Portuguese · 10 phrases
The Basics
The first hour of Portuguese: the words you'll hear before you've found your hotel. "Porra" as punctuation, "Nossa" for everything, "caramba" when kids are watching, "merda" when they aren't. Learn these eight and you'll follow half of any Brazilian conversation — and the severity dial ("-inho" softer, "-ão" harder) that runs through all of them.
Caramba! kah-RAHM-bah Wow! / Geez! / Holy cow! Droga! DROH-gah Darn! / Damn it! Nossa! NOH-sah Oh my! / Wow! / Geez! Bosta! BOSS-tah Crap! / (a) piece of garbage Cacete! kah-SEH-chee Damn! / Bloody hell! — also 'a ton' as 'pra cacete' Merda! MEHR-dah Shit! / Crap! Puta calor POO-tah kah-LOR A hell of a ___ (as an intensifier before a noun) Que sacanagem! sah-kah-NAH-zhang That's so unfair! / What a low blow! Caralho! kah-RAH-lyoo Fuck! / Hell! — exclamation and all-purpose intensifier Porra! POH-hah Damn! / Fuck! — but mostly used as pure punctuation