leave off the “brasileiro” part of the phrase and simply refer to it as “jeitinho”.

Regards

anyone know a private brazilian portugese tutor? or a class i can take in the LA area?

thanks, please contact: sofialiu1@gmail.com

I must be from another world…

Seriously, why is that I do not understand European Portuguese from Portugal, when I was born and educated in Brazil? I believe it is also mutual, as several Portuguese people I worked with, including from Azores and Mozambique, requested that the courts bring an European speaking Interpreter… Based on my personal experience, I have to disagree with some coments here, and indeed, aside from the diferences in the written format, the European accent is really a killer to my ears to understand. I would have to ‘cut corners’ to say that I can follow what they say…so, Adam, you did a good job there!

One I picked up while living near Belem, in the Amazon, was “So o creme”, meaning literally  “only the cream”.

It’s used to mean “everything is good” or “only the best” due to the notion that the cream is the best part of the milk. Kind of like the way we have the phrase in English “the cream rises to the top” when talking about how the best (athletes, students) rise to the top.

You forgot about the most important word in Brazil: Porra. It has as many uses as the f. word. Use it at anytime you want to say the f. word, and watch as every single Brazilian around you starts to like you

I learned European Portuguese, and it took me forever to be able to communicate and understand Brasilians, lots of hours spent interacting with several different ones over the course of the past year, getting to know their peculiarities and all.

Como vai isto? is pretty common for Brasilians (another way of saying tudo bem), estou gozando com a sua cara is a personal favorite (I am messing around with you), and porra is common in Portugal as well, not just Brasil. Also handy: when we in English say something, and end it with “got it?” or “you know?” Brasilians say “entendeu?”

This site is quite good. It has only a few mistakes only natives would find:

In the second sentence: “Oí, árbitro! Cadê o penalty?”, Brazilians say “Ei, juíz! Cadê o pênalti?”
We refer to the referee as “juíz” (lit. judge).

In the third sentence: “Não, não posso faze-lo.”, Brazilians say “Não, não vai dar pra fazer.”

In the fifth sentence: “Como? Não falo português europeu.”, Brazilians say “Quê? Não falo português de Portugal.”
We refer to “European Portuguese” as “Portuguese of Portugal.”

In the sixth sentence: “Dirige mais rápido, estamos num bairro perigoso.”, Brazilians say: “Anda mais rápido, a gente tá num bairro perigoso.”
Even though you are in a car and you need to use the verb “dirigir” (to drive) we prefer using “andar” (lit. to walk). We also love using third person.

The rest is correct and really quite hilarious!

P.S.: I’m Brazilian

You were great. I’m a native speaker and I liked your phrases.