Desejo a vocês Posted by Rachel on Apr 8, 2011
Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987) is one of Brazil’s most celebrated modern poets. We’ve read a bit of his work before, but today, we’re going to look at one of his untitled poems and learn some vocabulary. It’s simple and straight forward, and it’s also emblematic of Brazilian culture. Desejo a vocês Fruto do mato…
Feel Better in Portuguese Posted by Rachel on Apr 5, 2011
If you want to tell someone who is sick or injured to feel better, here are a few ways to do so. 1. Melhoras This is the simplest way to tell someone to feel better, with just a single word. Você está bem? – Are you ok? Não, estou doente. – No, I’m sick. Melhoras!…
What’s Pagode? Posted by polyana on Apr 4, 2011
Following up on Rachel’s post on ExaltaSamba, I thought I’d talk a little bit about what pagode (pronounce pah-gaw-gee) actually IS. There are a lot of different interpretations of the word pagode, and you will often hear a lot of Brazilians downplaying this sub-genre of samba. I myself, will oftentimes hear, “Eu gosto de samba…
Exaltasamba Posted by Rachel on Mar 31, 2011
You may have never heard of Exaltasamba, a pagode and samba group from Brazil, but they’re a popular group that has been around since the 1980s. The group began in 1986, when the members began playing at local bars in São Bernardo do Campo, in São Paulo state. They released their first album in 1992…
When in Buenos Aires… Posted by polyana on Mar 30, 2011
I know some of you are thinking, “I knew Buenos Aires was the capital of Brazil!” (kidding!), but I speak of Buenos Aires, a spanish or castellano speaking city, because last week, I saw in the Folha de São Paulo, that there’s been a study where Buenos Aires has ousted Orlando as Brazilians’ favorite international destination…
Empurra-Empurra Posted by Rachel on Mar 29, 2011
While this expression literally means “push-push,” it has two uses that are useful to know. Let’s take a look. 1. Pushing and shoving This means the type of confusion you’d find in big, rowdy crowds. Houve muito empurra-empurra durante o show de rock; foi um tumulto de verdade. There was a lot of pushing and…
When to use the Letter “X” Posted by polyana on Mar 28, 2011
One thing that confuses a lot of people who are learning Portuguese, is when and how to use the letter “x,” as opposed to a ch, s, z, etc. So I found this really fun “lesson,” online on the pronunciation of the “x” in Portuguese. First, there is a paragraph with a bunch of x’s…