Another mildly annoying example of terrible design here – the PeF online course doesn’t allow enough space in the box to fill in all the missing words. Buuuu
Português em Foco
Category: English
What the hell is this?
This sentence flummoxed me for two reasons. Firstly because the overall gist didn’t seem to make any sense and secondly the grammar was baffling. I had to ask an expert to explain some it to me.
It’s from Uma Aventura nas Férias da Pascoa, and the lady who’s speaking is exasperated that some kids are making a lot of noise outside her door. The “Francamente!” is there to underscore her disapproval.
Let’s do the grammar first.
So firstly, obviously, we have the usual anglophone confusion of “gente” meaning people but it’s a singular word because of course it is. That’s pretty basic though, so didn’t throw me too badly.
“Pegue” is subjunctive present. Why? Good question. It seems to be a statement about the general qualities of something, nested in a dependent clause, but it doesn’t fit neatly into my subjunctive flowchart, even though it’s recognisably the same kind of sentence structure as sentences that do. I think that’s because “por onde” (“at where”) is doing the job that would normally be done by “que”. [Caveat – I’m pretty sure I’m right about this but didn’t specifically ask so I might be misunderstanding why they’ve used this tense]
And finally, the pronouns, se and lhe right after each other. Lhe means “them” but it is singular because – again – it’s referring to gente, and se is present as an indefinite pronoun*, which is a hard concept to grasp in English. I’ve had a stab at it in this post, but I’m sure it wouldn’t hold up to much scrutiny from an expert.
So if you were to translate it word-for-word in the most literal way possible, the whole sentence is something like “These young people don’t have a place at which one might get hold of them”. Well, that could refer to something that’s so dirty that we’re afraid to touch it for fear of getting our hands dirty, but here it’s referring to people so it must be some sort of expression, right?
The expression “não ter ponta por onde se lhe pegue”, or “estar sem ponta por onde se pegue” or variations of either, seem to be translated as “to be utter nonsense” on bab.la, and I can see it used in roughly the same way in a few places around the interwebs.
What would be an equivalent expression in English? Since it’s talking about getting a hold of something, I guess something like “I can’t get a handle on it” would be pretty close. It’s not an exact equivalent though, since if you “can’t get a handle on” something in English, you’re leaving open the possibility that you just aren’t clever enough to understand, whereas this is more in the direction of “it can’t be understood, because it doesn’t make any sense”.
More than anything else, what impressed me is that it has been ages since I have come across a sentence that has caused me this much puzzlement, and yet this is a book written for children!
Well done, you’ve made it this far. Reward yourself with this music video.
*I has a query about this so here’s a bit of self-justification! First of all, I wrote “impersonal” in the first draft of this which isn’t quite the right word so I’m sorry I got that wrong. “One” is an indefinite pronoun and in very correct, posh english you use it… ahem… or rather “one uses it” as a neutral pronoun when one wants to use a verb in a very general way, without having anyone specific in mind. I think that’s the closest analogue of what “se” is doing here. Priberam defines it as a “pronome indefinido” (4th and 5th definitions here) and this page gives more detail although confusingly refers to it as a partícula (particle) which I think is incorrect. Or at least in english a pronoun isn’t a particle, but maybe portuguese grammarians have a slightly different taxonomy…?
Atabalhoadamente
Oof, it’s a bit of a mouthful, this, isn’t it? I had to have about 5 attempts to get it.
It means hurriedly and carelessly. They’re yanking out ceiling tiles in a rush and I’m a disorderly way.
Another one from Uma Aventura nas Férias de Páscoa, and no, I don’t know why I’m writing in English either.
Tallinn Calling
So I think I mentioned I’ve been doing map and flag quizzes in portuguese to try and boost both my knowledge of geography and to familiarise myself with the names of countries in portuguese. One of them is Worldle, which has one daily map for users to guess, and then asks follow-up questions about language, flag, capital etc. Today’s happened to be a country that looked familiar.
I have questions though.
First of all, have the Açores and Madeira drifted a lot since I last checked? What are they doing just off the coast there? Could you swim from Coimbra to Funchal?
But the language round was even weirder. The first language is easy enough, obviously, but the second?
