Mini Lesson 7: Complaining About the Weather Like a Brazilian

Complaining About the Weather Like a Brazilian

Brazilians don't do polite British understatement about the weather, they go full performance.

The hero move

It's not the word, it's the exaggeration. "Tá um caaaalor" dragged out with a groan beats the grammatically perfect version said flatly, every time. Heat is where Brazilians get the most creative:

• Tô derretendo = I'm melting!

• Tem um sol pra cada um = It's scorcher hot today!
  Literal translation: There's a sun for each one

• Tá um calor de rachar = It's absolutely boiling!
  Literal translation: It's a heat of cracking

• Tá um forno lá fora = It's like an oven out there

• Um calor dos infernos = It's baking hot!
  Literal translation: A heat from the hells

When the temperature drops to 18°C, the drama begins.

• Tô batendo queixo = My teeth are chattering!
  Literal translation: I'm banging my chin

• Tá um gelo lá fora = It's parky out there!
  Literal translation: It's ice out there

• Tá um Frio de doer os ossos = It's bitter
  Literal translation: Cold of hurting the bones

That 18°C threshold is very much a Rio thing though. Down in the South, Curitiba, Gramado, winters get properly cold, frost and all, so save "um frio desgraçado" for a real cold snap down there, not just a breezy afternoon.

In a sentence

Gente, tá pegando fogo hoje, hein? = God, it's boiling today, isn't it?

Try this

Say "tá um calooor" out loud on your own until it feels a bit embarrassing. That's when you've got it right. This is one that genuinely lands faster hearing someone do it than reading it on a page.

The literal translation trap

The above translations show you why it's important not to try and translate literal phrases from one language to another, because more often than not, it does not work.

If you feel like you want to see another mini lesson on this, let me know and I’ll go deeper!

If today's lesson made you want more, I'd love to have you as a student.

I'm Samar, I'm Brazilian! I teach Brazilian Portuguese, one-on-one or in small groups, for anyone who actually wants to learn properly.