Carl and I have just returned from four wonderful days in São Paulo. I really love Sampa!

Saturday evening as I was going to bed I heard some yelling coming from the street. This woman was having a huge argument with someone. Maybe her boyfriend? His name was Gustavo.

As I was drifting into sleep, I said aloud about the scene:

• Que bate-boca horrível.

So I thought it would be useful for you to learn this expression: bater boca. Your Portuguese will sound very natural when you use it at the right time.

I will show you how to use the expression as a verb and as a noun.

Verb: Bater boca

= to have a heated argument, to argue noisily

Bater is a regular verb. To use the expression, simply conjugate the verb bater in the tense that you need.

Examples:

1. Tiago e Camila têm uma relação difícil. Eles batem boca com frequência.

= Tiago and Camila have a difficult relationship. They frequently have heated arguments.

 

2. Prefiro lidar com os problemas com calma. Não gosto de bater boca.

= I prefer to deal with problems calmly. I don’t like to argue.

 

3. Ontem meu chefe e um colega bateram boca o dia todo.

= Yesterday my boss and a colleague argued all day long.

Noun: O bate-boca

= a heated argument, a brawl, a noisy argument

Examples:

1. Tiago e Camila tiveram o maior bate-boca ontem.

= Tiago and Camila had the biggest argument yesterday.

 

2. Tiago e Camila têm muitos bate-bocas. (notice the plural)

= Tiago and Camila have many heated arguments.

 

3. Parem com esse bate-boca! Vocês não vão resolver nada assim.

= Stop this brawl! You won’t solve anything like this.

 

I hope you don’t get into bate-bocas. But if you do, at least you will know how to talk about it in Portuguese 😉