The Meanings of The Verb “Ficar” in Brazilian Portuguese

Here are some meanings of the Portuguese verb “Ficar”:

1. TO REMAIN / STAY

Ontem fiquei em casa – Yesterday I stayed home.

2. TO TAKE UP ACCOMMODATION

-Onde você vai ficar no Rio? – Where are you going to stay in Rio?

– Vou ficar em um hotel em Copacabana. – I’m going to stay in a hotel in Copacabana.

3. TO BE SITUATED OR LOCATED

 
– Onde fica o banheiro, por favor? Where is the bathroom, please?

– Fica no final do corredor, à esquerda. – It’s at the end of the corridor, on the left.

4. TO BECOME

Eu fiquei feliz com a noticia. – I got/became happy with the news.

5. TO FIT / TO SUIT (“Ficar Bem”)

 
Este chapéu fica bem em você. – This hat looks good on you.

6. TO AGREE

Ficamos de partir no dia seguinte. – We agreed to set out the next day.

7. TO KEEP / RETAIN

Fique com o troco. – Keep the change.

8. TO BE POSTPONED (“Ficar Para”)

A reunião vai ficar para amanhã. – The meeting will be postponed to tomorrow.

9. TO RUN OUT OF SOMETHING (“Ficar Sem”)

Ontem, no parque, fiquei sem dinheiro. – Yesterday, at the park, I ran out of money.

10. TO “HOOK UP” / HAVE A CASUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH SOMEONE

‘ficar’ can also be the verb ‘to hook up,’ or mean an extra friendly type of casual relationship. Ficar is like a pre-relationship act.

MORE EXAMPLES

Ela ficou com o melhor. – She had the best of it.
Ela ficou mais moderada. – She came down a peg or two.
Ela ficou séria. – Her face became serious.

Ele ficou com medo. – He got scared.

Ele ficou fora de si. – He was taken out of himself.

Ele ficou impune. – He went unpunished.

Ele ficou sentido. – He took it to heart.

Ele ficou zangado. – He got angry.

Eu tinha ficado dias sem comer. – I had not tasted food for days.

ficar afastado – to stay away.

ficar ajoelhado – to remain on one’s knees.

ficar à toa – to be idle / with nothing to do.

ficar atrás/para trás – to stay behind.

ficar ausente – to stay away / absent.

ficar à vontade – to make oneself comfortable.

ficar bem/mal

ficar de boca aberta – to stand gaping.

ficar de fora – to be left out.

ficar de joelhos – to kneel.

ficar em casa – to stay home.

ficar em pé – a) to be standing up.

ficar em volta de alguém – to hang around a person.

ficar ensopado – to become soaking wet.

ficar fora – to stay out.

ficar grudado – to stick.

ficar inteirado – to be informed.

ficar junto – to stick or stay together.

ficar louco – to go crazy.

ficar molhado – to get wet.

ficar pálido – to turn pale.

ficar parado – to stand still / be unemployed.

ficar por aí – to hang around.

ficar quieto – to be quiet.

ficar sabendo – to hear, realize, find out

ficar sem dinheiro – to run out of cash, to be broke.

ficar tonto – to get dizzy.

Fico responsável por isso. – I’ll answer for it / be responsible for it.

Fiquei doente. – I got sick.

Fiquei mais tempo do que ele. – I stayed longer than him.

Não ficou nada. – There was nothing left.

Não fique triste. – Don’t be sad.

A pipa ficou presa numa árvore. – The kite got stuck in a tree.

Pode ficar com o troco. – You can keep the change.

Via Fun With Brazilian Portuguese

Portugese Word of The Day: “Desencadear”

Here’s the Portuguese word of the day! If you have any words that you would like to nominate for this word of the day series, let me know! portugueseblogger@gmail.com

“DESENCADEAR”

desencadear – to trigger, initiate, provoke, unleash

Here are some news headlines that i found using the word “desencadear“:

“Livro polêmico desencadeia protesto de judeus ortodoxos em Jerusalém.” – “Contriversial book triggers protest of orthodox jews in Jerusalem.”

“Sexo pode desencadear infarto em sedentários” – “Sex can provoke a heart attack in sedentary people.”

Portuguese Verb Of The Day – Afrouxar

Here’s the Portuguese word of the day! If you have any words that you would like to nominate for this word of the day series, let me know! portugueseblogger@gmail.com

“AFROUXAR”

afrouxar – to loosen, slacken, ease, alleviate (especially when talking about rules, laws or regulations)

“Governo federal vai afrouxar controle sobre obras da Copa e das Olimpíadas.” – The federal government is going to loosen control over the works for the World Cup and the Olympics.

