Have you ever tried to drive in Brazil when there is a “engarrafamento”? Or when the “estacionamento” was so busy you couldn’t find a parking space. Or maybe someone driving ahead of you was so slow that you had to “ultrapassar”?

Take a look at this vocabulary related to cars and driving.

Photo by Rafael Borges

A) The road

1. Auto estrada – motorway
2. Rua – street
3. Avenida – avenue
4. Via de acesso – access/slip road
5. Rotatória – roundabout
6. Sentido único; mão única – one way
7. Cruzamento – junction
8. Semáforo, sinal – traffic light
9. Faixa de pedestre – pedestrian crossing
10. Vaga de deficiente – disabled parking
11. Vaga – parking space
12. Engarrafamento – traffic jam
13. Limite de velocidade – speed limit

B) Verbs

1. Estacionar – to park
2. Ultrapassar – to overtake
3. Dirigir – to drive
4. Dar ré – to reverse
5. Rebocar – to tow away
6. Abastecer – to fuel/to get petrol/gas

C) The car

1. Retrovisor – rear-view mirror
2. Retrovisor lateral – wing mirror
3. Para-brisa – windscreen
4. Limpa-para-brisa – windscreen wiper
5. Porta – door
6. Porta-malas – boot
7. Seta – indicator
8. Placa – licence plate
9. Farol – headlight
10. Pisca-alerta – hazard light
11. Pneu/roda – wheel
12. Volante – steering wheel
13. Sinto de segurança – seat belt
14. Buzina – horn
15. Painel – dashboard
16. Velocímetro – speedometer

D) Petrol/gas station

1. Gasolina – petrol, gasoline
2. Posto de gasolina – petrol station, gas station
3. Bomba – pump
4. Óleo – oil
5. Gasolina aditivada – leaded petrol/gas
6. Gasolina comum – unleaded petrol/gas
7. Diesel – diesel
8. Tanque de gasolina – petrol/gas tank
9. Lava-jato – car wash

Exercício: choose one of the words in parenthesis fill in the blanks

1. Preciso ir no posto de gasolina para __________. (diesel/abastecer/ultrapassar)
2. Meu carro está sujo, vou levar no __________. (gasolina, cruzamento, lava-jato)
3. Está escurecendo, ligue o __________ do carro! (farol/retrovisor/para-brisa)
4. O __________ está vermelho, você deve parar o carro. (sinal/seta/vaga)
5. O estacionamento tinha muitos carros, não encontrei nenhuma __________. (rebocar/vaga/roda)
6. Meu __________ está sujo, não consigo enxergar nada a minha frente. (para-brisa/ retrovisor/pneu)
7. O __________ da auto-estrada é de 120km/h. (rotatória/engarrafamento/limite de velocidade)
8. Você deve usar o __________ caso ocorra um acidente. (buzina/sinto de segurança/porta-malas).

The answers will be on next week’s post.

Boa semana a todos!