Brazilian Portuguese is one of the most beautiful languages in the world. As such, it would stand to reason that Brazilian slang is incredibly rich and diverse, borrowing words from a number of different foreign languages.
As of the time of writing, in excess of 252 million speak Portuguese as either a first or second language, making it one of the most spoken languages on the planet. Of this, 209 million people speak Brazilian Portuguese!
15. Topar – To agree
When you were learning Portuguese, you were likely taught that concordar is the only verb you could use to mean “agree”. In many ways, your teacher was right, but in other ways, they were wrong.
In Brazil, they also have a very colloquial verb, topar, which is often used in favor of concordar, which is more used in European Portuguese. However, topar is not used in Portugal (or really anywhere outside of Brazil!)
Except in a few circumstances (mainly legal-related ones), topar can always be substituted for concordar, or vice-versa.
For many in Brazil, they use topar so often, that many of them don’t even realize it’s technically a slang term!
Example:
“Tu topas?”
“Sim, eu topo”
14. Mandar-se – F*** off
Sometimes, someone annoys you so much that you just want them to go away. Occasionally, “Go away” just doesn’t work and you need to use something much stronger instead. Here, we’d probably use “F*** off”.
In Brazil, they’d probably use something like mandar-se to mean the same thing. Literally, mandar-se means “to leave” and it is mostly used to mean this. However, if used one its own, it usually means something like “F*** off”.
Beware when using this one. As with its English counterpart, mandar-se is considered to be quite vulgar by most accounts. Some Brazilians might get offended and get quite angry, so use this one at your own peril.
Example:
[Insert rudeness or other annoying behavior]
“Mandar-se!”
13. Bacano – Awesome
For the most part, Brazilian slang and Portuguese slang share very little in common. Due to how the Portuguese Empire was ran, Portuguese slang didn’t really see much use in Brazilian outside of a few main ports.
The only slang word that seemed to stick was bacano, a slang term also used in Peru and Colombia among others. In Brazil, bacano means something along the lines of “Cool” or “Awesome”.
As with their European cousins, many Brazilian teenagers use #bacano on their social media posts. This hashtag is used to describe pretty much anything, be it a nice day out, a cool activity or just cuz!
Example:
“Acabei de comprar um novo par de tênis Nike”
“Bacano!”
12. Nossa – OMG!
In English, there are many ways to express surprise at things. However, by far the most common way is “Oh my God” commonly abbreviated to “OMG”. In Portugal, they have nossa, used to mean roughly the same thing.
Literally, nossa translates as “Our”. In reality, nossa is short for nossa senhora, meaning “Our lady” (in reference to the Virgin Mary). However, most Portuguese people use it in the same way we use “OMG” in English.
A word of warning: Although the majority of Brazilians do use this, many older Brazilians (who are typically more religious) do get a little bit uneasy when someone uses this, as they see it as blasphemy.
Example:
“Estou grávida”
“Nossa!”
11. Sei la – Whatever
Sei la is arguably one of the most diverse Brazilian slang words you’ll ever come across. Pretty much everyone, both young and old, will use this in pretty much any context!
Literally speaking, sei la translates as “I know over there” something that doesn’t make sense (literally) in either language! Officially, sei la translates as “Whatever” in English, with this being what it is often translated as.
However, it also commonly used in the same why that we use “Who knows?” in English. Although Portuguese doesn’t have sarcasm in the way that we do in English, it can also be used in a sarcastic-type way as well.
Example:
“Por que ele fez isso?! “
“Sei la!”
10. Legal – Cool
In English, we have hundreds of different slang terms to describe something as being cool. In Brazil, they too have many slang terms for cool, but by far the most common is legal.
Literally speaking, legal translates to mean… well… “Legal” in English (no surprise there!) However, unless you’re a lawyer or a cop, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever use it in this context.
Instead, most people (especially, but not exclusively Brazilian teenagers) will use it to mean something along the lines of “Cool”. In recent years, the slang term “wicked” has become quite common, legal would also be used in this context!
Example:
“Uau, venha e olhe isso!”
“Legal!”
9. Falou – Bye
In English, regardless of which dialect or regional variation of it we speak, we often shorten the word “Goodbye ” to just “Bye”. Brazilians do a similar thing too with their own “Goodbye” – tchau.
Whilst tchau is commonly used, many Brazilians will also use falou to say “Goodbye”. Literally speaking, falou is the past tense of the verb falar, meaning “To speak”, literally meaning something like “spoken” or “spoke”.
As with its English counterpart, falou is used by practically everyone! It’s something that your three year old cousin would use, your 50 year old uncle and your 90 year old grandma would use!
Example:
“Falou!”
8. Beleza? – How are you?
When you were being taught Brazilian Portuguese you were probably taught that tudo bem? meant “How are you?” And indeed it does, assuming that you are in a formal setting of course.
