June 19, 2009

Expressions of age in Portuguese

My birthday was earlier this month. (Check out these other posts, if you want to know how you would sing happy birthday in Portuguese)... So we will cover a couple expressions for different ages in Portuguese, starting with balzaquiana, em minha homenagem (=as an homage to me):

balzaquiana = woman in her 30s.

Example:

Agora, eu sou uma balzaquiana.

This is due to Balzac's "A woman of Thirty". There is no similar term for men, so you can say the following (applicable to men and women):

Ele tem uns vinte/trinta/quarenta e poucos anos.
He is in his early 20s/30s/40s.
(literaly something like: He has some 30 and few years)

Ela tem uns vinte/trinta/quarenta e tantos anos.
She is in her late 20s/30s/40s.
(literaly something like: She has some 20/30/40 and so much years).

Exercises:

  1. If you are of applicable age, make a sentence describing your age, using the expressions above.
  2. Think of a couple of people you know and use the expressions above to describe thier approximate age.

As well as balzaquianas, we also have women in the idade da loba:

a idade da loba - literally "the age of the female wolf" - the age of women in their 40s

This is again due to a book by Regina Lemos (the translation of the title would be "Forty: the age of the wolf" - but all using the feminine gender. Here is some more on that). Again this is for women only.

For both genders, we can use the following expressions for people in their 40s and 50s (very informal):

quarentão/quarentona
in his 40s/ in her 40s

cinquentão/cinquentona
in his 50s/ in her 50s

Finally we have:

coroa - a slang meaning old person (sometimes pejorative) - literally "crown"

and

enxuto/enxuta - a slang meaning someone well preserved for their (old) age.

Example:

Ele é um já é um cinquentão, mas está um coroa enxuto.
He is already in his 50s, but he is a well preserved old man.

Exercises:
  1. Think of someone you know or celebreties ranging from early 20s and 50s. Make sentences describing their ages.
  2. Answer if you can: Na sua opinião, quais pessoas famosas são coroas enxutos?
Bom, agora que sou balzaquiana, espero que , pelo menos eu seja uma coroa enxuta!

June 4, 2009

Free Brazilian Movies in New York City

Want to put your listening skills to good use? You are still on time to catch some of the free Brazilian movies presented by the Brazilian Endowment for the Arts. I am a bit bummed to have missed all those movies, but I can still catch the last 3 in June. Films are shown on Thursdays at 7pm 240E.52nd St. (Between 2nd & 3rd Ave) until the end of the month.

You can also catch almost free ($5 suggested donation) screenings following a theme of Afro-Brazilian traditions at Exit Art. The screenings are part of a multi-disciplinary exhibition called Négritude and are shown every Friday at 6pm.