It’s funny because it’s true
Tag: instagram
Hipocrisia
Spotted on Instagram – if you fancy a brain warmup, see if you spot the joke
Expressões Idiomáticas, Climáticas e Palavráticas com Preposições hum… Aleatoriaticas?
So here are a couple of videos from the same guy. They are quite sweary so if you have a portuguese relative within earshot, you might want to use headphones. I was interested in the prepositions more than the swearing and I’ll tell you why when you’ve watched them. In fact, the whole post is quite sweary, even the English bits. If you are a child, reading this, please ask your parents to hide your device until your eighteenth birthday and then carry on reading.
OK, ready? Good. Happy birthday, by the way.
As you can see, he’s pretty funny. In each case he’s giving versions of the same expression:
Não faz frio nem orvalho mas está a chover para caralho.
Não faz chuva nem orvalho mas está um frio do caralho
If you don’t already know, caralho is one of the rudest words in the language. But what’s going on with those prepositions just in front of each? Why is it para in the first instance and do in the second? I threw the question open to the floor.
In both cases we’re using the bad word to emphasise how strongly we feel about the situation, but you lead into it with para when what you are emphasising is a verb. “Esta a chover para caralho”, “Os ovos andam caros para caralho”, for example.
On the other hand, if its a noun you’re emphasising, you lead in with do: “Está um frio do caralho”, “Cão do caralho passa toda a noite a ladrar”
It’s hard to draw a direct analogy to English swearing, not least because we wouldn’t even say “está um frio…” (“it’s a cold”). We’d treat frio as an adjective, not as a noun. But I’m sure you’ll be familiar with the fact that swear words are pretty flexible in how they’re used. So you could have ‘It’s cold as fuck” or “It’s raining like fuck” or “It’s a huge fucking storm”. Portuguese seems to have a rule about how the caralho is linked to the thing it’s referring to though so it seems to be one of those rare cases where portuguese is less complicated than English.
End of an Era
It’s a sad day for Britain. I’m touched to see so many people on Portugal paying tribute to our late monarch.
Hoje é um dia muito triste cá no Reino Unido. Fico emocionado pela comovente reação de tantos portugueses à morte da nossa rainha.
Frol With It
In English, as you know, FROL stands for Farting Raucously Out Loud, but I came across the same word in the title of a book I’m trying to read (God the vocabulary though – I don’t know how much more of this I can take!)
The book is Ronda Das Mil Belas em Frol by Mario de Carvalho. Here it is ony my Insta, but obviously the caption is just a silly joke.
Apparently Frol can refer to the foam on a wave: sea-spume, something like that. But it’s also an archaic spelling of “flor”, apparently. So they’re beautiful women in bloom. Makes sense. I find it really odd that the old spelling is so much like a joke, as if someone has deliberately swapped two consonants for a laugh and it caught on.
Sheila Take a Baú
Social media really is a treasure trove of stuff you can learn, and it doesn’t feel like a chore because you’re just looking at memes. Here’s one i found today.
I know “golpe” is like a blow – in the sense of a blow to the head or a blow from an axe: the impact of something. It’s used in “golpe de estado” (coup d’état) for example. And baú is a chest – as in “treasure chest”. So when you put them together, what do you get? A golpe de baú is the act of marrying an older guy in the hope of inheriting all his wealth.
So, basically, I’m the words of Kanye West, they ain’t sayin’ she a gold digger, but she ain’t messin’ with no broke tuga.
I don’t actually know who the woman is or what the account that’s posting this is like, so I’m not sure whether she’s in on the joke or whether it’s meant in a cruel way or whether she’s done anything to deserve it or whether they are just being arseholes, but I am so pleased to have learned a new thing that I don’t really care.
You can read more about the history of the phrase Golpe de Baú on Wikipedia if you’re interested
Fruity
TFW your italki Portuguese teacher has done 6 lessons already today and is running out of patience. #BRAZILIANPORTUGUESEKLAXON
Digital Panopticon
I don’t usually get Portuguese ads on Instagram despite the fact that I write a ton of Portuguese on my account. But here we are, two days into new year’s resolution season and I write a blog post about yoga in Portugal on this blog, which is linked to Instagram and what happens?
Instagram Language Challenge #IGLC
Taking a break from the lizards today to compile Instagram posts I made as part of Lindsay Does Languages‘ Instagram Language Challenge in October, which I did to stretch myself. I tried to use some basic scientific vocabulary and write some more complicated sentences. It was quite good fun thinking of new stuff to write about, and I ended up doing refraction, buddhism, make-up and dinosaurs as well as some totally made-up bollocks that I just wrote for a laugh. Some have been corrected, others not. It’s a bit tough for people doing the corrections, I think. When I talk about how, before the horse was invented, all the idiomatic expressions involving horses had originally referred to dolphins, guinea pigs and other animals, I think serious-minded teachers must wonder whether I’m joking or just severely misunderstanding the meanings of the words and phrases I’m using.
I’ve also added all the new vocbulary into a Memrise deck so I won’t forget it all immediately
Day 1: Red
Day 2: Blue (The well it mentions, by the way, was repened after its refurbishment by John Bercow. Now if only I knew how to say OORRRRDDAAAAHHH in portuguese)
Bonus Blue
Day 3: Yellow
Day 4: Green
Day 5: Orange
Day 6: Purple
Day 7: Pink
Day 8: Gold
Day 9: Silver
Day 10: Bronze
Day 11: Black
Day 12: White
Day 13: Brown
Day 14: Grey
Day 15: Cat
Bonus Cat
Day 16: Dog
Day 17: Fish
Day 18: Rabbit
Day 19: Cow
Day 20: Horse
Day 21: Sheep
Day 22: Pig
Day 23 + 24: Snake/Mouse Crossover edition!
Day 25: Monkey
Day 26: Elephant
Day 27: Lion
Bonus Lion
Day 28: Bird
Luso 