The Difference Between “Ser” and “Estar” in Brazilian Portuguese

The fact that there are two words in Portuguese that mean “to be”, ser and estar, can baffle some English speakers at first. How am I supposed to know the difference? you may wonder. First off, don’t get aggravated about it because every language has its own special characteristics that don’t seem reasonable. After all languages are not exact sciences. Therefore, here are some tips on how to differentiate ser and estar but again they’re not written in stone.

Ser indicates permanent situations, as in the following examples.

• sou brasileiro / sou brasileira – I am Brazilian
• ele é enfermeiro – he is a nurse.
• são muito inteligentes – they are very smart

Ser is used to identify someone or ones self, for professions and nationalities/origin, personality and physical traits, possession, time (São duas da tarde – It’s 2PM), and impersonal expressions (É bom viajar – It’s good to travel)

Estar, on the other hand, describes temporary conditions.

• estou com frio – I am cold
• ela está doente – she is sick
• estamos atrasados – we are late

Estar is used for location, emotions and temporary physical states, and with the progressive tenses (estou comendo – i’m eating).

Pay attention to the nuances:

Eduardo é doente – Eduardo is a sick man (maybe mentally sick in a crazy way, or he has had a persistent disease for all his life

VS.

Eduardo está doente – Eduardo is sick (now, he caught a cold or something)

Sou optimista – I’m optimistic (it’s my nature)

VS.

Estou optimista – I’m optimistic (right now, about a particular thing situation)

ALSO:

In Brazilian Portuguese, the word “estou” is very often shortened to just tô, and the word “esta” becomes tá.” In this blog, I will often give examples in written sentences where I use the shortened forms tô and tá just because it sounds more natural to me.

So, if you’d like to sound as a Brazilian, follow this table (the second column is the correct grammar, the third column is the way we speak) :

eu	estou	tô
vocêele/ela a gente	está	tá
nós	estamos	tamos
vocêseles/elas	estão	tão

Examples:

• Como você tá? – How are you?
• O que Francisco tá fazendo? – What is Francisco doing?
• Tá Ligado?
  

How To Say You Are Having Fun In Portuguese

If you are trying to say that you are having fun, or having a good time in Brazilian Portuguese, there are several ways to express this:

1. Curtir

This verb is slang for “to have fun” or “to enjoy.” It’s frequently used by young people to talk about going out and having a good time.

Curtimos muito a festa ontem. We had a lot of fun at the party yesterday.

Vou curtir muito o feriado. I’m going to enjoy the holiday.

*”curtir” is also the word that Facebook in Brazil has used for the “like” button

2. Aproveitar

This verb literally means “to take advantage of” but can also be used to mean “have a good time” or “have fun.”

Aproveitaram muito a viagem. They had a lot of fun on their trip.

Você aproveitou o passeio no barco? Did you have fun on the boat ride?

3. Divertir-se

This verb is the standard verb used to mean “to have fun.”

Me diverti muito no Rio. I had a lot of fun in Rio.

Ele se divertiu no jogo. He had fun at the game.

Expressions With “Poder”

First of all, let’s differentiate that the Brazilian word for power is poder when referring to authority or force (poder is also the verb for “to be able to”). When referring to electrical power, Brazilians say energia elétrica. Here are some expressions using the word poder:

sede de poder – lust for power (literally: “thirst for power”)

abuso de poder – abuse of power

falta de energia, apagão – power outage, blackout

“milhares de casas ficaram sem energia elétrica.” – “thousands of homes were left without power.”

Expressions with the Verb “Dar”

The use of the verb Dar to give with the alternate meaning to be possibleis ubiquitous in Brazil.

Using dar in this manner is different from using poder; dar indicates possibility and likelihood of an occurrence in an impersonal way. Poder serves to specify literal ability: he can complete the task, it is believable, ‘I can get from here to there by bike’ and so forth. Dar is better used to say it will work, it will be possible, ‘this will work with my plans’, ‘there will be enough time’ etc.

 

Examples:

Vai dar pra você reunir um pouquinho mais tarde? Can you meet a little later?
Dá para ele comprar mais duas? Can he buy two more?

 

Here’s some further clarification; let’s look at the following sentences both translating as Can you let me know this afternoon?

