Portuguese Language Blog

E aí, pessoal? Tudo bem?

Well, Facebook changed its layout, again! And we asked our readers in our Facebook page to say, in Portuguese, what they thought about. Most of them were pretty upset but there were some that didn’t care much or at all. Take a look at some of the comments:

Não gostei! (I didn’t like it!)

Odiei! (I hated it!)
Informação demais, não gosto. (Too much information, I don’t like it.)
Sacanagem! É uma merda! (Damn! It’s a piece of s***!)
Uma bosta! (A piece of s***!)
Complicado… Não aguento mais as mudanças do FB! (Complicated… I can’t stand any more FB changes!)
É ruim demais. É mais complicada do que precisar ser. (It’s too bad. It’s more complicated than it has to be.)
Está muito complicado! Atualizações desnecessárias! (It’s very complicated! Unnecessary updates!)
Uma porcaria! (A piece of crap!)
Só tive problemas até agora. (I’ve only had problems so far.)
Péssimo. (Awful.)
Caralho! (F***!)
Totalmente fodido, porra. (All f***ed up, f***!)
Que porra é essa, cara? (What the f*** is this, man?)

Gostei! (I liked it!)

Maneiro! (Cool!)
Eu gosto! (I like it!)

Pra mim tanto faz. (It’s all the same to me)

Temos que ir na onda…na vida tudo muda! (We have to go with the flow… everything changes in life!)
Está mais ou menos. (It’s not that bad.)

And you? What do you think of the new Facebook layout changes?

E aí? Tudo bem com você?

Our post today brings a very cool Portuguese idiom: dar com a língua nos dentes. It basically means to spill the beans, let the cat out of the bag, give the game away. Let’s check out some examples:

Era para ser uma festa surpresa, mas ela deu com a língua nos dentes e estragou tudo.
It was supposed to be a surprise party, but she spilled the beans and ruined everything.

Se eu fosse você eu não confiaria nele; ele sempre dá com a língua nos dentes.
If I were you I wouldn’t trust him; he always spills the beans.

O que eu te contei é segredo, não vá dar com a língua nos dentes.
What I told you is a secret, don’t go spill the beans.

Por hoje é só! Nos vemos em breve!

Last week, we posted a number of really useful idioms and expressions on the Portuguese Blog Twitter and Facebook pages (thanks team!) If you’re not a follower or fan already, make sure you follow or like us to get even more Portuguese tips and lessons on our social media pages.

So in the same vein, today we’re going to learn a fun slang phrase: segurar a onda. It’s related to surfing, because it literally means to hold on to the wave. But when used in a conversation, it means to deal with a situation without losing one’s composure. In English, we’d translate it as “hanging in there” or “sticking it out,” since it means to put up with something you don’t want to put up with. But we can also translate it to fit the situation, but basically it means to deal with something difficult.

Let’s look at some examples:

Vai segurando a onda ai com a criança que a mãe já está a caminho. Just hang in there with the kid, since her mother is on the way.

Acho que é melhor segurar a onda até a empresa falir. I think it’s better to wait it out until the business goes bankrupt.

A menina não conseguiu segurar a onda, e acabou ligando para o pai dela pedindo para buscá-la. The girl couldn’t stick it out, and ended up calling her dad to ask him to pick her up.

Quanto tempo você consegue segurar a onda sem comer chocolate? How long can you go without eating chocolate?

It’s also helpful to see the expression in its literal form, with this news report about surfing in Rio de Janeiro:

Can you think of any other ways to use this expression?