Meaning of bater cartão, abrir mão, haja coração and a casa caiu
Meaning of bater cartão, abrir mão, haja coração and a casa caiu
Hello there and welcome to our Portuguese Basic Tips about the meaning of bater cartão, abrir mão, haja coração and a casa caiu
On today’s podcast, we are going to speak about the meaning of bater cartão, abrir mão, haja coração and a casa caiu. It turns out that I realized that three of those expressions end with ão and I know that pronouncing them can be a little tricky for those who don’t have Portuguese as their first language. So let’s start by practicing a little bit.
Repeat with me: bater cartão / abrir mão / haja coração
Yeah! You made it!
Visit our previous Portuguese Basic Tips called Estar, andar and viver as auxiliary verbs in Portuguese
Bater cartão
In the past, employees used to mark their entry and exit times in their jobs with what we call “cartão de ponto”. That’s the same as “to punch the clock” or “to clock in” in English. Nowadays, we use this expression when we want to mean we go to a place very often. For instance:
- Eu batia cartão na casa dela (I used to go to her house very often)
- Eu estou batendo cartão naquele bar
See, I’m not working there! I’m just a regular (I go to that bar very often).
Abrir mão
Abrir mão means to give something up. You don’t need it anymore. See, we also have the expression “mão aberta”, try not to be confused about it: abrir mão means “to give up”, being a “mão aberta” guy or girl means you are a generous person.
- Ela não abriu mão dos estudos para ficar com ele. (She did not give up her classes to be with him)
- Se é tão importante para você, posso abrir mão disso (If this is so important to you, I can let it go)
Haja coração!
Here in Brazil we have a veteran announcer, who does the most important matches in Brazil and this is one of his typical phrases: haja coração, amigo!
We use it when there is something very emotional happening, good or bad. We feel our feelings with the help of our heart, right? So, we use this to say we are demanding too much from our heart.
- Ela aceitou se casar comigo. Haja coração! (She agreed to marry me and I was very moved)
- Haja coração. O Brasil quase toma um gol. (The Brazilian team almost concedes a goal)
A casa caiu
We use this one meaning something very bad happened. There is this famous song here in Brazil “aí foi que o barraco desabou / nessa que meu barco se pedeu”. See, “barraco” is a poor house in Brazil. Most people who live in “favelas”, live in “barracos”. The singer is saying that “something very sad happened to him”.
- A casa caiu, quando eu fiz aquela prova / I did that test and I was really bad
- Ela me deu um fora e a casa caiu / She walked out on me and I was really sad
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See you soon.
Thanks!
Marcos Sales
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