E aí, tudo beleza com você?

I was at a party last weekend and I heard three people, at different times, say the expression “O escambáu!” and I went to look how to say that in English.

It turns out that O escambáu can be translated as My foot! Yes, it is a neutral informal expression and should be used only when you are among friends, not with your boss or someone older. Here are some example situations:

Your friend, who likes to brag about all the beautiful girls he hooks up with, comes up to you and says:

Cara, estou ficando com uma mina, maior gata! [Man, I’ve been hooking up with this chick, real babe!]

And you know the girl is not that beautiful so you say:

Gata o escambáu! Essa mina é uma baranga! [Babe my foot! This chick’s frickin’ ugly!]

Some more example dialogues:

A – Viu que o André tirou a maior nota da classe? Ele é um crânio! [Did you see that André got the highest grade in the class? He’s super smart!]
B – Crânio o escambáu! Ele colou tudo do Rafael! [Super smart my foot! He copied everything from Rafael!]

A – Olha, você tem que cobrir a falta da Ana no trabalho amanhã. [Look, you need to fill in for Ana at work tomorrow.]
B – Tenho o escambáu! Ela que se vire porque eu vou viajar. [My foot I do! That’s her problem because I’m going to travel.]

A – Ele falou que ia vir me buscar de carro. [He said he was going to pick me up by car.]
B – Vir te buscar de carro o escambáu! Ele não tem onde cair morto![Pick you up by car my foot! He doesn’t have a penny to his name!]

You probably will not find this expression in formal dictionaries because it is a feature of spoken Portuguese so whenever you hear this expression in movie and informal conversation, you will already know what it means!

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