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Guia · Unidade 19 · C1

Idioms & Brazilian Gírias

How Brazilians actually talk to each other

  1. 1

    Pisar na bola: when things go wrong

    Messing up, taking the blame, overdoing it and making a fool of yourself — six idioms for a bad day.

    • Pisar na bola (com alguém) — to mess up, to let someone down.
    • Pagar o pato — to take the blame for someone else; pagar mico — to embarrass yourself (Que mico!).
    • Enfiar o pé na jaca — to overdo it; engolir sapo — to swallow your objections.
    • Chutar o balde — to give up in frustration, never to die.
    • The verb conjugates, the rest stays fixed: pisei na bola, quem pagou o pato.
    • All spoken and casual: in formal writing, say cometi um erro.
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  2. 2

    Quebrar um galho: favours, rest and hot air

    Doing favours, sorting things out, resting up — and the idioms for people who state the obvious or never stop talking.

    • Quebrar um galho — to do a favour: Você pode me quebrar um galho? A quebra-galho is a stopgap.
    • Dar um jeito — to sort something out; the jeitinho is admired and criticised in equal measure.
    • Botar a mão na massa — to get down to work.
    • Ficar de molho — to stay home and rest up.
    • Chover no molhado — to state the obvious; encher linguiça — to pad; falar pelos cotovelos — to talk nonstop.
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  3. 3

    Tô, cê, pra: Portuguese as it's spoken

    The shortcuts of everyday speech and WhatsApp — and diminutives that say more about attitude than size.

    • In speech: tô, tá, tava (estar), cê (você), pra / pro (para), né? (não é?), pera aí, bora!
    • Num / numa (em um / em uma) are fine in writing; the rest belong to speech and chat.
    • Use cê as the subject, before the verb; elsewhere say você: com você, E você?
    • Diminutives show attitude: hospitality (cafezinho), softening (rapidinho), intensity (pertinho), playing down (probleminha).
    • -zinho after a stressed vowel, a nasal or a consonant: cafezinho, pãozinho, florzinha.
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  4. 4

    Massa, maneiro, demorou: everyday gírias

    The slang you'll hear from Rio to Salvador — who says it, where, and when to leave it at the beach.

    • Great: massa (Northeast, Brasília), maneiro (Rio), da hora (São Paulo), top (everywhere).
    • Demorou! — you bet; valeu — thanks; beleza — OK, sounds good.
    • Mó (Rio, São Paulo) intensifies a noun or adjective: mó calor.
    • Tô de boa — I'm fine, and a polite no, thanks; sussa — no stress; dar um rolê — go for a wander; é osso — it's tough.
    • Slang marks region and age. In interviews, meetings and emails, leave it out — legal works everywhere.
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