It often happens that when I learn a new phrase I suddenly notice it popping up everywhere – in videos or in song lyrics that, previously, I had mentally marked as indecipherable. After I wrote the post about Chico-Espertice the other day I spotted it in a Deolinda song (have I mentioned I like Deolinda? I have? Oh!) called Manta Para Dois (“Blanket for two”). I wondered how it had been translated, to see if I’d understood it right.
I found the english lyrics here. They’ve translated
Às vezes és parvo
Gabarola, mal-criado
É preciso muita pachorra para ti
Cromo, chico-esperto
Preguiçoso e incerto
Mas é certo que és perfeito para mim
as
Sometimes you’re stupid
You brag, you have no manners
I need a lot of calmness to deal with you
Silly, fancy and smart
Lazy and uncertain
But it’s obvious you’re perfect for me
Well, that’s not what I was expecting. I think this must be wrong though. I think the translator must live in a region where the expression isn’t used. Everything else in that paragraph is a list of faults the person has, in spite of which she loves the guy anyway, so throwing a couple of compliments in makes no sense, especially if they’re joined together with a hyphen instead of a comma. I think it should say
Sometimes you’re stupid
You brag, you have no manners
I need a lot of patience to deal with you
Silly, a smartarse
Lazy and uncertain
But it’s obvious you’re perfect for me
Or maybe “a pisstaker” or “too clever by half” or something like that.
Video here
By the way, that word “Cromo” is interesting too. It’s translated as “Silly” and Priberam gives it as
Diz-se de ou pessoa que tem um comportamento considerado estranho excêntrico ou ridículo . “cromo”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa [em linha], 2008-2013, https://dicionario.priberam.org/cromo [consultado em 24-09-2018].
but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it used to mean “nerd” or “geek”
One of the chapters in Reaccionário Com Dois Cês is an obituary for Raul Solnado, who I’d never heard of. He died in 2009 and was recognised as one of the greats of portuguese comedy. Here he is in front of an audience in the sixties or seventies, telling a rambling story of the war of 1908. Top quality R-rolling.
I was sent this video by my Brazilian language partner and its a pretty good illustration of the language barrier between the two sides of the atlantic. Note that the Portuguese guy (Caesar Mourão, one of the comedians on the line-up of the comedy festival I mentioned yesterday) understands the tourists because the Portuguese are so used to listening to Brazilian “Novelas” but they have no idea what he’s on about.
So I’m trying to sort out some basic grammar that I probably should have worked out a long time ago. To do this, I’ve been working with a different teacher who lives in the UK, simply because I don’t have the skills to be able to even ask the question in Portuguese and I needed someone who would understand me asking in english
Today: What’s the difference between these ways of exressing possession.
A sua propriedade
Propriedade sua
A propriedade dele
It always seems a bit random and I’ve never quite been able to spot a pattern. The third one is the obvious odd one out because it’s the only one that makes it clear that it’s the property of “him”, whereas the others could all be him, her, them, or, if you’re being formal, the person you’re speaking to, so in a way that helps – you could use when you wanted to be very specific about who it belongs to. In practice, I’m told, it’s also used in less formal, spoken situations.
As for the first and second, the answer seems to be simpler than I thought though: it just depends whether you have a definite article in there. If it’s a specific thing: this is his property, it’s “a sua propriedade”, whereas the second quote, which comes from my review of the film Comboio de Sal e Açúcar is about the subject’s attitude: he treated the passengers as his property.
O livro é de um amigo meu [indefinite article: it belongs to a friend of mine]
O livro é do meu amigo [definite article: it belongs to my friend]
Now, here’s the shock though: I had been thinking of these words – seu, meu, minha, etc as possessive pronouns, but they’re not, they’re determinantes – more like adjectives, really: In “o meu amigo”, “amigo” is the noun and “meu” just determines whose friend he is. Meu can also be a possessive pronoun but only when it stands in for the noun.
“O Donald, as suas mãos são pequenas; as minhas são grandes”. In this sentence, “suas” is another determinant but “minhas” is a possessive pronoun because I’m using it instead of saying the whole noun again “as minhas maãos”. In english it’s doing the job of “mine” instead of just “my”. There are some other examples, explained in portuguese on Ciberdúvidas.
OK, simple, I can understand a couple of simple rules like that. I guess, though, it’s like most rules in english: you obey them only insofar as you can do so without writing something ugly. So I cam across a counter-example within about ten minutes of this conversation happening in the song “Saia Rodada” by Carminho. I’ve pasted the lyrics below and highlighted forms that match in green and the one that doesn’t in red.
