This past week, my mother and I travelled to Jericoacoara, a small beach town, about 400 km west of Fortaleza, in the northeastern state of Ceará. While there, I realized I hadn’t written a post on “Cearensês,” as I have done with many Brazilian accents and sayings from different states, in the past, on this blog.

The uniqueness of the Cearense, accent, is that it is more “sung,” than most accents, but not as slow and paused as the accent from Pernambuco or Bahia. Probably some of the most laid back and sincere people I’ve met, I had a great time in Jericoacoara and recommend anyone who is planning on visiting Brazil to visit (fun fact – they REALLY need English teachers there ;-))

So let’s move onto our lesson, shall we? We’ll do as we always have:

cearensês – português – English

achar graça – sorrir, rir – to laugh or smile

afanar – roubar, furtar – to steal

amunhecar – desanimar, perder a coragem – to tire of something, lose faith

a perigo – sem dinheiro, liso, duro – broke, without money

bater-fofo – faltar a um encontro, furar – to flake, not show up

boró – dinheiro, salário – money, salary

cabra – homem, pessoa do sexo masculino – man, male

de caldo – triste com algum acontecimento recente – upset about a recent happening

em riba – em cima, no alto – above, high up

mocó – esconderijo, lugar para esconder alguma coisa – safe place to hide things

nadicas – nada – nothing

nem mel, nem cabeça – nenhuma nem outra, perda total – complete loss of something, neither nor

Source.

Now, you ready to go to Ceará?

Here’s a song about the beaches of Ceará to finish off my persuasion to visit 🙂