Pode me avisar hoje na tarde?
Dá pra você me avisar hoje na tarde?

In the first, using poder the meaning is just like the English translation and informally has the subtext Hey, do you mind letting me know this afternoon? I’d appreciate it as opposed to the second sentence, which implies that there is some doubt as to the possibility of letting the person know. It would therefore mean either Is it going to be possible for you to get this information today by the close of business? or Will you have time to give me a call with this information later?

 

The verb dar is extremely useful, as you can see, and as I stated earlier is used with overwhelming frequency in everyday life. Some forms of the verb are irregular, so let me list a couple here for your clarity of use:

 

Eu dou. I give (1st person singular, present tense)
Ele dá . He gives (3rd person singular, present tense)
The subjunctive of is highly irregular and I plan on doing another post about those forms.

 

The past participle of dar, ‘dado’ is quite common and when simply used as an adjective means given, as in os fatos dados the given facts.

 

dar para – referring to having (or not having talent for something (ter talento).
Example: “eu não dou para matemática.” – “I don’t have talent for math.”

dar para – when referring to a location that “overlooks” something (localização).

Example: “a janela do quarto dá para o mar.” – “the bedroom window overlooks the sea.”

 

dar para – when referring to whether something is possible or not (ser possível)

Example: “não dá para comprar este carro. É muito caro.” – “i can’t buy this car (it’s not possible to buy this car). It’s too expensive.”

 

dar bom-dia/boa noite/boa tarde/tchau – in Portuguese, while you can say goodbye (falar tchau) you can also give goodbye (dar tchau) etc. and it means the same thing…

Example: “ele me deu boa-tarde quando me viu.” – “he said good-afternoon when he saw me.”

 

dar certo/errado – referring to whether or  not a situation or a plan worked out or not (ter um determinado resultado)

Example: “A receita não deu certo.” – “the recipe didn’t work out.”

 

dar um susto/tapa/beijo etc. – to scare or frighten someone, to hit someone, or to kiss someone:

Examples: “ele me deu um susto!” – literally: “he gave me a scare!” means: “he scared me!”

“ela me deu um beijo.” – “she kissed me.”

“ele me deu um tapa!” – “he hit me!”

 

dar-se bem/mal com – to get along with (or not get along with) someone:

Example: “eu me dou bem com o meu irmão.” – “i get allong well with my brother.”

 

Other Expressions:

a menina deu gritos – the girl cried out. 

dá na mesma – it’s all the same.  

dar alta – to discharge (from a hospital).

dar a mão à palmatória – to admit of being wrong.

dar as boas-vindas a – to welcome, extend a welcome to.

dar as caras – to show up.

dar cabo de – to kill.

dar com a língua nos dentes – to blab, tattle, spill the beans.

dar de cara com – to bump into.

dar de ombros – to shrug.

dar duro – to work hard.

dar em alguém – to beat, thrash someone.

dar em nada – to come to nothing.

dar margens a dúvidas – to admit of a doubt.

dar murro em ponta de faca – to commit oneself to a difficult and dangerous task.

dar na vista – to strike the eye.

dar no pé, dar o fora – to take off.

dar pancadas – to lay blows.

dar passagem – to step aside, make way for.

dar por falta de – to miss.

dar-se conta de – to awaken to, realize.

dar-se por vencido – to give in, yield.

dar-se pressa – to make haste.

dar tento de – to see, notice.

dar uma de doente – to feign illness.

dar uma volta – to take a stroll.

dar um fora – to dump, get rid of someone.

dar um jeito – to manage, find a way to do something.

dar um passeio – to take a walk.

dar vantagens a – to give points to.

dar voltas – to walk around, or to beat around the bush.

dê o fora! – get out of here!

deram parte à polícia – they informed the police.

deu-me na cabeça escrever – I took it into my head to write.

ele dá a impressão de estar envergonhado – he has an air of being ashamed of himself.

ele foi dar um passeio – he went for a walk.

eles lhe deram uma lição – they taught him better.

eles não deram ouvidos à mulher – they paid no attention to the woman.

isto dá uma idéia – it gives an idea.

isto lhe dá muito trabalho – it gives him a lot trouble.

não darei o braço a torcer – I will not yield.

não se dar por achado – to feign ignorance, play dumb.

o crime deu o que falar – the crime was much talked about.

o navio deu contra o recife – the ship struck the reef.

o relógio deu cinco horas – the clock struck five.

para dar e vender – plenty of.

para o que der e vier – through thick and thin.

vamos dar um fim nisso – let’s put an end to it.

