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Deixa! Posted by on Mar 3, 2008 in Grammar

Deixar [day-shar] is a useful verb in Portuguese because there quite a few expressions that use it. Literally, it means several things:

“to leave”: Deixei meu cachorro com minha irmã.
I left my dog with my sister.

“to stop”: Ela deixou de fumar.
She stopped smoking.

“to allow”: Nos deixamos nosso filho sair com os amigos.
We allow our son to go out with his friends.

There are also a few dozen expressions that use deixar, which you can find listed here. Here are some more popular expressions used with deixar.

1. Deixa para lá: Leave it alone, or forget about it.
Seu pai realmente não gosta da nossa casa? Your dad really doesn’t like our house?
Não sei. Deixa para lá. I don’t know. Just forget about it.

2. Deixa: Stop it, or knock it off.
Pai! Pai! Posso ir? Posso? Posso? Dad! Dad! Can I go? Can I? Can I?
Deixa! Knock it off!

Você acha que sou gorda? Do you think I’m fat?
Não! Deixa. No! Stop it.

3. Pode deixar: Leave it to me, or no problem, or I’ll take care of it.
Pode buscar minha amiga no aeroporto? Can you pick up my friend at the airport?
Posso. Pode deixar. Yes I can. It’s no problem.

Pode deixar um recado para ele? Will you leave him a message?
Sim, pode deixar. Yeah, l’ll take care of it.

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Comments:

  1. Christopher:

    Podexá…

    Xapralá…

    Love the post. Deixar is so useful!

  2. Annissa:

    Thank you for the explanation. It’s difficult to remember all the intricacies of Brazilian Portuguese.

  3. André Felipe:

    When meaning “stop it, or knock it off.”, it’s “deixa disso”.

    “Pára com isso” means the same.

  4. nelly:

    Deixa la disso what is the meaning of that