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Today’s post is written by André Barbosa who publishes the fantastic Brazilian Portuguese Podcast.
“Pois não” is an expression used by Brazilians as well as by the Portuguese and means “yes”, “of course”, “sure.” It’s curious, however, that this expression contains the adverb “não” (not) and means just the opposite.
“Pois não” comes from another expression: “Pois não haveria de (+ infinitive verb)”. Here’s an example on how to use it:
- João, você pode me emprestar o seu carro? (João, could you lend me your car?)
- Empresto Maria, pois não haveria de emprestar? (Yes Maria, for sure.)
Audio of the Example
“Pois não haveria de emprestar” (Wouldn’t I lend it? – literal meaning) means that João will lend his car to Pedro for sure. It’s like João assumed the obligation to do that and disapproved not doing it.
It is common in Brazil for salespeople to greet shoppers by saying “pois não?”
In the Portuguese language it is common for words and expressions to be shortened. It’s also notable that as words and expressions are shortened their original meaning tends to be lost.
So, the next time you hear or use the expression “pois não”, remember it means “yes, “of course”, “sure”.
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Denilso de Lima, a fantastic and renowned Brazilian ESL professor, has a great post today in his blog Inglês na Ponta da Língua about breakfast. Though his post is intended for Portuguese speakers, the phrases and translation Denilso provides are very useful for those learning Portuguese. Please visit his blog if you are curious to read more of his posts. He is super gente boa (a really great guy) and a real master teacher.
>Fiquei sem tomar o café-da-manhã hoje. = I skipped breakfast this morning.
> Fazer o café-da-manhã = make breakfast, fix breakfast, prepare breakfast
> Tomar o café-da-manhã = have breakfast (drink e breakfast não combinam)
> Café-da-manhã reforçado = full breakfast; proper breakfast
> Café-da-manhã nutritivo = hearty breakfast
> Café-da-manhã às pressas = hasty breakfast, hurried breakfast
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Check out this report from Daniel Bergamasco, a reporter for the Folha de São Paulo newspaper, covering last night’s New Hampshire primary.
Click here for the audio.
It is interesting to hear an explanation in Portuguese of our peculiar primary election system! And it is particularly great for me to hear a reportagem from Manchester, NH, a city close to where I live and work, and right around the corner from my family in New Hampshire.
I stayed in NH last night after voting to watch the results with fingers crossed. The fervor surrounding the election escalated as the poll returns came in, with both races ‘called’ by the networks by bedtime. It is great to see how much interest there has been in the NH election, both by the outside media and world, and also by the NH voters themselves, who last night broke all records for NH voter turnout. Parabéns, gente!
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Today’s podcast episode gives a brief introduction to the vestibular, the challenging college entrance exam in Brazil.
If you haven’t already, go ahead and view the Byki list for this podcast here, or just download the list for Windows or Mac. There is some useful vocabulary in this lesson; my favorite is sorteado, from the verb sortear (related to sorte) meaning, selected at random.
Thanks again to Adir Ferreira for writing and recording the Portuguese explanation of the vestibular!
Download Podcast
There is a lot more to the vestibular than what we covered here in this lesson. If you are interested in the topic, please explore the search results on Brazilian Google, and then come back and tell us what you learned.
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Prepare yourself for the next podcast episode! Download this (free) Byki list right now: Windows or Mac
Episode #2 of the Portuguese Blog podcast will deal with the Vestibular, a difficult entrance exam that decides who gets the vagas or openings in the elite, state-funded universities.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
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