Portuguese Language Blog

Estadão announced today that Bovespa, the Brazilian stock market located in São Paulo, closed the year with the highest gains of any stock market in the world. It closed at a high of 120.9 percent, compared to 118 percent in Indonesia, 25.4 percent in the United States, and 6.7 percent in Japan.

This percentage is based on dollars, in a system to measure stock market performance. It was created by MSCI, Inc, a division of Morgan Stanley.

Despite the encouraging economic achievements, Brazilian economists expect a more volatile year in 2010 with smaller gains.

To read the full article, click here.

The word for New Year’s Eve in Portuguese is Réveillon, which actually comes from the French word réveillon, which means eve. Happy New Year is Feliz Ano Novo.

On New Year’s in Brazil, people dress in white, a tradition that comes from Afro-Brazilian religions. In the coastal cities, people throw flowers into the ocean as they make a wish for the new year, also based on African beliefs (principally as an offering to the goddess of the sea, Iemanjá). Also on the beach, people jump seven waves to bring good luck.

In Rio de Janeiro, there is a big celebration on the beach with fireworks.

Today, we’re going to take a look at the names of countries in Portuguese that appear frequently in the news that will be useful to know.

Brazil = Brasil (pronounced brah-ZEEW)

United States = Estados Unidos / EUA (short for Estados Unidos de América)

Canada = Canadá (note that the stress falls on the last a)

Mexico = México (pronounced MEH-shee-coh)

England = Inglaterra

France = França (pronounced FRAN-sah)

Sweden = Suécia (don’t confuse this with the next country)

Switzerland = Suiça (pronounced SWEE-sah)

Iran = Irã

Saudi Arabia = Arábia Saudita (pronounced ah-RAH-bee-ah sow-DEE-tah)

Japan = Japão (this is the hard to pronounce nasal sound)

China = China (pronounced SHEE-nah)