Continuing with our “getting to know Brazilian accents & regional sayings,” series, I realized I hadn’t written about Paulistanês, the “language” spoken in São Paulo city, where I’m currently living and hear everyday!
The funny thing about people who live in the city of São Paulo is that they think everyone else has an accent except for them. And travelling to other parts of Brazil, I’ve learned most other people around the country realize they have a regional accent, except paulistanos who think their accent is the norm for Brazilian Portuguese. Paulistanos also swear everyone on TV speaks like them when it’s clearly not true either. They’re really so self centered they go around saying meu, in every other sentence!
Before we go on to some fun sayings from São Paulo, a little on pronunciations.
In general, Paulistanos pronounce their “e’s” with a more nasal sound and closer to an “a,” than most other parts of Brazil. When pronouncing the word apartamento, they’ll say “aparta-may-ntu” instead of “aparta-meh-ntu” and when saying something has dust on it, they’ll pronounce poeira, “po-ay-rah” instead of “pu-era.”
Their “r’s” are rolled out almost like a Spanish “r.” Outside of São Paulo City, in São Paulo state, “r’s” are pronounced like American “r’s.” So if you’re thinking of coming to Brazil and want to learn an accent that’s easy for you if you’re American, small town São Paulo it is!
Ready to speak with a paulistano accent? Well, here’s the vocabulary to match!
As usual, the order goes paulistanês, português, English!
Meu, no definition, it can be used for anything, but really it means Mine
Mano, amigo, can also mean anything, Friend
Ué!, Igual o Uai de Mineiro, No real meaning, usually said when questioning something that just happened.
Mina, namorada/menina, girlfriend, girl
Chops, chopp, draft beer
Farol, semaforo, stop light
Lombada, quebra-mola, speed bump
Ladeira, morro, hill
Pode Crer, É mesmo, True!
Firmeza?, Oi, tudo bem?, Hey, what’s up?
Tipo, Como, ou uma vírgula, Like, or in the place of a comma…
Mo’ Cara, Muito tempo, A long time
Então, No translation, Used at the beginning of every sentence.
Imagina!, Que isso! Sem Problemas, No problem! You’re Welcome!
Trampo, Trabalho, Work
Can you guys think of any other words in paulistanês or particular pronunciations that are different from other parts of Brazil?
Comments:
Adir Ferreira:
Polyana, this is fantastic! I live in Bebedouro, in the State of São Paulo and our Rs are like American Rs. I even say we sound like “hicks”.
My brother moved to São Paulo ten years ago and now his accent has totally changed and he even uses the word “bicho” to say “man, dude”, etc.
That’s a great post, keep up the good work!
Jeanne:
I was born in Rio Grande do Sul, but spent most of my life in São Paulo, so you can imagine how funny it is to me realize that I use all those words in a daily basis. LOL
kelley:
To my American ear, the Paulistano “r” at the end of a word sounds like it is spoken with a lot of air as opposed to rolled– for example, “falar” sounds like “falarhhh”. Also I have noticed they nasalize the vowels more.
Flavia Magalhaes:
Polyana,
Great post, indeed. What I’d like to add is that most of these expressions are quite informal and I wouldn’t encourage a foreign friend to use them mixed with “normal” Portuguese – that would sound very weird. I myself – paulista! – wouldn’t use them in many situations.
“Tipo”, “então” and “meu” are examples of what should be avoided even by paulistas! They mean nothing, add nothing to the sentence, and only help others to identify how informal you are.
polyana:
hey everyone! thank you for all your helpful comments 🙂
@adir – i’ve never heard bicho! i like that though, haha
@jeanne – the funniest is when you use these words and think everyone else is weird when we don’t. did you see my post on gauchês? do you agree with that post?
@kelley – they’re SO nasal, haha
@flavia – VERY true! thank you.
Jeanne:
Polyana I was born in RS but that’s it, I never lived there, so I consider myself “paulistana”. My mom was born there too and she still has a little bit of accent.
E aí, Polyana! Firmeza, mano? Então, meu, só nasci no RS mas tipo assim, nunca morei lá. Morei mó cara em SP, aí fica embaçado querer falar sem sotaque, entende?
I swear I don’t speak like that, but I use “meu”a lot.
🙂
languageisbroken:
Some people use “pode crer” as a response to almost everything!
For example:
-Ontem à noite a gente foi num churrasco.
-Pode crer…
kroita:
i lived in bauru… near SP and this made me laugh haha so true
i always said tipo, meu hahahahah und entao too 😛 guess i never spoke real portuguese
Dorothy:
Polyana,
I lived in a small town in Sao Paulo state called Lencois Paulista. I never realized how much I say meu, pode crer, magino, etc. Entao, is like “so” in english. Tipo, voce pode falar, “Entao, fui na baladeira ontem com aquelle kra”
I never noticed that Paulistanos have air behind the “r”. I always say falar and not falarhhh. I always think that that accent was from Rio.
Love this blog!! E dahora! Brigada!!
Manuela:
Então has a translation… Well