Yesterday I made a horrific discovery, namely that the phrase “pode ser” didn’t mean what I thought it meant. It really shook me to the core, because it was one of the stout workhorses of my vocabulary, ready to come out at a moment’s notice and bridge a gap in a sentence. As I said to my friend Márcio, who first questioned it:
Sobre “pode ser”: acreditei que significava “maybe” (talvez) mas perguntei a minha esposa e ela disse que quer dizer “It may be”, nem “maybe”.Estou em choque. Foi uma das primeiras palavras/expressões que aprendi. Sinto-me como alguém informou-me que “obrigado” não significa “Thank you” ou “bom dia” não significa “good morning”. Devo deitar uns minutos…
Luso 
Ouch 😉 It can also mean “Is that OK?”. E.g. in the context of: Let’s meet an hour earlier tomorrow, pode ser?
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Thanks L of the C! Yes, I think I probably picked it up from some context like that. Now I just have to train myself not to reach for it in conversation where a talvez would be better!
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