Hello, there!

Today I’m going to teach a very common Brazilian expression: fazer uma vaquinha. Literally it means “to make a little cow” and you may wonder, “Adir, what on earth is that?”

Well, fazer uma vaquinha means to raise money, informally, for something or someone. For example, your friend wants to audition for American Idol, but he doesn’t have the money for the bus ticket so all his friends contribute with a little something until they reach their goal.

Here are some examples:

Acabou a cerveja. Vamos fazer uma vaquinha e comprar mais.
We’re out of beer. Let’s pitch in and buy some more.

Tivemos que fazer uma vaquinha pra ele comprar a passagem de ônibus.
We had to pitch in for him to buy the bus ticket.

In Brazil there’s even a website that faz uma vaquinha for you, it’s called Vakinha (of course!). I just moved into a new apartment and I needed to buy a TV set and a couch and I fiz uma vaquinha online to see if it works. Well, I’m reaching my goal!

Another expression for when we run out of something at parties is passar o chapéu, to pass the hat around so that people contribute with some money.

Well, this is it for today! Hope you have a great weekend!

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