Have you ever wondered how some expressions or idioms sound so silly if you were to translate them literally? Imagine explaining “get off your high horse,” or “blow a lid off” to someone who doesn’t speak English… Well, if you think idioms in English are bizarre, imagine those in Portuguese!! There’s a great “dictionary” that’s pretty popular in Brazil which people call the “Book is on the Table” English/Portuguese Dictionary and I love to laugh at the literal translations of Brazilian expressions to English. Can you guess what some of these expressions mean?
Tea with me. I book your face. – Chá comigo. Eu livro tua cara.
Give a little jump here! – Dá um pulinho aqui!
Uh! I burned my movie! – Oh! Queimei meu filme!
You travelled on the mayonaise. – Você viajou na maionese.
I have to peel this pineapple. – Tenho que descascar esse abacaxi.
Who advises Friend is! – Quem avisa amigo é!
Do you like over table? – Você gosta de sobremesa?
Go catch little coconuts! – Vai catar coquinho
Son of fish, little fish is … – Filho de peixe peixinho é….
You are by out. – Voce está por fora.
She broke her face! – Ela quebrou a cara!
You are very face of wood! – Voce é muito cara de pau!
Ops, gave Zebra! – Ops, deu zebra!
It’s older than walk forward. – É mais velho que andar pra frente.
Don’t fill my bag! – Não encha meu saco!
He lives there where Judas lost the boots. – Ele vive onde judas perdeu as botas.
That man is hard bread! – Aquele homem é pão-duro.
Try to guess some of the expressions’ real translations and I’ll post the answers here Wednesday either after a jump or in the comments 🙂
Comments:
someone:
“eu livro tua cara” should be “i free your face” not “i book your face”… fail google translate is fail? 😛
Jeanne:
I can’t stop laughing; this is so funny! There is one in English that I love, which is “to put lipstick on a pig”.
When people say that I can see a huge fat pig wearing lipstick and smiling at me.
Francisco:
Learning idioms is “a piece of cake”. It’s as “easy as pie”!
Kerri Hamilton:
“On pins and needles” to get the meaning of some of these Portuguese expressions.
polyana:
oh no, i completely forgot to post the translations!
this wasn’t put into Google Translate – they’re just funny “literate” ways to say the expressions 🙂
here goes:
Chá comigo. Eu livro tua cara. – Leave it to me, I’ll take care of this for you.
Dá um pulinho aqui! – Com over here for a little bit!
Oh! Queimei meu filme! – Ugh, I messed up/embarrassed myself
Você viajou na maionese. – You’re trippin’!!
Tenho que descascar esse abacaxi. – I have to take care of this problem
Quem avisa amigo é! – Real friends warn you about…
Você gosta de sobremesa? – Do you like dessert?
Vai catar coquinho – Get out!
Filho de peixe peixinho é… – Like father like son
Voce está por fora. – You’re out of the loop.
Ela quebrou a cara! – She messed up/embarrassed herself/was disappointed with smthng
Voce é muito cara de pau! – You’re shameless!
Ops, deu zebra! – Uh oh, there’s a problem here.
É mais velho que andar pra frente. – It’s really old.
Não encha meu saco! – Don’t bother me
Ele vive onde judas perdeu as botas. – He lives really far away.
Aquele homem é pão-duro. – That man is cheap!
languageisbroken:
hahaha
One of my favorites is “fazer negócio da China” – to make a great business deal
Also, “camisinha” – condom.
William:
Hi, I’m from Rio and I’d like to talk about the expression mentioned above.
“Chá comigo”
The word “chá” literally means tea but it’s not the actual word said in this expression, the original way to say it is “Deixa comigo”, but on every day talk, the word “deixa” turns into “xá”, or “chá” if you want make a reference to the drink.
that’s it.
for those who want to have a talk to a brazilian (me) and practice your portuguese,
here’s my skype name:
billljackson
Best wishes and good luck 😉
seth snr:
idioms enriches our language and it shows maturity