[Atividade de escuta e leitura em Português]

Oi, gente! Hi, everybody!

Let’s have another part of our series Portuguese listening/reading practice with the text “Uma hora de relógio” by Brazilian writer, actor and comedian Gregório Duvivier, taken from his column from the newspaper Folha de São Paulo. It is a very interesting and amusing text to reflect on two important aspects of Brazilian culture: our typically bad habit of sometimes being late or vague when it comes to time and the popular use of the diminutive (commonly expressed by adding ‘inho’ our ‘inha’ at the end of words) on our daily speech.

Don’t forget to follow the steps:

• Listen to the audio first. See if you can identify any words and write them down, if you want to.
• Scroll down and read the text. You can try reading it out loud to practice your pronunciation and speaking skills, or play the audio again and follow as you listen. Read each sentence carefully and see what you can recognize and understand.
• Check the translated text in italics. What were you able to grasp? Which parts were the most difficult? It’s a good idea to read the text in Portuguese again now that you know its full meaning.

1.  Ouça/ Listen

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3: 

 

 

 

2. Leia/ Read

Uma hora de relógio

Part 1: 

O tempo pro brasileiro é tão fluido que a gente inventou a expressão “hora no relógio” -na Bahia, diz-se “hora de relógio”. Nesse momento um suíço ou um inglês tem uma síncope. “Existe alguma hora que não seja de relógio?” Caro amigo, existe uma imensa variedade de horas. Na expressão “espera só meia horinha”, “meia horinha” costuma demorar duas horas de relógio, enquanto na frase “tô te esperando há horas”, “horas” pode significar só “meia horinha” de relógio. Por isso a importância da expressão “de relógio”: na hora do relógio, cada um dos minutos dura estranhos 60 segundos de relógio -não confundir, claro, com os segundinhos e os minutinhos, que podem durar horas de relógio. “O senhor tem cinco minutinhos?” “Tenho -mas no relógio só tenho uns dois”.

Part 2:

Sim, o diminutivo muda tudo. Quando se marca “de manhãzinha”, é no início da manhã, de oito às dez, MAS se por acaso marcarem “de tardinha”, estarão se referindo ao fim da tarde, de cinco às sete. Nada é tão simples: de noitinha volta a ser no início da noite, tornando tardinha e noitinha conceitos intercambiáveis. Que cara é essa, amigo saxão? Você mede comprimento com pés e polegadas. 

Não pense que para por aí: tem surgido, cada vez mais frequente, o diminutivo do gerúndio. Ouvi de uma amiga: “outro dia te vi todo correndinho na Lagoa”. Nada mais ridículo do que achar que se estava correndo e descobrir que só se estava correndinho. Esse é o meu problema com esportes: só chego nos diminutivos. Não chego a me exercitar, só fico me exercitandinho. Antes disso, fico alongandinho. E depois reclamandinho. Diz-se de um casal que começa a namorar que ambos estão namorandinho -no entanto, não se diz que um homem que começa a morrer já está morrendinho.

Part 3:  

O diminutivo costuma recair sobre coisas pelas quais a gente tem ao menos um pouco de carinho. Por isso pode-se dizer criancinha, velhinho, mas jamais “adolescentezinho”. Pode-se dizer gatinho, cachorrinho, mas jamais “atendentinho de telemarketing”. A não ser, claro, no seu uso irônico: se te chamarem de “queridinho”, querem é que você exploda. Foi o Ricardo Araújo Pereira quem atentou para o fato de que pomos o diminutivo em advérbios. “É devagar, é devagar, devagarinho”, diz o poeta Martinho -que carrega o diminutivo no nome. Deve ser coisa nossa, pensei, orgulhoso, até ouvir “despacito”, o “devagarinho” deles. Estranhamente, o vocalista fala mil palavras por minuto —de relógio. Prefiro o Martinho.

 

An Hour on the Clock

Part 1:

Time for Brazilians is so fluid that we invented the expression “hour on the clock” – in Bahia, it is called “clock hour.” At this moment any Swiss or English man may have a syncope. “Is there any time other than from a clock?”

Dear friend, there is an immense variety of hours. In the expression “wait only half an hour”, “half an hour” usually takes two hours on the clock, while in the phrase “I’ve been waiting for you for hours”, “hours” can mean only “half hour” on the clock. So the importance of the expression “clock”: in the hour of the clock, each of the minutes strangely lasts 60 seconds on the clock – not to be confused, of course, with the “little seconds” and the “little minutes”, that can last hours on the clock. “Do you have five minutes?” “I do – but I have only two on the clock.”

Part 2:

Yes, the diminutive changes everything. When you schedule something for “early in the morning,” it means in the beginning of the morning, from eight to ten, BUT if you happen to schedule in the “early afternoon”, it will be referring to the late afternoon, from five to seven. Nothing is so simple: in the evening it is back to the beginning of the night, turning early afternoon and evening into interchangeable concepts. Why are you making that face, Saxon friend? You measure length with feet and inches.

Don’t think it stops there: the diminutive of the gerund has appeared, more and more frequently. I heard from a friend: “I saw you the other day going for a little run by the lake” Nothing more ridiculous than thinking I was running and then find out that I was just going for a little run. This is my problem with sports: I only get the diminutives. I don’t actually exercise, I just do a little exercise. Before that, I do a little stretching. And then a little complaining. It is said that a couple that begins to date is dating a little, however we don’t say said that a man who begins to die is dying a little.

Part 3:

The diminutive usually comes down to things for which we have at least a little affection. That’s why you can say little child, “little” old man, but never “little teenager.” You can say kitten, puppy, but never “little telemarketing operator”. Except, of course, in an ironic use: if people call you “little darling,” they want you to explode.

It was Ricardo Araújo Pereira who noticed the fact that we put adverbs in the diminutive. “It’s slow, it’s slow, little slow,” says the poet Martinho, who carries the diminutive in his name. It must be our thing, I thought, proudly, until I heard “Despacito,” their way of saying “little slow”. Oddly enough, the lead singer says a thousand words a minute- on the clock. I prefer Martinho.

You can learn more about the dimunitive here:

https://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/augmentative-e-diminutive-in-portuguese/

https://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/diminutives/

Boa semana! Great week!