How to say slangy phrases in Portuguese

For example; when you would say “ugh, RUDE!” in English… you wouldn’t just say the direct translation for it in Portuguese, right? like would it be “que rude!” Does that make sense?
Also; the words for like “Cool!” I know people say “Legal” but I don’t know if it works for like every context? Does it mean just “cool” like how it can just mean “OK” or “all right” by itself or just that a person IS cool?
Also if anyone wants to tell me any useful cool slang-type phrases they know that are commonly used or maybe any cool NSFW things or insults too. (If we’re allowed to do that on here?)

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Fixe pode ser usada mais do que legal. À expressão “ela tem muito lata” quer dizer em inglês she has a lot of nerve. A formiga tem catarro quer dizer ela tem atitude ou seja ela age como ela sabe tudo
Vá se lixar quer dizer take a hike em inglês

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Uh-oh :rofl: Slang is fine, but we’ll have to keep it SFW. @cleah89, you are well informed, haha - who are you hanging out with?!

Indeed, in Portugal, we only use “fixe” for “cool”, never “legal”. “Legal” to us is only used in, well, legal contexts. “Fixe” can also be more or less used to say “OK”/“All right”.

Just one correction and a note regarding your comment, @cleah89: 1) It’s “ela tem muita lata” (not because it’s a female subject, but because “lata” is a feminine noun); 2) “Vá-se lixar” is formal. You can use it when speaking to someone you would treat as “você”. Otherwise, just use the informal “Vai-te lixar” (to one person only). For two or more people, whether informal or formal, “Vão-se lixar”.

Let me think of more stuff we can say… Any specific sentences you’d like to have translated, @nicolebgarcia?

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One of the phrases I’ve taken to using (which gets me quite a few weird looks), is “O que estas tu fazer?” to mean something along the lines of, “What’s up?” or “How’s it going?”. I know that “Tudo bem?” is the more traditional greeting per se, but I thought it could use some spicing up! (I mean, I am Indian. Spices are sorta what we do! :man_shrugging:)

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Haha, yes, the weird looks are normal, because it doesn’t fit as a greeting. It can come along with the greeting, but it’s an actual question you’d expect an answer to, not just a “Hey” that you can sort of retribute and move on. Some casual ways of saying “Hi, what’s up?” include “Olá, então?”, “Que tal?”, “Como é que é?”, etc. Not everyone can pull them all off, though!

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Cheers, thanks for that! Might try working some into my language and see how it goes!

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I remember seeing it used a lot on translated shows. That’s where I got “Legal” from. Is that maybe a Brazilian thing? ALSO If I google translate the word cool into Portuguese it says “Legal” :confused:
Using Portuguese will make me feel dumb 100% of the time unless the person I am speaking to knows less than me haha

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Yes “legal” is very much a Brazilian word. In Portugal it’s always “fixe”.

Google translate is for Brazilian Portuguese so it’s not going to help you too much when it comes to informal/slang European Portuguese.

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What @gautam.newalkar said :upside_down_face:

Some extra slang for you guys:

  • Just like people might say “dude” or “lad” instead of guy, man or another boring substitute, we can say gajo in Portuguese, or gaja for the chicks. Some girls react negatively to the word gaja, but it has no negative connotation per se.

  • To say “yes” or “that’s right”, instead of a simple Sim, you’ll hear lots of people say Ya all the time. Sounds exactly like the German ja.

  • Older men seem obsessed with this meaningless filler word: (or Epá). People of all ages use it, but they somehow manage to squeeze it in a million times more per sentence. Something like this:
    “Epá, hoje está muito calor, pá. Não percebo, pá”, says Alpha Grandpa 1. (Man, it’s really hot today, man. I don’t get it, man.)
    “Sim, pá, é a vida, pá. Pá. Pá pá pá… (ad infinitum)”, says Super Sayan Old Taxi Driver. (Yeah, man, that’s life, man. Man man man…)

  • When you want to let out an angry “Damn it!”, you have a few options, listed from mildest to wildest (within PG-13 standards): Caramba! (no young person uses this, unless they’re not cool) >> Fogo! >> Chiça! >> Porra! (can sound a lot dirtier in Brazil)

Young people also mix lots of American English into their casual conversations, including colloquialisms and slang. Blame all the youtubers and whatnot.

