Portuguese Language Blog

Olá, pessoal! Tudo bem?

Brazilian Portuguese is full of informal language and slang words so I am going to teach you seven very useful and cool slang words in Portuguese. Estão prontos?

01. Tá ligado?

Literally this means “Are you on?”, like an electronic device. Tá ligado? means “Do you what I mean?” or “Do you know what I’m talking about?” or even if someone is “hip to something”. Older people don’t usually use this expression and you will find lots of young people using it.

Ela disse que vinha, mas não veio, tá ligado? [She said she was going to come, but she didn't, know what I mean?]
Tá ligado que ele não vai te pagar, né? [You know he's not going to pay you back, right?]

02. Ferrado

If you’re ferrado, you’re screwed. It’s a milder way to say you’re fodido [f$%&d!]. You can also use the verb ferrar [to screw up, to screw someone over].

Nossa, ainda não fiz o trabalho de inglês. Tô ferrado! [Man, I still haven't written my English paper. I'm screwed!]
Ele sempre quis me ferrar no trabalho. [He's always wanted to screw me over at work.]

03. Pra caramba

We use pra caramba to emphasize an idea. Here are some examples.

Tinha gente pra caramba na festa. [There were oodles of people at the party.]
“Você se divertiu na sua viagem?” “Pra caramba!” ["Did you have fun on your vacation?" "A lot!"]
Estava frio pra caramba ontem à noite. [It was frickin' cold last night.]

There are curse word versions pra caralho and pra cacete (better not use them, ok?)

04. Não tô nem aí!

This means “I don’t care”, “I don’t give a damn”.

Não tô nem aí com o que vai acontecer. [I don't care what's going to happen.]
Ela não tava nem aí que o namorado largou dela. [She couldn't care less her boyfriend dumped her.]

05. Tô fora!

Literally it means “I’m out” and it means “I’m out of it” or “Don’t count on me”.

Ir te buscar no aeroporto tarde da noite? Tô fora! [Picking you up at the airport late at night? Don't count on me!]
Trabalhar sem ganhar dinheiro? Tô fora! [Working without getting paid? I'm out of it!]

06. Valeu!

This is a very informal and common way to say “Thank you”. It’s used mainly by men and young people.

Cara, valeu por ter me emprestado seu carro. [Man, thanks for letting me borrow your car.]
“Valeu!” “Quê isso!” ["Thanks!" "No problem!"]

07. Já era!

This expression is used to show that something is gone, it doesn’t exist anymore, it’s history.

Sabe aquela minha moto velha? Já era! Vendi ontem! [Know my old motorcycle? It's history! I sold it yesterday!]
Você queria aquele livro? Já era, já joguei fora. [You wanted that book? It's gone, I threw it out.]

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Salve, pessoal! Tudo bem?

After some time our colloquial Portuguese series is back and today we are going to learn some more cool and interesting expressions in Portuguese, you know, those expressions you won’t find in a regular dictionary or coursebook.

Estão prontos? Vamos lá!

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O gato comeu sua língua? – The cat got your tongue?
Olha só quem está falando! – Look who’s talking!
O que adiantaria isso? – What good would that do?
O que deu em você? – What’s come over you?
O que eu ganho com isso? – What’s in it for me?
O que foi que você disse? – Come again?
O que há com você? – What’s with you? / What’s the matter with you?
O que você está aprontando / tramando? – What are you up to?
O que você quer dizer? – What do you mean?

Parabéns! (Muito bem!) – Well done!
Pára com isso! – Cut it out! Knock it off!
Pára de brincar! – Come off it!
Pega leve! – Take it easy!
Pelo amor de Deus! – For Christ’s/God’s sake!
Pé na tábua! – Step on it!
Pode apostar! – You bet! You can bet on it!
Primeiro as damas. – Ladies first.

Puxa vida! – Gee!
Qual é a graça? – What’s so funny?
Qual é o lance? – What’s the deal?
Qual é a pressa? – What’s the rush?
Quando o assunto é… / Quando se trata de… – When it comes to…
Que eu saiba… – As far as I know…
Que eu me lembre… – As far as I remember…
Que mundo pequeno! – Small world!

Check out parts 01, 02 and 03!

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E aí, tudo bem com você?

Last week I was on vacation but I’m back and today we are going to learn some very interesting slang words in Brazilian Portuguese. Are you ready?

Let’s start with abacaxi (pineapple) and pepino (cucumber). I have no idea why, but these words mean a very difficult problem to solve. With abacaxi we usually say “descascar um abacaxi” [to solve a difficult problem] or “ter um abacaxi para descascar” [to have a difficult problem to solve]. Here are some examples:

Meu dia hoje foi horrível no escritório. Tinha tanto pepino pra resolver.
My day was awful at the office. I had so many problems to solve.

Ah, não quero nem saber. É você quem vai ter que descascar esse abacaxi.
Oh, I don’t care. You’re the one who’s going to sold this problem.

Boia! Ah, that’s a good one! A boia is a buoy, a lifebuoy and in Portuguese it is used, informally, to indicate food, like “grub”, etc. We usually use boia with this meaning in the expression “filar a/uma boia” [to get some free food].

Filei uma boia na casa da minha mãe hoje.
I got some grub at my mom’s today.

Posso filar uma boia na sua casa hoje?
Can I get some grub at your place today?

We also have the expression boia-fria, meaning “cold food”. The boias-frias are people who pick oranges or work on sugar cane harvests and they leave home very early, around 5 am. They bring their own lunch so when they actually have it (around 9 am), it is actually cold. The boias-frias are usually transported in trucks called “pau-de-arara”. This doesn’t happen in big cities due to the lack of rural areas.

Última, porém não menos importante, we have the word encanado, which literally means canalized, piped (cano = pipe). Encanado is used to show that someone is deeply in love with someone, worried or concerned that something is going to happen or even determined to do something. Here are some examples:

Ele está encanado com ela já faz três meses. Nunca o vi assim.
He’s been in love with her for three months already. I’ve never seen him like this.

Ela está encanada que seu namorado a está traindo.
She’s concerned that her boyfriend is cheating on her.

Ele está encanado em aprender francês e eu tenho certeza de que ele vai conseguir.
He’s hell-bent on learning French and I’m sure he will make it.

Want more free resources to learn Portuguese? Check out the other goodies we offer to help make your language learning efforts a daily habit.