Increasing Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary

A new podcast for increasing Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary

Welcome to our Portuguese Basic Tips 69 (in English) called Increasing Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary

On today’s podcast, we are going to learn 3 new expressions in Portuguese. This is a good way for increasing Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary: step by step.

So let’s get started:

Visit our previous episode called Meaning of dinheiro de pinga and other expressions in Portuguese

Elas por elas

Yeah, we only use this expression in the feminine form. I’ll repeat it for you: elas por elas.

We use this expression when we mean that nothing has changed, even after a certain event.

For instance:

• Eu perdi muito dinheiro no início do ano. Agora, ficou tudo “elas por elas”. ( I lost a lot of money earlier in the year. Now, it added up to the same thing)
• Tenho muitos amigos e muitos inimigos: fica tudo elas por elas. (I have a lot of friends and I have a lot of enemies. It makes no difference in the end)

Trabalhar por conta

When we say that someone “trabalha por conta”, we mean that he has his own business.  Actually, you can hear both: trabalhar por conta or trabalhar por conta própria.

Let’s see a few examples:

• Desde que saí do meu último emprego, estou trabalhando por conta. (I have my own business, since I left my last job).
• Ela decidiu trabalhar por conta própria por causa da crise. (She decided to work on her own because of the crisis)

Engolir um elefante e se engasgar com mosquito

This is a popular Brazilian saying that I’ll try to explaing to you. First, try and repeat that with me: engolir um elefante e se engasgar com um mosquito. Yeah! You are correct!

Let’s an example:

• Al Capone foi preso pelo crime mais bobo, dentre todos os que cometeu. Engoliu um elefante e se engasgou com um mosquito

I really don’t know how to translate that. In a non-literal translation we have: Al Capone was arrested for the most silly crime, among all those he has committed.

See: he was a gangster! However, he was arrested because of tax evasion, not because of his most brutal crimes.

Of course an elephant is bigger than a mosquito, so it sounds surreal that someone can go unpunished by eating such a large animal and having no consequences because of it. In the meantime, the same person is surprised to choke on a mosquito.

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Click here to visit a Portuguese website with a few “proverbs”

That’s enough for today.

I hope you like it.

See you next time.

Thanks!

Marcos Sales

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