Expressões idiomáticas e provérbios — quando o sentido literal mente
An expressão idiomática is a phrase whose meaning is not the sum of its words, and Brazilians reach for them constantly — at work, in the group chat, in the middle of a novela. engolir sapos is literally to swallow toads and actually means to put up with things in silence. custar os olhos da cara is to cost the eyes of your face and means it was brutally expensive. falar pelos cotovelos is to talk through your elbows and means somebody will not stop. Idioms are FROZEN: you cannot swap in a synonym, so it is engolir sapos, never engolir rãs. A provérbio is a complete little sentence carrying folk wisdom, quoted whole and usually to end a discussion: mais vale prevenir do que remediar, devagar se vai ao longe, quem não arrisca não petisca, águas passadas não movem moinhos. Brazil has a huge stock of its own, many of them straight out of the farm, the street or the football field: pagar o pato, chutar o balde, descascar um abacaxi, pisar na bola, dar zebra, tirar o cavalinho da chuva, nem que a vaca tussa. Some expressions are shared with Portugal word for word; a few belong only to one side of the ocean, and this lesson tells you which is which. Learning them is what turns correct Portuguese into Portuguese that sounds like a person.
Expressões com partes do corpo e bichos — body parts and animals
Bodies and animals carry most of the load. engolir sapos = to put up with annoyances without saying anything. Engoli muito sapo naquele emprego. Always plural in the fixed phrase, though people do say engolir sapo in the singular in speech. estar com a pulga atrás da orelha = to suspect that something is off. Estou com a pulga atrás da orelha com esse contrato. In Brazil the usual verbs are estar and ficar; you will read andar com a pulga atrás da orelha in books from Portugal. falar pelos cotovelos = to talk nonstop. Ela fala pelos cotovelos. fazer das tripas coração = to dig deep, to push through something hard. Fiz das tripas coração e liguei pra ele. It conjugates freely: fiz, fez, fizemos. pagar o pato = to take the blame for something you did not do. No fim, quem pagou o pato foi o estagiário. soltar os cachorros = to lash out at someone. matar a cobra e mostrar o pau = to prove what you are claiming. cutucar a onça com vara curta = to poke the bear. comprar gato por lebre = to be sold something other than what you paid for. dar zebra = for things to go unexpectedly wrong, from the old street lottery where there is no zebra. Deu zebra no sorteio. And two you will only meet on the Portuguese side: ir aos arames = to lose your temper, which here is sair do sério, perder a cabeça or ficar uma fera; and partir um coco a rir = to laugh very hard, which here is morrer de rir, rachar de rir or chorar de rir.
Expressões de água, mar e viagem — water, sea, and getting nowhere
Water shows up wherever a plan collapses. dar com os burros n'água = to fail completely, to come away with nothing. The image is a muleteer whose animals end up in the river with the load. O projeto deu com os burros n'água. Note the fixed contraction n'água, which exists only inside this expression. ir por água abaixo = to go down the drain. Com a chuva, a festa foi por água abaixo. se afogar num copo d'água = to fall apart over something tiny. Não se afogue num copo d'água. nadar contra a maré = to swim against the current, to insist on something everyone else rejects. ficar a ver navios = to be left empty-handed, standing there while the ship sails. Brazilians understand it and write it, but in conversation you are far more likely to hear ficar na mão, ficar chupando o dedo or ficar a pé. Esperei duas horas e fiquei na mão. estar em maus lençóis = to be in trouble. chover canivete = to rain hard; up north and in Minas you will hear está caindo um toró, and everywhere está caindo o mundo. tirar o cavalinho da chuva = to give up on an idea, said to someone else: Pode tirar o cavalinho da chuva, eu não vou. pôr a mão na massa = to get to work yourself. Chega de reunião, vamos pôr a mão na massa.
