Boa tarde, meus queridos leitores! Good afternoon, my dear readers!

Vocês estudaram muito português essa semana ou andam enrolando? Did you study a lot of Portuguese this week or have you been stalling?

Stereotypes about Brazilians often include the jeitinho brasileiro (our typical way of dealing with things) and our inability to be on time for appointments. Whether these generalizations are true or not, it is no coincidence that the word enrolar is such a frequent one in Portuguese. Have your heard of it before?

The verb is to enrolar, the noun is enrolação and the adjective is enrolado(a).  Enrolar can have different meanings depending on the context. Literally speaking, enrolar means to roll up, to wrap around, but there is no precise translation for its figurative meaning into English. To procrastinate might be a good definition (even though it is too formal, since enrolar is more colloquial and we do have the verb ‘procrastinar’ in Portuguese as well).

It also has the idea of postponing, stalling, being reluctant to do something, delaying an action out of laziness, unwillingness or sheer lack of effort. Therefore, if someone is “enrolando”, that person is wasting time and beating around the bush.

Another way of using enrolar is when a person is taking too long to make a decision, fooling somebody our stringing someone along. A lot of possibilities, huh? So chega de enrolação (enough stalling) and let’s look over some examples:

Verb enrolar:

• Fiquei enrolando para fazer minha inscrição e acabei perdendo o prazo | I kept stalling to do my registration and ended up missing the deadline
• O professor passa muito tempo da aula enrolando e nunca chega ao ponto | The professor spends most of the class going around in circles and never gets to the point
• Vamos parar de enrolar senão não vamos terminar esse trabalho nunca | Let’s stop procratinating otherwise we’ll never finish this assignment
• O vendedor me enrolou e me vendeu um aparelho com defeito | The salesman pulled a fast one on me and sold me a defective device
• Faz tempos que meu irmão me deve dinheiro e fica enrolando para pagar | It’s been a while since my brother owes me some money and keeps stalling me
• Não adianta enrolar, uma hora ou outra você vai ter que contar para ele que está grávida | There’s no point in beating around the bush, eventually you’ll have to tell him you’re pregnant

Noun enrolação

• Chega de enrolação e vá logo fazer seu dever de casa | Enough procrastination and go do your homework already
• Pode me falar a verdade, sem enrolação | You can tell me the truth, no beating around the bush
• Não aguento sua enrolação para lavar a louça |I can’t stand your stalling to do the dishes
• A promoção que eles anunciaram era pura enrolação | The sale they advertised was a total scam
• Preciso da sua resposta ainda hoje, sem enrolação | I need your answer by today, no stalling

Adjective enrolado(a)

Note: If you are enrolado(a), it means that you are someone who is not very committed, a little unreliable, either because you are too lazy, a bit of a slacker or because it takes forever for you to do things.

• Rafael está atrasado de novo, o que não é de se surpreender porque ele é meio enrolado | Rafael is late again, which is not surprising since he’s so unreliable
• Minha chefe não me deu o retorno até hoje, ela é muito enrolada | My boss still hasn’t given me her feedbak, she’s such a slacker
• Se ele não fosse tão enrolado, eu até chamaria ele pra fazer parte dos projetos | If he weren’t such a slacker, I would invite him to be a part of the project

E você? Se considera uma pessoa enrolada?

Bom fim de semana a todos! Good weekend to all!