Festa de Fim de Ano

— Ué? Você não vai participar da festa?

— Não.

— Por quê?

— Todo ano, eu compro um presente caríssimo para o nosso chefe. E todo ano, ele acaba me presenteando com alguma coisa vagabunda.

— Ah… mas o que vale é a intenção…

— Nem pensar! Eu prefiro ficar de fora dessa festa do que dar alguma coisa mixuruca para alguém.

 

Glossário:

 

Presentear: to give a gift.

Vagabundo: in this case, worthless

Mixuruca: low value thing.

 

As you can see, today you saw one, two, three, four, five! Five new expressions and grammar points. Let’s take a look at these.

The first one is:

Ué?

This an interjection. We use “UÉ?” when we are surprised at someone’s behavior, and want to ask something to someone, for example:

Ué? Você está sozinho?

Ué? Você não vai Jantar?

 

How to use the superlativo in Portuguese?

The second one is the superlative of the word caro.

Caro means something expensive.

You can say muito caro

Este carro é muito caro.

But When you want to say the most expensive, or extremely expensive, you use the “íssimo” ending. We call it in Brazilian Portuguese as superlativo

For example:

Este carro é caríssimo.

Estou muitíssimo satisfeito com a reunião.

Estou felicíssimo com este presente.

Estou ansiosíssimo pelo Natal.

Some are irregular so you have to pay attention when you use “íssimo”. In future episodes we will talk about the irregular forms.

 

The third point is the expression:

O que vale é a intenção.

This expression means literally that the intention is what’s worth. Maybe what we give is not the best as the intention we have in giving it.

For example:

Eu fiz o Jantar de Natal, mas ninguém gostou. Bem, o que vale é a intenção.

 

The forth point is:

Nem pensar!

The use of “Nem” in Brazilian Portuguese as in

Nem morto!

Nem pensar!

Nem por cima do meu cadáver!

Can be better explored in the learning guides of the intermediate Portuguese podcast by Portuguese with Eli Podcast that I realy recommend you to take a look at because this expression is very common.

But it’s like an intensifier. In English we would say “even” as in:

Don’t you even think about it! – Nem pense nisso!

 

The last but the best point that I want to talk today… and this is a lot of talk!

Is the use of “ficar de fora”.

Literally, it means to be outside or to stay outside, but alguém que fica de fora is not in the loop, is not taking part in whatever the speaker is talking about.

“Fiquei de for a da festa de fim de ano.”

“fico de fora desse natal!”

“Ela ficou de fora do amigo secreto.”

 

Did you want to learn a lot more about Brazilian Expressions using only dialogs and easy texts? Go to:
https://anchor.fm/readbrazilianportuguese

New Episodes every Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays!