10 Words that are the same, but with very different meanings in Brazil and Portugal

In Portugal, you would never wear a “sweater” for the cold weather. And much less would buy a medicine in a “drugstore”. If there is something that brings the Portuguese and Brazilians together, it is the fact that both understand how complex the Portuguese language can be, especially when certain words have the same spelling and sound, but different meanings.

Knowing this, we awesome.club🇧🇷 we did a search to find out how the use of some words can put us in unusual and funny situations, depending on the country where they are spoken, because, despite being the same, their meanings are totally different. Check out!

If a Portuguese person asks a Brazilian to buy lemons at the supermarket and he brings a lime, that is already reason for a good laugh. Sounds like a joke, doesn’t it? But the reality is that in Portugal, the green lemon is called lime and the yellow one (which for us is Sicilian lemon) is what they mean by lemon. In Brazil, the name ‘limão’, which has always been the one most associated with the sour taste, is what the Portuguese continue to call ‘lime’.

In Lusitanian lands, mud is not just a pasty mixture of earth, clay and water. “Lama” is also used to refer to the cuddly mammal with a long, woolly coat, which feeds on grasses and plants. In Brazil, we call it “Llama”.

In Portugal, yes, since over there, a nightgown is essentially a long-sleeved blouse, while in Brazil, it designates a female garment used for sleeping. Although they have the same spelling, the meaning is quite different, right?

“Bola rebola, rebola / Bola rebola, rebola” (…) As Anitta’s music suggests, in Brazil, the expression rebolar is nothing more than a form of dancing focused on the movement of the hips. In Portugal, this word is also used, but with the definition of ‘rolar’. For example: “I was having trouble falling asleep, so I kept rolling over on the bed” or “This child won’t stop rolling over on the floor.”

The word “varnish”, both in Brazil and in Portugal, refers to a resinous, quick-drying solution used as a surface coating. However, if you are in a beauty salon painting your fingernails and toenails, and a Portuguese person asks you which color of “varnish” you want to choose, know that it refers to the color of the “enamel” and not to a film. moisture protector.

We know that the pear is a very popular fruit in Portugal, especially in the west of the country. So nothing to do with this connection between the two expressions, right? It wasn’t like that that our Portuguese friends call what we know as barbicha or goatee in Brazil. They would say, for example: “The actor Caio Castro has a beautiful pear”.

In Portugal, if you need to buy repair and construction materials, such as screws and nails, you can also find them at a drugstore. In Brazil, it’s the establishment where we buy medicine and beauty products, right?

It’s the famous espresso that the Portuguese love. In some places in Portugal, if you want to order a coffee, the ideal is to say that you want a bica. Possibly, the origin of spout is in the way of pouring coffee into the cup, from a spout of the machine. This expression is more used in Lisbon and surroundings. In Brazil, a spout corresponds to a natural or artificial waterfall, from where fresh water at room temperature is discharged, usually through a pipe.

There’s the mouse, that little rodent mammal, and the mouse, which to us is the computer mouse. So, if you ever hear something like “This mouse has a problem, I need to buy another one”, don’t be surprised, your friend or co-worker is just referring to the computer accessory.

The “fact” in Portugal corresponds to a “suit” in Brazil, a term little used or null in Portuguese lands. Now, on this side of the Atlantic, any Brazilian could be confused if he heard someone praising someone’s “fact”, do you agree?

Is there any other word that you know with a different meaning in Portugal that we didn’t mention? Share with us in the comments! Maybe we created a version 2 of this article? 🇧🇷