As you can see from the screenshot, I tried Galego and Mirandês as the two other native languages. Actually I think I might have wrong to choose Galego because I think it’s spoken on the Spanish side of the border, but Mirandês has a proper linguistic community in the North-East of Portugal and I think has a claim to be the second language of Portugal. The other two languages given on Wikipedia are Barranquenho and Minderico, neither of which I’d even heard of.
As for non-native languages, I’d probably have guessed English, French or Spanish. There’s been an upsurge in refugees recently (eg from Ukraine – roughly 60000) and economic migrants (probably mainly from other lusophone countries like Brasil and Angola) but I’m pretty sure if you added together the British immig… er sorry “expats” (50000), Americans (10000) and people from various other anglophone countries, plus the fact that the portuguese education system seems to be doing an amazing job of teaching English as a second language, English must be pretty high on the list. Then there are quite a few Italian, French and Spanish migrants, and a few years ago there was a massive uptick of venezuelans, descendents of Portuguese migrants, returning home to escape the benefits of that socialist utopia, so I ended up guessing Spanish as my third and final option.
The answer they give is Estonês. I was estonêsed… er… I mean astonished, but I didn’t want to write it off so I did a bit of research to see if there really was a huge Estonian diaspora in Portugal.
Nope. Estonians are 86th on the list of immigrants by country according to the chart on this page. So what’s going on?
My first guess was that the person who made the pages picked from a list of languages and espanhol and estonês were just next to each other alphabetically, so maybe he just clicked on the wrong one. However, my brother does the same quiz in English and he was surprised to see Estonian pop up as the second language of Portugal too. Estonian and Spanish definitely aren’t next to each other in an alphabetical list of English language place names, so my theory looked shaky.
Digging further, languageknowledge.eu reckons 1.89 percent of the population of Portugal speak Estonian, which is the same percentage as the quiz gives. Does 1.89% sound plausible? The population of Portugal is about ten million and Estonia less than one and a half million, so for this to be true you’d need about fifteen percent of the population of Estonia to emigrate to Portugal and there would be about 3 or 4 times as many of them as there are brits. Hmmm… 🤔
Global Estonian, which bills itself as a global forum for Estonians around the world, gives the figure as 77 Estonians lifting in Portugal. That seems awfully precise, but I’d bet the true number is a hell of a lot closer to 77 than 190,000.
So how did they arrive at such a huge number? Maybe at some point it was 190, and some data entry clerk entered that in a database, not noticing that it said “population in thousands”, and that single insignificant error got picked up by other sites and eventually incorporated into the model answers for the quiz.
I think the lesson here is that sloppy data seeps out and pollutes everything downstream of where it’s keyed in. This isn’t quite as catastrophic in its effects as it could have been, but it’s an interesting little lesson in data pollution. Imagine a similar error creeping into some database used for planning or making policy. You could end up with serious miscalculation rather than just an annoyed quiz contestant.
I Really Like Quina But…
… Some of the words it comes up with are a bit iffy. This, for example, took several minutes of just trying random combinations of letters in the two spaces I had left. It just means “hurrah”, apparently, but would you call “hurrah” a word? Hm.. 🧐
In case you don’t know Quina, it’s here.
Foram Cardos, Foram Prosas
Another translation!
I got curious about this because it was covered by Amor Electro on one of the albums I listened to a few weeks back, and although I knew most of the songs they’d done, I’d never heard of this or even of the artrist who performed it originally so I sought it out. Disappointing, to be honest. It feels very dated and uninspiring. I actually liked the cover version better.
