Posts from September 2007

Brazil in Google Earth

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Sep 26 2007

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Explore Brazil (and the whole world for that matter) in 3-D right from your computer!

Google Earth is a fantastic free tool developed by those geniuses out on the West Coast that allows the user to virtually explore the entire world! Successfully leveraging user-generated content, you can enhance your personal copy of Google Earth to include incredible levels of detail, in many cases right down to the buildings themselves (at least in major cities).

Though Google Earth doesn’t come with such detail, it is easily attainable through the user forums in the form of KMZ files; check out this amazing Rio de Janeiro content pack which includes almost every neighborhood in Rio, in addition to thousands of businesses and points of interest. Truly breathtaking! You can even zoom in and enjoy topographical views.

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How to Say Dude in Portuguese

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Sep 25 2007


Dude! Man! Mate! Bro!

For many learners who are seeking to speak the informal Portuguese of Brazil, the following vocabulary items are an absolute ‘must.’ Though the terms vary from region to region, a firm grasp of these words will help the casual Portuguese speaker fit in and make friends in no time.

  • Cara dude: Rio de Janeiro
  • Meu Buddy: São Paulo
  • Meu rei Lit: my king; buddy: Bahia
  • Mano Bro: São Paulo (and beyond)
  • Rapaz Guy: everywhere
  • Broder Brother: Bahia, Ipanema and beyond
  • Mané Dude (slightly aggressive): Rio de Janeiro
  • Malandro Lit: street hustler; Dude: Rio de Janeiro
  • Mermão Lit: my brother; Bro: Rio de Janeiro
  • Cabra Lit: goat; Dude: Nordeste

The Sound of X (part 2)

Posted by Transparent Language No Comments
Sep 25 2007

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In a previous post, I discussed the sound of the letter ‘X’ in Portuguese. This polyphonic letter can trip up many non-native Portuguese speakers, and there are no hard and fast rules regarding its pronunciation.

In this post I’d like to show some more common uses of the letter X as well as some words that include the letter that you might see frequently.

The first example always makes me smile. In Brazil it is very common to see a X-Burguer on the menu of a restaurant or bar. When I first saw this I imagined that the particular establishment I was in was featuring some sort of ‘extreme’ sandwich, perhaps with some daredevilish combination of pimenta and mayo! Alas it turns out the the X-Burguer, unlike the X-Games and the X-Prize, is quite tame; the X is short for ‘cheese!’ The letter X in Portuguese is pronounced by itself as ‘shis,’ and so ‘X-Burguer’ literally is pronounced something like ‘cheeseburger‘ in English!

Here are some words that start with X that are pretty common.

  • Xô (Sho) Shoo. Quite common are t-shirts with the phrase ‘Xô Stress!’ that Brazilians buy on vacation
  • Xerox (Share-ocks) Generic word for paper copier, or for a copy store, particularly at a university
  • Xangô (Shango) Afro-Brazilian deity
  • Xixi (shee-shee) ‘wee-wee’ dimunitive for bodily function numero 1

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GloboRadio

Posted by Transparent Language No Comments
Sep 21 2007

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GloboRadio is the broadcasting giant O Globo‘s new online radio portal.

Offering 30+ different radio stations for free (you can stream the audio through your browser), GloboRadio has programming for almost every imaginable taste. From Pop/Rock stations that place American favorites alongside Brazilian classics to Latin, Gospel, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Bossa Nova and more, you are sure to find a sound that suits you.

Those of us who like to listen to music during the workday really have a good resource in GloboRadio. I like the main station, Globo FM whose motto is Você não ouve, você sente You don’t hear it, you feel it. Even when they play non-Brazilian music it is still a gas to hear the ‘bumper’ material in Portuguese. It is a neat ‘passive learning’ tool.

1000 Words You Already Know in Portuguese

Posted by Transparent Language No Comments
Sep 20 2007

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Did you know that you can use a large swath of your English vocabulary in Portuguese?

It is no secret that Portuguese is a Romance Language and that it shares many cognates with languages such as French, Italian, Spanish and English. Since this blog focuses on helping English speakers learn Portuguese, let’s dive into an examination of some different categories of English/Portuguese cognates. [I will save the caveats for the end of the article]

1. Nouns of Quality – Words ending in ‘TY’

Take an English noun ending in ‘TY’ replace the ‘TY’ with ‘DADE‘ to form (in many cases) the correct Portuguese word. It is worth noting that these resulting Portuguese nouns are generally female.

  • CIDADE = CITY
  • VELOCIDADE = VELOCITY
  • SIMPLICIDADE = SIMPLICITY
  • NATURALIDADE = NATURALITY
  • CAPACIDADE = CAPACITY

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