Real Brazilian Portuguese & Culture
The Geography of Brazil’s Poverty Here is a map that shows the proportion of poverty in Brazil by region: Documentary on Poverty in Brazil In December, The Brazilian government’s TV channel, TVNBR, released a very interesting short documentary about extreme poverty in Brazil. While Brazil has become a development success story due to a growing middle [...]
Colors in Portuguese cor/cores – color/colors colorido – colored azul – blue azuis – blues azul marino – marine blue navy – navy turquesa – turquoise vermelho – red marrom – brown laranja – orange verde – green preto – black branco – white cinza – gray rosa – pink lilás – lavender roxo – [...]
SAFRA Safra – n. crop, harvest Example: “Não sou engraçado como a nova safra de comediantes,” diz Marcelo Médici – “I’m not funny like the new crop of comedians,” says Marcelo Médici If you have any words that you would like to nominate for this word of the day series, let me know! portugueseblogger@gmail.com
Brazil’s Nightlife Brazilians like to party. It is said in Brazil that although people don’t make a lot of money, there always seems to be enough for one to go out to have fun, or at least to share a couple of Skols at the local bar. The Brazilian word for party is balada, or [...]
Here’s a guide for Brazilian Portuguese beginners on the numbers 1-1 billion and how to correctly pronounce them. Numbers in Portuguese are pretty simple as long as you memorize 1-19 and then the “tens.” 0 – Zero [zeh-ro] 1 – Um [oohm] / uma [oo-mah] 2 – Dois [doy-z] / duas [doo-as] 3 – Três [treh-z] 4 – Quatro [kwah-troh] 5 – [...]
The Number Six in Portuguese The number six is pretty cool because it has 2 names in Portuguese: “seis” which is similar to Spanish and “meia” which also means “half” or “sock”. At first it can get pretty confusing when you’re not used to it. If you want to say, you want six coffees [...]
THE SAND DUNES OF BRAZIL Among its diverse terrains, one not-so-well-known fact is that Brazil has several great spots to enjoy sand dunes, called dunas in Portuguese. Tourist companies have taken advantage of this delightful anomaly and made it possible for visitors to have the opportunity to do some dune surfing. Here is a list that [...]
Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s actually not Valentine’s Day in Brazil today – Valentine’s Day in Brazil, called O Dia dos Namorados, happens on June 12. But in honor of romance, I thought we’d learn some pet names you can use for your loved one in Portuguese. In Portuguese, you’d call them apelidos carinhosos. -amorzinho (love) -neném (baby) -fofinho [...]
You Know You Are Brazilian When… You applaud the pilot when the airplane lands. You also applaud the band when it plays the national anthem. You wear the national soccer team T-shirt when you are abroad. You watch all the matches of the World Cup among friends and family. Or in your work place, if [...]
HOW TO LEARN PORTUGUESE The best way to learn Brazilian Portuguese (or any language) is to expand your vocabulary by gradually memorizing lists of related words. This technique will help orient your mind to making connections between words in a certain category or taxonomy, which will facilitate your retrieval of the newly learned words later [...]
