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I saw a TV segment once that featured a reporter combing Ipanema beach asking its denizens if they would have plastic surgery (if it were free), and if so, what would they have done? Many of the respondents were pretty funny, but one woman took the cake by replying “Eu teria duas. Um para o rosto, e um para o resto!” I would have two. One for my face, and one for the rest!”
Plastic surgery (cirurgia plástica) is common in wealthy, urban areas such as Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema and Leblon neighborhoods. In fact as of the year 2000 Brazil became the world’s capital for plastic surgery, now spending slightly more than the U.S. on a per capita basis.
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The Present Progressive or Continual Present tense is very useful and easy to form in Portuguese. This tense represent ongoing action in the present; its counterpart in English is the construction [subject] is [verb] - ing for example: I am running
To form this tense in Portuguese, all you need to do is employ the verb estar and the gerund of the verb you wish to use. One forms the gerund in Portuguese by dropping the ending (-ar, -er, -ir) and adding -ando, -endo, -indo respectively.
Some examples:
Estou falando; I am speaking
Ele está indo; He is going
O presidente está mandando;The president is ordering
A familia está despedindo;The family is saying goodbye
Ela está treinando;She is training
Você está fazendo;You are doing
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In Brazil, when people speak of the cultura de ficar, they are referring to the modern practice of casually displaying affection in public, and the general tendency of young people to warm up to each other rather quickly.
It is very common in Brazil for people who have just met to wildly make out if they are getting along quite well. This may seem strange to foreigners, especially with the connotations that many of us have with public displays of affections. to many this behavior implies that the couple engaging in the affection are headed off to bed in short order; this is certainly not the case in Brazil. Most of the time, the action of ficando means nothing more than hey, we seem to be getting along, let’s have some fun. Naturally, this comes across as a strange custom to many of us from less libertine societies.
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Do you have a US keyboard and want to type in Portuguese?
Blog reader David Stephensen sent in this terrific .pdf file that will take you step-by-step through the process of implementing the Portuguese language keyboard in Windows and also how to type all the accents using a standard North American-style keyboard.
The method he describes is exactly the one that I have found to be most useful. After you set up the Portuguese language (ABNT layout) for you keyboard, you can switch between English and Portuguese really easily by using the shortcut Shift + Alt. It quickly becomes second nature, as does the typing of the actual accents.
As a bonus, David includes a file listing the keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Word.
For Mac users, read this file to learn how to type accents with the Option key.
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Fica a vontade means make yourself at home. This is another very common, useful phrase, and is the centerpiece of Brazilian hospitality.
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