Tô na correria - One-Word Portuguese lesson

Do you feel that you are often rushing around between tasks? If you do, then you need to know how to use the word correria. In this Portuguese lesson I am also going to show you a synonym for correria, so you will have in your vocabulary two Brazilian Portuguese words that express the sense of rushing around.

Correria

Correria means:

rushing around
rush
scramble
busyness

Correria is a feminine noun.

Its meaning is related to running (correr = to run) or rushing. We use the word correria to express the feeling of being in a hurry, rushing between tasks because we are so busy.

Here is a example using correria:

Imagine that you are having a super busy day and you have been rushing from one meeting to another at work. You look at your phone and you see it is the third time that your friend Ana calls you today. You pick up the phone and say:

Desculpa, Ana. Eu tô numa correria enorme! Não posso falar agora. Te ligo depois.

= Sorry, Ana. I’m in a huge rush/super busy! I cannot talk now. I’ll call you later.

Did you notice that funny “tô”? In spoken Brazilian Portuguese we usually drop the first syllable of the verb Estar in pretty much all of its conjugations. The sentence really is:

Estou numa correira enorme.

But in everyday spoken Brazilian Portuguese we would drop the first syllable and it would sound like “tô”.

Corre-corre

Corre-corre means the same as correria, but it is a masculine noun.

So, I can say:

Desculpa, Ana. Eu tô num corre-corre enorme! Não posso falar agora. Te ligo depois.

This is the same example as before, but using corre-corre em vez de correria.

Here is another example with these words:

Que correria!

Que corre-corre!

= What a rush! / What a busy life!

This is how we often express our frustration with feeling to busy and being in a rush.

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