Street Smart Brazil

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You can be Atrasado, but never Tarde. Learn the difference

Do you have the feeling that your Brazilian friends are always late? How would you tell a friend in Portuguese: “Dude, you’re half an hour late!” Would the word for “late” in the last sentence be the same word as in the following sentence? “It’s late. I have to go.” Today I will teach you how Read More

How to Talk about Outdoor Activities in Portuguese

It’s summer in Brazil. If you’re visiting the country, you will certainly enjoy many outdoor activities. How do you say outdoor activity in Portuguese? How do you say that the concert will be outdoors? In this lesson I will show you how to say outdoor in Portuguese and how we use the word outdoor in Read More

Ho! Ho! Ho! Reduced Rates Until December 25th

Purchase any of our Fluency packages at the reduced rate of $45/hour. This is our lowest rate, the one that subscription clients enjoy regularly. Until Dec 25th, you can purchase any Flex Pay Fluency package at this lower hourly rate. Promotional rate is valid from December 3 to December 25 Read More

To Borrow and To Lend: Say It in Portuguese

I was listening to a couple of CDs that a friend lent me and it occurred to me how rare it is these days to borrow CDs. Not so long ago, borrowing and lending music was a common practice. Now everything is on the cloud or in our phones and computers, and that interaction of lending and borrowing Read More

Here’s How to Order Your Soft Drink in Brazil

When I first came to the US, I kept ordering “mineral water” at restaurants and I would often get funny looks. I didn’t know that it is more common to say bottled water. In Brazil, we say mineral water. I also used to ask my water with gas or without gas. I wasn’t very successful with that Read More

Use the Verb Estar like a Pro in Portuguese

I know how confusing it can be to use the verbs Ser and Estar correctly when you come from a language that doesn’t distinguish between the two verbs. That’s the case of English, for example. Both Ser and Estar translate as the verb To Be. However in Portuguese we have two verbs and they are not Read More