Brazilian Idioms

- The quid pro quo to the English idiom “it’s not my cup of tea” in Brazil is “isso não é a minha praia”, which means “it’s not my beach”.

- When someone is boring indeed, you say they are a “mala”, which means they are a “bag”. And if you’re tired of this person and want to send’em to hell, you can say “vai catar coquinho”, which can be translated to “go catch little coconuts”, or also “para de encher meu saco”, which is “stop filling my bag”, though some might prefere translating it to “stop filling my balls”.

- When you don’t care about something at all, you can say “to cagando e andando”, which is “I’m shitting and walking”, or “I’m shitting while walking”.

- If you were to do something but it didn’t work out... For instance, if you confessed your love to the boy you like, but he turned his face and walked away, well... you were kind of “in the dog house”, right? So, in Brazil we say “Eu quebrei a cara”, “I broke my face”.

These are just some of the various idioms we use. If you are really interested, or just for fun, read “Break the branch? Quebrar o galho”, written by Jack Scholes. I have to say some of the idioms are old, sometimes even antiquated. So, be carefull if you don’t want to sound cliche, mainly among the youngsters.