Useful Portuguese/Changana Vocabulary

There are certain words that I just no longer even think in English. And I am realizing, that you all might not always understand exactly what I am talking about. So I thought I should make a vocab list of the common words I use. Some are Portuguese, some are Changana, some are a weird gibberishy mixture.

Tudo bem?: you good? The most common greeting, like how’s it going? One should respond with ‘sim, tudo bem’ or ‘sim tudo’ or ‘tudo tudo, muito obrigado/a’ etc. In Changana, you would just ask and respond with ‘O bom?’, an example of a mixture of Portuguese and the local dialect.

Obrigado/a: thank you. Say obrigado if you are male and obrigada if you are female.

Nada: ‘no’ in Changana, ‘nothing’ in Portuguese. Basically it is a sassy way of saying no, or accusing someone of lying.

Não: No in Portuguese. Depending on the level of no-ness you want to infer, you can adjust the pronounciation. The more nasally the -ão sound the more sassy.

diga: The formal imperative of the verb dizer, to speak. So the word literally translates to 'speak'. In practice, the word means 'what?' when you didn't hear someone, didn't understand what they were saying, or just want them to repeat. I use this A LOT. One could also use como? in the same manner, or o que? although this option is considered less polite.

mentira: lie, used a lot when someone is joking around and you want to call them out. for example:
Felix: ‘Eminem is my cousin’
Me: ‘How is that possible?’
Felix: ‘His mom’s husbands sister is black, I have his phone number, we can call him later’
Me: ‘Mentira!’

Chapa: mini-bus, which is the public transport around here. There is one make/model that everyone has. There aren’t really designated stops. To catch a chapa, you stand on the side of the road, wave at one as it approaches, shout at the cobrador where you want to go, if it is going there it will pull over, get out of the way or you will be run over.

Cobrador: Man on the chapa who you pay and tell where you want to go. He usually is hanging out of the window of the sliding door. Note: if he offers to let you not pay he probably expects sexual favors in return. Do not oblige him for the sake of public health.

embregada: cleaning/carting water lady. An embregado would be the male version, which is less common, but does exist.

talvez: maybe (I think this is my favorite word fyi)

limpeza: cleaning

bacia: bowl/bucket used for cleaning/bathing/mopping/laundry

chega: enough – a great multipurpose word that can be used in terms of food portions, or to tell someone to stop talking and leave you alone.

É pa!: exclamation, like ‘Oh gosh!’ Or ‘My word!’

respeta: respect

falta de respeta: lack of respect

amigo/a: literally means friend, but used to denote a person you sleep with when your boyfriend/girlfriend is away.

pão: bread

fazer: to do

acabo: finished/gone/done (infinitive verb is acabar, to finish)

já: already

Now everyone can speak Portuguese!