One-word Portuguese Lesson [Video]: Tô quebrado – Colloquial Portuguese

Here’s another one-word Brazilian Portuguese lesson by Street Smart Brazil. Learning colloquial Portuguese will enrich your vocabulary and help you sound natural when you speak the language.

This is how you say that you’re broke in Portuguese:

• Tô quebrado/Tô quebrada = I’m broke.

Tô is short for Estou (verb Estar). In spoken Brazilian Portuguese, we usually drop the first syllable of the verb Estar. Therefore Tô is an informal way to write Estou as we speak it. But remember: this is not appropriate for business or academic writing.

Quebrado means broken or broke. A woman would be quebrada.

A couple of examples:

1. Tô quebrada. = I’m broke.
2. Paulo tá quebrado. = Paulo is broke.

I have a Portuguese lesson on the slang words that we use in Brazil for money, work, and food. Watch the lesson here.