Years ago, I was watching the Brazilian film “O Caminho das Nuvens” (aka The Middle of the World) when I heard the phrase “é chão” used for the first time. I stopped the film and rewound it to make sure I heard correctly because “it’s floor” didn’t compute in my head.

From the story, I knew it was a family from the northeast who travel by bicycle to Rio de Janeiro in search of better opportunities. After hearing it the second time, I thought about it abstractly and got the gist of it. One character was informing the other that his destination was far away.

From a Google search, using the lyrics of a song I found (by Xico Barreto), we can see the phrase being used.

“Do litoral pro sertão, é chão, é chão, é chão”
(From the coast to the backwoods, it’s far, it’s far, it’s far)

If you want to hear it used in the film I mentioned, see minute 4:10 in the film.

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