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Legal is totally Brazilian. I learnt ‘ fixe’ from my partner’s kids

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I love hearing ‘ fogo’, my partner says this every time we drive, but the roads and drivers are ‘ malouco’ ( crazy)

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Oh, yes, driving in Portuguese roads can be an adrenaline-filled experience. And yet, I’ve seen even worse in a couple other European countries, to my surprise!

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Epá, como tenho quase sesenta anos, pá, já realizei que tinha de começar usar a “pá” muito mais frequentamente, pá!!! Muitos agredecimentos, pá! :man_white_haired: :sunglasses:

Thanks so much for that post, @Joseph – I love “fogo!” and “chiça!” as frustrated exclamatories.

Two English/American forms that I heard a lot in Portugal, including from a couple of our immersion teachers was “TOP!” and “Top dollar!”, the latter of which I found really kind of funny because its meaning is Portugal was for something that was really excellent instead of really (perhaps ostentatiously so) expensive.

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To this day, we in Goa use ‘chiça’ and ‘fogo’ in our local dialect, konkani! We have borrowed many words from Portuguese and use those on a daily basis without even realising it! I believe even ‘giro’ is used like ‘fixe’?
‘Vamos lá!’ (Come on!) or ‘vamos lá indo’ is also frequently used i believe?

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I agree – I’ve heard (and then used) “giro” in the same was as “fixe” in Portugal and by/with Portuguese speakers in the USA. And certainly “Vamos lá!” is pretty broadly used. Good ones, @jodias27!!!

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Yes, I can also confirm the same about “giro” and “vamos lá” :slight_smile: I wouldn’t consider “Vamos lá” slang, though. Something like “Bora lá” (also meaning “come on”, “let’s go”, “let’s do this”) would be slangier. “Vamos lá indo” is not commonly used.

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There is also a lot of slang that originates mainly from Angola which is in use in Portugal. I have been taught by my Portuguese friends such words as:

  • Cena - Thing; equal to ‘coisa’.
  • Pitéu - Food; equal to ‘comida’.
  • Pitar - To eat; equal to ‘comer’.
  • Bué - Many, much, a lot, very; equal to both muitos and muito. Similar to the way “bare” is used in England, or “mad/hella” is used in the States. “Aquela camisola é bué de fixe”… “Há bué carros nesta estrada”.
  • Cota - Father, or older person of respect. I’m not too sure how this term is viewed though?
  • Basar - To leave; equal to ‘ir embora’. “Vamos basar” is perhaps similar to saying “Let’s bounce”.
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I think this is barely slang, maybe more a colloquialism, but I notice people answering the phone “Tou”, as in “Tou Maria” or “Tou João”. I think it’s just a shortened contraction of “estou” - is it used anywhere else besides answering a phone?

Edit to add another question: How do Portuguese women feel about “mulher” normally being used as “wife” instead of “esposa”? Do they care at all? In the US at least, I think there is often a negative connotation in referring to your wife or partner as “Woman” or “my woman”.

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@mrchasi, great post. I’ll just add that cena can be used as a sort of exclamation (whether positive or negative), like “Wow, que cena!” or “Grande cena!”. Also, it should be bazar, with Z, not S. Not sure that all of that originates from Angola, but I can confirm that it’s all part of our current slang.

@spacemanbananas, you’re right, 'tou is just a shortened form of estou, not slang. Anytime you’d say estou, you could say 'tou. It’s comparable to “I am” vs. “I’m”, except that 'tou is better reserved for informal contexts.

To answer your other question, this is coming from a male perspective, so take it with a grain of salt, but I think there is no implied sexism in the word mulher (for wife) for the average Portuguese woman. Nor is there any for the average Portuguese man who uses that term. Some women also say o meu homem (my man) instead of o meu marido (my husband), but usually only in very casual settings. For those of either gender who are bothered by the term mulher, esposa is a perfectly fine alternative. Both words are well in use.

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Hi everyone! I know this is an old post, but I just wanted to let you know that we added a unit on Portuguese slang: https://www.practiceportuguese.com/units/main/slang/ :sunglasses:

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