Archive for February, 2011
Ronaldo Retires Posted by Rachel on Feb 17, 2011
As many of you may have heard, one of Brazil’s biggest soccer stars, Ronaldo, announced this week that he is retiring. In Portuguese, the verb to retire is aposentar-se, and the noun for retirement is aposentadoria. The Carioca footballer had most recently been playing for Corinthians, in São Paulo, after playing for five major clubs…
Portuguese Words of English Origin Posted by Rachel on Feb 15, 2011
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…
Canção do exílio Posted by Rachel on Feb 11, 2011
Since we’ve been discussing expats and poetry this week, I thought we could take a look at another poem, one of the most beautiful in Brazilian literature. Thanks for the suggestion from one of our users, who posted the poem on the Portuguese Blog Facebook page. “Exile Song” is one of Brazil’s most famous poems…
Elizabeth Bishop Posted by Rachel on Feb 10, 2011
As those of our non-Brazilian students may know, once you fall in love with Brazil, there’s no going back, and sometimes you end up staying longer than you expect. Such was the case with one of the United States’ most brilliant poets, Elizabeth Bishop. Bishop (1911-1979) was born in Massachusetts, and traveled extensively after graduating…
Está servido? Posted by Rachel on Feb 9, 2011
Eating with friends and family is an important part of Brazilian culture, so it’s important to learn phrases and expressions that deal with meals. Está servido is a useful phrase to know for eating with others, and it can be a little confusing if you hear it for the first time. Literally, this expression means…
Carnaval 2011 Countdown – Chiclete com Banana Posted by polyana on Feb 7, 2011
Carnaval is in five weeks! In exactly one month, I hope to be dancing in the streets of Olinda, Pernambuco for their traditional Carnaval festivities, and I can’t wait to share it with you all! Do any of you have plans for Carnaval this year? For my next posts until Carnaval, I’ll be posting different…
Sarcastic Depois Posted by Rachel on Feb 4, 2011
We’ve learned about sarcastic expressions before, but here’s another one you can use. Depois is normally used to mean after or later, in this context: Vou terminar o projeto depois. I’m going to finish the project later. Ela foi para casa depois de ver o filme. She went home after seeing the movie. But you…