Vesti a saia rodada
P’r’ apimentar a chegada
Do meu amor
No mural postei as bodas
Rezei nas capelas todas
Pelo meu amor
Vem lá de longe da cidade e tem
Os olhos rasos de saudade em mim
E eu mando-lhe beijos e recados em retratos meus
Pensa em casar no fim do verão que vem
Antes pudesse o verão não mais ter fim
Que eu estou tão nervosa com esta coisa do casar
Meu Deus
Vesti a saia rodada
P’r’ apimentar a chegada
Do meu amor
No mural postei as bodas
Rezei nas capelas todas
Pelo meu amor
Por tantas vezes pensei eu também
Sair daqui atrás dos braços seus
De cabeça ao vento e a duvidar o que faz ele por lá
I think all that’s happening here is that she’s stretched the normal rules to make the rhyme with “adeus” work in the next triplet. I’ve added it to my list of questions for next time.
Anyway, as a side note, I wondered what a “saia rodada” was anyway. A round skirt? I googled it and saw a load of pictures of… well… skirts. So I asked online and was told it would all make sense if I searched for videos of “saia rodada danca” but it didn’t work because there’s an insupportable brasilian rock band called saia rodada and this is the first video I got.
But then a portuguese guy mentioned that it was “folclorico” so I added that into my search and had more luck. Apparently it’s a long, swishy skirt that is used in a lot of dances because of the way it moves. Here are some people demonstrating. Tag yourself, I’m the guy in the grey trousers.
WHew! It’s been a long time since I wrote this much about grammar and general musings. Well, come for the determinantes possessivos, stay for the grupo folclórico.
I came across another reference to monkeys and branches in Bruno Nogueira’s Mata Bicho podcast: “Cada macaco no seu galho”. It reminded me of the one I mentioned a few weeks back. I guess Portuguese speakers must really like monkeys because I can think of at least two other monkey-related expressoes: “Vai pentear macacos” and “macaquinhos na cabeça” (here). This new one means “Each monkey on his own branch” or, less literally “people should mind their own business”.
It’s mentioned in a song here (#braziliandialectklaxon)
By the way, I always thought Mata Bicho meant something like “bug killer”, which it kinda does but it’s an expression that can mean a tip (in some places) or a little drink taken at breakfast time. So I guess “hair of the dog” then…?
Nuno Markl’s comedy series, “1986 A Série” finally dropped today on RTP1. I’ve been excited about it since August last year and I think it might be the first time I’ve watched something in normal TV time instead of on Netflix or DVD since… well, since 1986. I’m not a big TV watcher. I won’t bullshit you by pretending I understood every word but it’s sufficiently close to my era (I was 17 in 1986) that I could relate to the characters, and now I’m past the stage of oohing and ahhing at all the songs, books, films etc crammed into every frame, I think I’ll go back and have another look, armed with the Wikipedia pages about Mário Soares and the Eleições Presidencias de 1986, which form the backdrop to the teenage kicks. If you want to watch it, it’s still up on RTP’s website but I’ve no idea how long it’ll last.
Having given Eurovision one of its best songs ever in 2017, Portugal seems to have gone for the “My Lovely Horse” option this year, with the blandest, pappiest piece of talent-show fodder ever.
Here’s an interesting-looking thing. It’s a sort of historical-based series. Time-travel involved? Not sure exactly but it seems to have a good reputation so I plan on taking a peek this weekend.
I heard this um… bloke? To be honest, I don’t know, but let’s say bloke because beard. So as I was saying, I heard this bloke on Cinco Para Meia-Noite and I think he has a really interesting voice, quite different from most fadistas, and yet, you know, the same. I can’t seem to find any music online other than on Youtube but I’m definitely adding a few videos to my PT Music playlist.
I’ve been meaning to write an article about the 1990 Acordo Ortográfica da Língua Portuguesafor a while now but never really felt up to it. There’s a really good video on YouTube though, of Portuguese humorist Ricardo Araújo Pereira, author of Reaccionário Com Dois Cês in conversation with Brazilian Renaissance man Gregório Duvivier, that makes a pretty good introduction to what it is, why it’s needed and why it falls miserably short. It’s a little hard to follow in places but not as bad as I expected. Both speak pretty clearly and I found I could laugh at the jokes as well as simply learning, which was a nice bonus.
Nuno Markl’s comedy series, “1986 A Série” finally dropped today on RTP1. I’ve been excited about it since 
Luso 