Expressões de tempo, comida e vida cotidiana
Everyday life supplies the rest. custar os olhos da cara = to cost a fortune. Esse celular custou os olhos da cara. nem que a vaca tussa = no way, under no circumstances — one of the most Brazilian phrases in the language. Não vou lá nem que a vaca tussa. descascar um abacaxi = to deal with a mess somebody handed you. Sobrou pra mim descascar esse abacaxi. enfiar o pé na jaca = to overdo it, usually with food or drink. enrolar and encher linguiça = to stall, to pad something out with nothing. O texto tem duas páginas de linguiça. pisar na bola = to let someone down, to drop the ball. Desculpa, eu pisei na bola com você. estar com a faca e o queijo na mão = to have everything you need to get what you want. viajar na maionese = to be talking nonsense, to be off in your own world. segurar vela = to be the third wheel. dar um jeitinho = to find a way around a problem, the most culturally loaded phrase on this list. For 'never', Brazil says no dia de São Nunca or quando a galinha criar dentes. And pôr os pingos nos is = to set things straight, to say the uncomfortable thing clearly. Vou pôr os pingos nos is com ele hoje. Portugal says pôr os pontos nos is, with pontos; in Brazil it is pingos, and the version with pontos will sound slightly foreign here.
Provérbios — sabedoria popular condensada
Proverbs are short, fixed and usually rhymed. You quote them whole, and they often close a conversation like a lid on a pot. mais vale prevenir do que remediar = better safe than sorry; heard from doctors, mothers and insurance ads. devagar se vai ao longe = slow and steady wins the race, the patron proverb of anyone learning a language. quem não arrisca não petisca = nothing ventured, nothing gained; petiscar is to nibble at snacks, and the rhyme is the whole point. águas passadas não movem moinhos = let bygones be bygones. quem cala consente = silence gives consent. de grão em grão a galinha enche o papo = little by little the hen fills her crop; the Brazilian anthem of saving money. cão que ladra não morde = barking dogs seldom bite. casa de ferreiro, espeto de pau = the blacksmith's house has wooden skewers; the expert never fixes their own things. a pressa é inimiga da perfeição = haste is the enemy of perfection. antes tarde do que nunca = better late than never. filho de peixe, peixinho é = like father, like son. quem tem boca vai a Roma = if you can ask, you can get anywhere. santo de casa não faz milagre = nobody values the expert who lives next door. o barato sai caro = the cheap option ends up expensive. em terra de cego, quem tem um olho é rei. Do not paraphrase them and do not modernize them — a proverb half-quoted stops working.
Como usar expressões sem soar ridículo
RULE 1: RATION THEM. One idiom per stretch of talk is plenty. Three in a row sounds like a foreigner who just bought a phrasebook, and Brazilians will smile at you kindly and change the subject. RULE 2: MATCH THE REGISTER. Almost all of these are conversational. engolir sapos and pisar na bola belong with friends and with colleagues you know; they do not belong in a formal report or a job interview, unless you are being deliberately light. Proverbs sit a little higher and survive in a speech, a sermon or a piece of parental advice. RULE 3: KEEP THE FORM. Idioms are frozen phrases. You can move the verb through tenses and people — fiz das tripas coração, a gente fez das tripas coração — but you cannot change the nouns. custar os olhos da cara, never custar os olhos do rosto. RULE 4: NEVER TRANSLATE FROM ENGLISH. está chovendo gatos e cachorros means nothing here; say está chovendo canivete or está caindo um toró. Likewise, telling a Brazilian you swallowed frogs in English will get you a very long pause. RULE 5: LISTEN BEFORE YOU DEPLOY. Hearing dar zebra once, in a real conversation, at the exact moment something went wrong, plants it deeper than any list. Novelas, podcasts, samba and funk lyrics, WhatsApp voice notes and the comment section of any Brazilian video are full of them. Once you start noticing, you will not stop.
Falsos paralelos com o inglês
Some expressions look like their English cousins and behave differently. quebrar o gelo = to break the ice: same image, same meaning, and note that Brazil says quebrar, while Portugal says partir. a grama do vizinho é sempre mais verde = the grass is always greener; Portugal tells the same story with a chicken instead of grass. estar nas nuvens = to be over the moon, delighted — not the English 'head in the clouds', which here is estar com a cabeça na lua or estar voando. dar a volta por cima = to bounce back after a fall, a phrase with no crisp English twin and a whole Brazilian song behind it. bater na mesma tecla = to harp on the same point. pegar o touro à unha = to take the bull by the horns, except that Brazil grabs it bare-handed — à unha means by main force, with nothing but your hands. ter o rei na barriga = to be full of yourself. engolir sapos is NOT 'to swallow your pride' — it is closer to biting your tongue while someone else is wrong. matar dois coelhos com uma cajadada só = to kill two birds with one stone, with a shepherd's club instead of a stone. And a warning about direction: dar um jeitinho is often translated as 'to find a workaround', but the phrase carries a whole cultural argument with it, so use it lightly and never as an instruction to someone else.