To Bring / To Take – Levar Vs. Trazer

In Portuguese, the verbs levar and trazer may be confusing to some people. Levar (to take) is used to indicate a movement away from the speaker or the place where the speaker is at the moment of speaking while trazer (to bring) is used to indicate a movement toward the speaker or the place where the speaker is at the moment of speaking. If used to indicate a movement, levar (to take) is followed by the preposition lá/ali (there) while trazer (to bring) is followed by the preposition aqui (here). The preposition is often omitted, but try to use it at least mentally in order to make it easier to distinguish both and not misuse them. Another note, if you are talking about bringing or taking a person somewhere, use levar and not trazer. Levar is used to talk about human beings.

Examples:

“eu vou levar o computador lá.” – “i’m going to take the computer there.”

“ela vai trazer o celular aqui.” – “she’s going to bring the cell phone here.

“levei o dinheiro lá para pagar a conta.” – “i took the money there to pay the bill.”

“foi ele que trouxe a roupa suja aqui.” – “he was the one who brought the dirty clothes here.”

“eu levei o bolo para a festa.” – “i took the cake to the party.”

“minha tia trouxe a feijoada para a minha festa.” – “my aunt brought feijoada to my party.”

“vou levar um presente para meu amigo no Brasil. Quando ele vier aos Estados Unidos, ele vai trazer um presente para mim.” – “i’m going to take a present to my friend in Brazil. When he comes to the US, he’s going to bring me a present.”

Verb Lessons: How to Say “To Find Out” in Portuguese

How do you say “to find out” or “i found out that…” in Brazilian Portuguese? This one admittedly took me a while to figure out. From what i could ascertain, there are two ways to express “finding out” something in Portuguese:

1. ficar sabendo (de/que…) – literally: “to become knowing about…” really means, ” to find out. For example:

“eu fiquei sabendo que você não presta” – “i found out that you are useless.”

*Keep in mind you may also see “chegar a saber” – literally means: “to arrive to know,” which can mean to find out about something but it can also be used to convey a sense of something you came to know, or knew at one moment in time. For example: “eu já cheguei a saber, mas entretanto me esqueci” – “i already came to know (or knew) that, but i forgot.”

2. descobrir – This is the Portuguese verb meaning “to discover.” But if you say: “eu descobri que…” it is like saying: “i found out that…”

Verb Lessons: Imperative Verbs in Portuguese

Portuguese Imperative Verbs

Imperative verbs are commands. Imperatives are a strange beast in Portuguese. An imperative is a way of forming a verb to add emphasis. It is used for commands and orders, instructions (for example in recipes) and to sell products in advertising or in speech to stress what you want somebody else to do or understand. In other words, it’s what you think is “imperative” for other people to act on.

If you never studied English grammar, I’m sure you’ve never stopped to think about them before. This is because in English imperative verbs take the same form as normal verbs, there is no distinction. When we say: “they read the instructions” and “read the instructions!” even though the word “read” has different meanings and stress, it physically stays the same.

Forming Imperative Verbs In Brazilian Portuguese:

In Portuguese, to form the imperative, you change the endings of verbs like this: with -ar verbs, drop the -ar and put an -e on the end, and with  -er or -ir verbs, drop the -er/-ir ending and end the verb with an -a. So, in the imperative…

-ar verbs –> end in -e

-er or -ir verbs –> end in -a

Examples:

olhe! – look! (from the verb olhar)
pare! – stop! (from the verb parar)
sente! – sit! (from the verb sentar) “sente-se!” – “sit down!”
coma! – eat! (from the verb comer)

aproveite! – enjoy! or “take advantage!” (of a good situation) (from the verb aproveitar)
relaxe! – relax! (from the verb relaxar)
aprenda! – learn! (from the verb aprender)
sonhe! – dream! (from the verb sonhar) “sonhe grande” – “dream big”

*You will notice that stop signs in Brazil say “PARE” – the imperative of the verb parar – to stop.

Irregular Imperatives

The imperative of ser (to be) is seja. For example: “seja bem-vindos” – literally: “be welcomed,” means “welcome!”

The imperative of estar (to be) is esteja. For example: “esteja aqui as 5 horas” – “be here at 5 o’clock.”

The imperative of vim (to come) is venha. For example: “venha cá” – Come here

The imperative of ir (to go) is vá. For Example: “vá agora!” – “go now!”