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Talking about work in Portuguese Posted by on Mar 6, 2013 in Learning, Vocabulary

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Salve! Tudo bem por aí?

Today we are going to talk about work, in Portuguese! Check out this dialogue between two friends, Leandro and Renato:

Leandro: O que foi? Você parece chateado.
Renato: Na verdade estou mesmo. Estou cansado de fazer as mesmas coisas chatas entra dia sai dia no meu trabalho. Sabe, preencher fichas e coisas do tipo.
Leandro: Você já pensou em procurar um outro emprego?
Renato: Claro, estive olhando os classificados no jornal esses tempos.
Leandro: Que tipo de emprego você tem em mente?
Renato: Não sei. Algo mais desafiador. Estou de saco cheio da mesma rotina o dia inteiro.
Leandro: Sei o que você quer dizer.

Leandro notices that Renato is chateado, upset, and asks “O que foi?”, what’s the matter? Some other ways of asking this are:

Qual é o problema?
O que está acontecendo?
O que tá pegando? (slang)

Renato agrees with him and uses the expression na verdade, which means “actually” or “as a matter of fact”. He could have also said de fato or realmente to express the same meaning. He says that he is cansado de, tired of doing the same boring things, coisas chatas, entra dia sai dia, day in day out.

He then uses the verb form sabe to create rapport with Leandro, something like you know, in English. He’s tired of preencher fichas, filling out forms e coisas do tipo, and things like that, and stuff. Leandro then asks him if he’s ever thought about looking for another job. He uses the phrase:

Você já pensou em …?

Notice that “ever” is translated as in this sentence. can also mean “already” or “right now”. Renato says that he’s been taking a look at the job ads in the newspaper. To say that you’ve been doing something in Portuguese you can use:

Estive/esteve/etc + verb in the gerund

Estive lendo vários livros sobre negócios.
I’ve been reading several books about business.

Ela esteve em negociações com aquela empresa.
She’s been negotiating with that company.

Leandro asks Renato what kind of job he is looking for:

Que tipo de emprego você está procurando?

You can use Que tipo de…? with almost anything:

Que tipo de filme você gosta?
What kind of movies do you like?

Que tipo de música você costuma ouvir?
What kind of music do you usually listen?

Renato then says he’s looking for something more challenging, desafiador, because he’s tired of the same routine, a mesma rotina all day long, o dia todo. In order to improve your vocabulary, check this out:

Desafio – challenge
Desafiar – to challenge
Desafiador – challenging

Remember to pay attention when you find words that belong to same “family”; they will help you improve your vocabulary enormously.

This is it for today, minha gente! Nos vemos em breve!

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About the Author: Adir

English / Spanish teacher and translator for over 20 years. I have been blogging since 2007 and I am also a professional singer in my spare time.