10+ Very funny words in Portuguese that have no translation in some languages ​​(“saudade” is one of them)

Do you know the translation of that word you looked up in the dictionary or translator and what you found was a phrase? This is more common than it seems when we talk about the Portuguese language. This language of ours has an immense list of words that do not exist in some foreign languages. Living proof that the world has an unparalleled wealth of languages. Shall we, then, know some of these words?

O awesome.club I brought, for you to have fun, a selection of Portuguese words that make foreigners’ hair stand on end when trying to explain them in their languages. See the list of words that are so ours…

Words that describe emotions are often the most difficult to translate into other languages. In English they use the expression “I miss you”, but there is not only one word that expresses it as in Portuguese. In German there is the word “Fernweh”, which means missing a place you’ve never been, but in most languages ​​the expressions “missing”, “I want to see you” and “I’m lonely” are used.

This word comes from the derivation of mouthful, which is a portion of food that fits in the mouth, bit, then, is the diminutive of this portion. In English, the closest thing to a literal sense would be the expression “little bit” which means “small piece”, therefore there is no word that translates anything less than a morsel.

Although it sounds like a curse, the word desbunde can mean “dazzledness”, “loss of composure” or even something that causes “embarrassment” or “discomfort”. In an article in the British newspaper BBC, there was a difficulty in translating this word in an article and it ended up being interpreted as: “letting go of inhibitions and entering the fun mode”. Do you agree?

This sport, which emerged in Tupiniquin lands and was even part of another post on Incrível, has no foreign word to describe it. The best way to explain this type of game is to use the two words separately (soccer + volleyball) and explain its rules which are: basically kicking a ball over a net, on a court made of beach sand. Confusing, isn’t it?

This is the kind of word that is easier to do than to say, because it means both the act: making a xodó = cuddling or dating, and naming the type of relationship: he is my xodó = boyfriend. But, because of this breadth of applications for it, this is where the translation becomes somewhat complicated and must be done through the context of the sentence; In English the word that comes closest to the meaning is “sweetheart🇧🇷

Another word that is difficult to explain out there is the verb to fall in love; this feeling that is not yet love, but is more than liking or having friendship, causes a lot of confusion. Therefore, there is no single word to explain this feeling abroad. The closest we have in English is “to love” or “infatuate”, the latter is seldom used, and is more akin to going mad or losing one’s head.

Since in some parts of the country it is very cold, this may be easier to explain. Jokes aside, when in English, for example, people want to explain that a certain person feels very cold or is more sensitive to this temperature than others, there is not just one word to say it all. The closest one has in English is the phrase “you are sensitive to the cold🇧🇷

Anyone who masters the English language knows that it is much easier than Portuguese, and a part that confuses a lot when we are learning this language is the infamous verb “to be🇧🇷 But for the English/Americans to learn ours is even more difficult, because the verbs “ser e estar” have many possible applications that make them very complicated even for us natives.

Despite being a much more basic verb than ser/estar, it is also not very easy to deal with at the time of translation. In English and Dutch, for example, the word for walking and strolling is one “walk” and “lopen”, respectively. In English, if the intention is to explain that you are going to leave the house, the expression becomes “go for a walk” or “let’s go for a walk!”, but it is still, in a way, incomplete.

Outside Brazil, it is not so easy to ask in restaurants, for example, to give “that neat” dish on your plate. This Brazilian word that means: “to do it well, willingly and in the best possible way”, is very complicated to explain to an Arab, for example, the phrase: “send a well-crafted cake”, the closest translation would be (iirsal kaekat jayidaan = إرسال كعكة جيدا) “send a good cake”. It’s not even the same thing, is it?

This adverb of time that helps us a lot when explaining something that happened in the past, gives foreigners a certain headache. Again, only one sentence can explain this word and it is very funny in English, for them it would be more or less like “the day before yesterday” (the day before yesterday) and in Japanese it is the same (Kino no zenjitsu = 昨日の前日). That’s very complicated!

This adjective is attributed to a person who wants to take advantage of everything and even lives in the well-known “Brazilian way”. This word also has no other way of being explained than with a huge sentence. In English it goes something like this:He is the kind of person who tries to take advantage over others all the time” (he is the type of person who tries to take advantage of others all the time).

I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t like a good cafuné, right? And this typically Brazilian word describes very well this affection that is so pleasant to receive. In English and in most of the languages ​​we researched, there is nothing similar; the phrase that describes this cute affection is: “To scratch someone’s hair with your hand gently” = Running a hand through someone’s hair gently. Is it valid or not?

Did you like the list? Do you know any other untranslated words that we haven’t mentioned? Tell us.