You may have heard your Brazilian friends saying that someone pisou na bola or stepped on the ball. This is a Brazilian idiom that comes from soccer: pisar na bola. We use it often in everyday life. This is why I want to tell you what this Brazilian Portuguese colloquial expression means and how to use it.
Futebolês (futebol + português) is such a part of everyday Brazilian Portuguese that I thought it deserved a series of Portuguese lessons to teach you different expressions. To find more of these lessons, you can always go to my blog home page and search for: soccer. In fact, I have so many blog posts, you can search for just about anything 🙂
Pisar na bola
The video below shows you how to pronounce the expression. But please keep reading as I have examples below showing you how to use this idiom.
The literal translation from Portuguese to English is: to step on the ball.
Imagine a soccer game. Imagine a player running really fast with the ball in a great attack move. Now imagine that the player accidentally steps on the ball and loses his/her balance. What a disappointment, right?
Pisar na bola means exactly that:
- to make a mistake
- to mess up
- to disappoint someone as a result
Below are three examples to help you learn this very popular and useful Brazilian Portuguese idiom.
1)
Bianca: Por que você e o João terminaram?
Célia: Ele pisou na bola. Esqueceu que íamos sair juntos e me deixou esperando no sábado à noite. Não foi a primeira vez que ele fez isso.
Translation:
Bianca: Why did you and João break up?
Célia: He messed up. He forgot that we were going out together and left me waiting on Saturday night. It wasn’t the first time he did that.
2)
Gustavo: Eu quase fui demitido hoje. Deixei nosso cliente mais importante esperando porque esqueci que tinha uma reunião com ele. Pisei na bola, eu sei. Meu chefe ficou furioso e com toda razão.
Translation:
Gustavo: I almost got fired today. I left our most important client waiting because I forgot I had a meeting with him. I messed up, I know. My boss was furious, and with good reason.
3)
Silvana: Por que você está tão fria comigo?
Fernanda: Você pisou na bola. Quando eu estava passando por dificuldades e precisando de ajuda, você simplesmente sumiu.
Translation:
Silvana: Why are you so distant?
Fernanda: You messed up. When I was going through trouble and needed help, you simply disappeared.
Other Portuguese Lessons from My Soccer Series
- Soccer Vocabulary in Portuguese
- Learn Colloquial Portuguese: Vestir a camisa
- Learn Colloquial Portuguese: Pendurar as Chuteiras & Verb Aposentar-se
- Learn Colloquial Portuguese: Entrar de Sola & The Verb Entrar
Street Smart Brazil offers one-on-one, live, online Portuguese lessons. Enjoy your own private Brazilian Portuguese tutor and learn Portuguese from wherever you are in the world.
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