Portuguese Language Blog

Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987) is one of Brazil’s most celebrated modern poets. We’ve read a bit of his work before, but today, we’re going to look at one of his untitled poems and learn some vocabulary. It’s simple and straight forward, and it’s also emblematic of Brazilian culture.

Desejo a vocês
Fruto do mato
Cheiro de jardim
Namoro no portão
Domingo sem chuva
Segunda sem mau humor
Sábado com seu amor
Filme do Carlitos
Chope com os amigos
Viver sem inimigos
Filme na TV
Ter uma pessoa especial
E que ela goste de você
Ouvir uma palavra amável
Ver a banda passar
Noite de lua cheia
Rever uma velha amizade
Ter fé em Deus
Não ter que ouvir não
Nem nunca, nem jamais
Nem adeus
Rir como criança
Ouvir canto de passarinho
Sarar de resfriado
Escrever um poema de amor
Tomar banho de cachoeira
Aprender uma nova canção
Esperar alguém na estação
Queijo com goiabada
Uma festa
Um violão
Uma seresta
Recordar um amor antigo
Ter um ombro sempre amigo
Bater palmas com alegria
Uma tarde amena
Calçar um chinelo velho
Tocar violão para alguém
Vinho branco
Bolero de Ravel
E muito carinho meu

Vocabulary

mau humor - bad mood

chope – draft beer

amizade – friendship

jamais – never / ever

sarar - heal / recover

cachoeira – waterfall

goiabada – guava jam

seresta – serenade

bater palmas – clap / applaud

ameno – lovely / amenable

calçar – to put on shoes

Desejo a vocês um ótimo final de semana!

I know some of you are thinking, “I knew Buenos Aires was the capital of Brazil!” (kidding!), but I speak of Buenos Aires, a spanish or castellano speaking city, because last week, I saw in the Folha de São Paulo, that there’s been a study where Buenos Aires has ousted Orlando as Brazilians’ favorite international destination. That’s right… 9 de julio is a bigger hotspot than Mickey Avenue for Brazilians.

There are obviously many factors as to why this is, from finding a cheaper Hotel in Buenos Aires (in pesos) vs a hotel in Orlando (in USD), to plain just being closer for most and therefore more accessible on a long weekend… but this is also one more reason for Brazilians to be even more careful with their portunhol.  And since I know many of you may be learning Portuguese after learning at least “some Spanish,” I figured this would be a good opportunity to go over some false friends between Portuguese and Spanish! Complete list here: Lista de falsos amigos.

The pattern goes -

word: (P) Portuguese definition in English (S) Spanish definition in English

1. aborrecer : (P) to upset, to rile (S) to bore, to annoy.

Both are negative, but different kinds!

2. azar: (P) bad luck (S) accident.

An azar (S) can be an azar (P), but definitely aren’t the same thing.

3. boato: (P) rumor (S) ostentation.

If something’s a rumor, than someone has to have been ostentatious about it? No? Bueller?

4. cena: (P) a scene (S) dinner.

Imagine an Argentine inviting a Brazilian to a cena! Oi?!

5. doce: (P) sweets (S) twelve.

12 sweets please. Doce doces, por favor.

6. galo: (P) rooster (S) someone who’s French.

Confusing this would be awkward…

7. logo (P) means right away, or “now”, and luego (S), means in a while, or “then”

A Brazilian employee would probably considered pretty productive if he/she were to confuse this in Argentina…

8. rato: (P) a rat (S) time/a while

Nada a ver!!!

9. sucesso (P) means success and suceso (S) means an event!

Alright, alright… travelling to Argentina can be an event and a success!!

… And last, but certainly not least because this one gets me EVERY time -

10. taça (P) means a glass, as in a wine glass, and tasa (S) means a tax!

Imagine me in a restaurant in Argentina and the waiter insisting there is no tax on the wine glass…

Between globalization and the rise of technology, you’ll find dozens, if not hundreds of Portuguese words that come directly from English. In some cases, the spelling of words are changed to adapt to the Portuguese pronunciation, but the words essentially stay the same. In Portuguese, these words are known as anglicismos. Here are some examples:

picape [pee-kah-pee] = pick-up (truck, SUV)

nocaute [noh-ck-ow-chee] = knockout (in boxing)

blecaute [bleh-ck-ow-chee] = blackout (electricity outage)

bife [bee-fee] = beef

futebol [foo-chee-bow] = football (soccer)

site [cy-chee] = site (website)

hit [hee-chee] = hit (like Top 40 hits)

performance [per-fohr-mahn-see] = performance (like computer performance)

designer [deh-zein-ehr] = designer (fashion, etc)

show [show] = show (convert)

blog [blog-ee] = blog

reset [heh-seh-chee] = reset

play [plei] = play (press play)

ranking [hah-nking] = ranking

piercing [peer-sing] = body piercing

Can you think of any others?