Here’s a neat colloquial ‘hack’ in Brazilian Portuguese. Instead of using ‘talvez’ to say ‘maybe,’ you can say ‘de repente.’ De repente usually mean ‘suddenly,’ but it is commonly used, at least in Rio, as ‘maybe.’

While ‘talvez’ requires the subjunctive e.g. ‘quem sabe, talvez seja melhor ficar aqui,’ you can use ‘de repente’ with any voice.

Here’s a pretty common situation you might hear ‘de repente’ in:


João: “Você quer ir à festa na Lagoa hoje para dançar forro?”
Marcos: “Não sei, de repente a gente encontra mais gatinhas na festa lá no Centro.”

Here Marcos uses ‘de repente’ and the indicative to suggest an alternative, though dubious, plan.

Also you can use the conditional: “de repente levaria menos tempo andar na praia,” or the subjunctive: “de repente seja porque ele é chato.”

In a weird way, it kind of makes sense that ‘suddenly’ could mean ‘maybe.’ To me it’s easy for some reason to make the connection, though I admit I had no idea whatsoever what it meant the first time I heard it used. It’s pretty neat once you get the hang of it.

De repente você gosta da minha dica…

Share this on Orkut!