| Portuguese | English |
|---|---|
| Há luz sem lume aceso Mas sem amar o calor Há flor de um fogo preso Há luz do meu claro amor | There is a light without a flame But without loving the heat There is a flower of a captive fire There is a light of my clear love |
| Há madressilvas aos pés E águas lavam o rosto Dedos que tens em resvés Ó meu amante deposto | There are honeysuckles at your feet And waters wash your face Fingers you have, so close Oh my former lover |
| Não foram poemas nem rosas Que colheste no meu colo Foram cardos, foram prosas Arrancadas do meu solo | There were no poems or roses That you picked in my lap They were thistles and prose Uprooted from my soil |
| Porque tu ainda me queres O amor que ainda fazemos Dá-me um sinal se puderes Sejamos amantes supremos | Because you still love Yje lobe we still have Give me a signal if you can Let’s be supreme lovers |
| Será sempre a subir Ao cimo de ti Só para te sentir | It wlll always be rising Above you Just to feel you |
| Será no alto de mim Que um corpo só Exalta o seu fim | It will be above me Because just one body Exalts at its end |
Dial M for Mordam
Esta expressão foi usada no livro que terminei recentemente e já está de volta no meu livro atual (“Se Perguntarem Por mim, Digam que Voei” de Alice Vieira)
“Macacos me mordam se aquele que manda as bolas ao ar não é o marçano do tio Casimiro”
“Monkeys bite me if that one who’s juggling balls isn’t Uncle Casimiro’s apprentice”
So it’s obviously an expression or surprise like “well I’ll be a monkeys uncle”. Do people still say that? Probably not. Anyway, I like it and I’ll have to use it again. Hey, didn’t I start this blog post in portuguese? What happened?
Diabo na Cruz – Vida de Estrada
OK, well this is one of the bands I listened to the other day and liked enough to want to dive into their lyrics. It’s not an easy one because a lot of it is lists of things and events, like the lists in “Its the End of the World as we Know It” by REM or “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel and I am pretty sure I am missing some of the references. I’ll put links on the ones I recognise because it’s probably easier than writing 30,000 words of footnotes. Speaking of feet, there’s a really excellent live video out there and teh lead singer has a cast on his ankle, so well done him for not calling in sick that day!
| 🇵🇹 | 🇬🇧 |
|---|---|
| Siga em fila vai Nove emprego cinco sai Quinto império do atalho Bomba, escola, pão, talho | Form a line, go Nine employed, five leave Fifth empire by a shortcut Bomb, school, bread, meat |
| Trívia e televisão Aurora do quadrilião No ar um cheiro a esturro Bom pró esperto, mau pró burro | Trivia and television Glow of the quadrillion In the air a smell of burning Good for the smart, bad for the stupid |
| Perto, tão perto do oásis no deserto Longe, tão longe de ir lá hoje Mora, demora O que é bom nunca é pra agora Quem me dera ir daqui pra fora | Close, so close to the oasis in the desert Far, so far from getting there today Lay, delay What is good is never for now I wish I could get out of here and away |
| Trânsito no Jamor A ouvir notícias do terror Troika, bolha imobiliária É cara a vida e a pensão precária | Traffic on the Jamor Hearing news of terrorism The Troika, a property bubble Life is expensive, and pensions at risk |
| Água, cabo, net Luz, ginásio, yoga, creche IUC, IMI, IRS Paga paga, esquece esquece | Water, cable, internet, Lighting, gym, yoga, creche, IUC,IMI,IRS Pay, pay, forget, forget |
| Fraco tão fraco o sol neste buraco Boa, tão boa a vida boa Mora, demora O que é bom nunca é pra agora Quem me dera ir daqui pra fora | Weak, it’s so weak, the sun in this hole Good, so good, the good life Lay Delay What is good is never for now I wish I could get out of here |
| Mergulhar mãos no volante e adiante Pra qualquer lugar Vidro aberto, rádio alto, no asfalto Sem me apoquentar Saborear o mar, as serras Cobrir-me de pó e geada Roer o osso desta terra Na vida de estrada | Grab the steering wheel and go To anywhere Window open, radio loud, on the asphalt Without fear To enjoy the sea, the mountains get covered in dust and frost Chew the bones of this land In life on the road |
| Sismo no Japão Zara, nova coleção Espionagem, guerra, muda o tema Woody Allen no cinema | Earthquake in Japan Zara, new collection Espionage, war, change the subject Woody Allen at the cinema |
| Zapping e jornal Série e logo futebol O vizinho num concurso A fazer figura de urso | Channel-hopping and news Series and then football The neighbour in a competition To act like an idiot |
| Chato, tão chato papar grupo barato Oco, tão oco o circo louco Mora, demora O que é bom nunca é pra agora Quem me dera ir daqui pra fora | Annoying, so annoying, support cheap group* Hollow, so hollow, the crazy circus Live, delay What is good is never for now I wish I could get out of here |
