Portuguese Lesson: 2 Useful Phrases for Moments of Surprise

 

Today I have a short Portuguese lesson for you. I believe it will come in handy when you need these two useful phrases.

De onde você tirou isso?

It is useful to know this phrase. It means, “Where’d you get/take that from?” It can be used literally: for example, if you all of a sudden have something that wasn’t with you a second ago. Say you are visiting friends, and your kid shows up holding a strange object. You can ask: “De onde você tirou isso?”

Another example:

It is a beautiful, sunny day in the park. You are chatting with a friend when your dog shows up with a cell phone in her mouth. You will probably say: “De onde você tirou isso?”

This phrase can also be used to express the opinion that something has nothing to do with anything. For example, you and a friend are talking about a movie. Your friend shares with you the message he got from the movie. You did not see that coming at all. You can say: “De onde você tirou isso?”

Another situation: Your significant other mentions that they feel that you have changed and something is wrong with you. But you are not feeling different in any way. So you show your surprise by saying: “De onde você tirou isso?”

 

De onde você desenterrou isso?

It is also useful to know this version of the phrase. The verb desenterrar is to dig up (something), thus the phrase above means, “Where did you dig that up from?”

Here is an example of how it is commonly used: If you mention something that is known among the people in the group around you, but from, let’s say, 20 years ago, and no one really remembered that anymore, someone might use this phrase to indicate their surprise that you retrieved something that had been forgotten in the past.