However, for most Brazilians, if they’re just meeting up with a friend of theirs, they’ll just use beleza? instead! Literally, beleza is the Portuguese term for “Beautiful” or “Pretty”.
In Brazilian slang, beleza has a completely different meaning, roughly akin to “How are you?” or more colloquially “Whatcha doin’?” or “Wassup?” in American slang.
Example:
“Olá João! Beleza?”
“Tudo bem valeu!”
7. Foi mal! – My bad!
If you ever make an incredibly obvious, rather over-the-top blunder in front people, chances are that you’d shout something like “My bad!” or “Sorry!” In Brazil you’d do the same too.
However, instead of saying “My bad!” you’d use foi mal! which literally means something along the lines of “It was bad” or “Was bad”. However, is used in Brazilian slang to mean “My bad!”
In recent years, mostly due to the influence of Brazilian-made media, foi mal has been used in Portuguese slang too. However, this is mostly in the city centers, usually used by the “coolest” teenagers.
Example:
[Insert obvious mistake or blunder]
“Foi mal!”
6. Gato / Gata – Handsome / Hot
Sometimes you see a person that is just really good-looking, perhaps someone you have a crush on. In English, there are a plethora of words to describe this. In Portuguese, there is one main way of saying this gato / gata.
Literally speaking, a gato is a male cat, whilst a gata is a female one. In Brazilian slang, however, it is used to describe how good looking someone is. When used to describe a man, it means “Handsome” or “Hot” for a woman.
Gato is used exclusively to describe a man (meaning things like “Handsome” or “Good-looking” etc.) On the other hand, gata is used exclusively to describe a woman (meaning things like “Hot” or “Gorgeous”).
Example:
“Eu acho que a Antônia é gata”
5. Não tô nem ai – I don’t care
Has someone ever brought up something in a conversation that you quite literally couldn’t care less about? In English, you’d say that you don’t care, In Brazil, you’d say não tô nem ai.
Literally speaking não tô nem ai translates as “I’m not even there”. However, most Brazilians know it by its other interpretation- “I don’t care”, or more accurately, “I don’t even care”.
A word of warning with this one. Its English counterpart is rather versatile, however, the Brazilian equivalent isn’t. Generally, unless you really don’t care, other phrases like não importa and não ligo are more used.
Example:
“Você soube da partida de futebol do Antonio?”
“Não tô nem ai”
4. Pão-duro – Stingy
At least in one aspect of our lives, we are probably all a bit stingy with our money. In English, we have many words to describe that, including “Frugal”, “Stingy” and “Scrooge” among others.
In Brazilian slang, they too have a word for this, pão-duro. Literally, it means “Hard bread” but is generally used to mean something along the lines of “Stingy”, “Frugal” or “Scrooge” in English.
However, it isn’t used as an insult like how calling someone a “Scrooge” might be in English. For the most part, it is used to say something like “Wow, look at them, they’re really rich but they aren’t buying X!”
Example:
“Quanto você gasta com comida por semana?”
“Não muito sou pão-duro”
3. Valeu! – Thanks!
When you were learning Brazilian Portuguese, you were probably taught that obrigado meant “Thank you”. However, to many Brazilians, this not the way that they’d say “Thank you” the vast majority of the time.
In many of these cases, they’d use valeu. In many ways it is very similar to the British slang term “Cheers” or at the very least like how we use “Thanks” as a shortened form of “Thank you”.
Many Brazilians also learn valeu as the first way of saying thank you, much like how many young British children will be taught that “Ta” means thank you.
Example:
“Aqui estão suas bebidas”
“Oh! Valeu!”
2. Cabeça-dura – Stubborn
Some people, no matter how many times you show them that they are wrong, will always insist that they are right. In English, we’d describe them as particularly stubborn or stead-fast in their beliefs.
In Brazilian slang, they’d use the phrase cabeça-dura to mean the same thing. Literally, cabeça-dura translates as “Hard head”, which makes a lot of sense- their opinions are wrong and they’re stored in their head!
To the overwhelming majority of Brazilians, cabeça-dura is not really an insult. For those few who do take it as an insult, it is an insult the same way that “Pig headed” is in English, so not that insulting…
Example:
“Você conheceu Adriana? Ela é realmente cabeça-dura!”
1. Rolar! – Let’s go!
In much of Latin America, the terms vamos and vámonos are quite common. However, much of Latin America speaks Spanish, not Portuguese. In Brazil, they use rolar to mean the same thing!
Literally speaking, rolar translates as something along the lines of “To roll”. However, most Brazilians use it to mean something like “Let’s go” or even, “Let’s roll!”.
Rolar is particularly common in the Brazilian military (and especially in Portuguese-language tv shows and movies about the Brazilian military!) here it is used much like “Roll out!” is in English.
Example:
“Nós vamos para a Disneylândia”
“Rolar!”
Which are your favorite Brazilian slang words? Tell me in the comments!