| Mergulhar mãos no volante e adiante Pra qualquer lugar Vidro aberto, rádio alto, no asfalto Sem me apoquentar Saborear o mar, as serras Cobrir-me de pó e geada Roer o osso desta terra Na vida de estrada | Grab the steering wheel and go To anywhere Window open, radio loud, on the asphalt Without fear To enjoy the sea, the mountains get covered in dust and frost Chew the bones of this land In life on the road |
| Onde não há prazos nem obrigações Não há debates nem euromilhões Onde o sol eleva e a frescura acata Sem consulta ao homeopata Onde a cura é sem vacina E a cardina é sem pesar Por lagoas e colinas Vê-se a lágrima a secar Dá o vento na cara E nada nos pára Nada nos pára | Where there are no deadlines or obligations No debates, no euromillions Where the sun lifts you and the coolness follows you Without an appointment with the homeopath Where the cure doesn’t take a vaccine** And the grime doesn’t weigh you down Through lakes and hills Feel the wind in your face And nothing will stop us Nothing will stop us |
| Perto, tão perto do oásis no deserto Longe, tão longe de ir lá hoje Mora, demora O que é bom nunca é pra agora Quem me dera ir Quem me dera ir daqui Quem me dera ir daqui pra fora | Close, so close to the oasis in the desert Far, so far from getting there today Delay, delay What is good is never for now I wish I could get out I wish I could get out of here I wish I could get out of here and away |
| Mergulhar mãos no volante e adiante Pra qualquer lugar Vidro aberto, rádio alto, no asfalto Sem me apoquentar Saborear o mar, as serras Cobrir-me de pó e geada Roer o osso desta terra Na vida de estrada | Grab the steering wheel and go To anywhere Window open, radio loud, on the asphalt Without fear To enjoy the sea, the mountains get covered in dust and frost Chew the bones of this land In life on the road |
*best guess is that he’s saying you should support independent artsists
**They broke up in 2019, in case you were wondering if this was some sort of covid reference
The Last Day: Wrath, Ruin and Reason in the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 by Nicholas Shrady.
Lazy Post, reviewing an audiobook I finished recently, about the Lisbon Earthquake.
As the name suggests, the book is organised around the event that literally shook Lisbon and figuratively shook its empire in the middle of the eighteenth century. The day itself is described well, albeit undramatically, and the Marquês de Pombal’s life and legacy gets laid out, including the grizzly bits. Smashing people’s arms and legs with hammers, burning them alive. Oh, and rebuilding the city in line with modern techniques. He’s… Well, to borrow another term from the young folk, “morally grey”.
Anyway, so far so good, but it could have been more focused. I guess his thinking was that a lot of readers wouldn’t know the background so he gives us a tour of the main points of Portuguese history but he doesn’t section it off, he just sort of rambles back in the middle of the book. Maybe the general history stuff would have been better as an optional preamble to the main book. That way, he could have really drilled down both in the horror and chaos of the day itself and on the technical details of how they recovered. I want details, dammit!
My favourite aspect was his summary of how the different groups explained the event. We sometimes think our age is uniquely divided and that the two sides in our political disputes operate with different worldviews and different sets of facts, but in 1755 we have catholics fulminating about how God sent the earthquake for allowing the protestant heretics into Portugal and meanwhile in England, at memorials services for lost Port wine merchants, the vicars are telling their flocks it’s no wonder Portugal was ruined when it is full of dreadful popish idolatry.
Some things never change.
The audiobook reader gets a solid 8/10 for trying with the pronunciation. He obviously doesn’t speak portuguese, but he’s put the effort in to learn the ground rules of portuguese pronunciation and it shows. Instead of just saying all the names like they were Mexican drug lords in Breaking Bad, he pushes in the right direction. He gets a lot wrong, but he’s tried and I appreciate that.
Birth Order
This will probably come in handy again one day so might as well make a note of it…. how to describe oldest and youngest siblings
Filho primogénito – the oldest son
Irmão do meio – the middle brother
Irmão mais novo – the youngest brother
O benjamim is the youngest but can also mean the favourite son, or the favourite in a group, apparently. Ugh! Why would the youngest be your favourite? The first born is clearly the best. Oh and caçula just means youngest, not favourite.
Luso 