Sigh. Another day in fucking up Portuguese. A gnat landed in my wine and I asked the server if he could give me a rabbit to get it out. Coelho = rabbit Colher = spoon
Replies
Next time. Just drink the gnat
aug 7, 2025, 5:22 pm • 1 0 • view
10 years in Germany and I can't get the cutlery right! It's just the kind of words that don't register besides needing them regularly.
aug 6, 2025, 9:23 pm • 1 0 • view
I can honestly say I’ve never had to ask for a spoon (or a rabbit) since I’ve been here.
aug 6, 2025, 9:25 pm • 1 0 • view
“Italian man in malta vibes” 😃 hehe
aug 6, 2025, 9:03 pm • 0 0 • view
I have NO IDEA why I cannot unfuck these two words in my brain.
aug 6, 2025, 8:59 pm • 7 0 • view
aug 6, 2025, 9:13 pm • 2 0 • view
It’s so dumb, and I get it wrong EVERY SINGLE TIME.
aug 6, 2025, 9:19 pm • 1 0 • view
I just wonder how many English mistakes I've made and never realized I did.
aug 6, 2025, 9:32 pm • 0 0 • view
I always just hope the Portuguese people have a bit of a laugh, same way native English speakers chuckle at common mistakes
aug 6, 2025, 9:35 pm • 1 0 • view
I usually catch the mistake 3 seconds after the words have left my mouth 😫
aug 6, 2025, 9:34 pm • 1 0 • view
This is a good thing! My ESL teacher would repeatedly tell me to speak slowly and pay attention to what I said. I never did this. I think I want to sound like someone who dominates the language.
aug 6, 2025, 9:39 pm • 0 0 • view
And “tudo” I’ve been pronouncing Spanish-y, “toodoh” instead of a long ooooooh sound “tooodoo”. Not like they give a shit about vowels here anyway 🤣
aug 6, 2025, 9:44 pm • 1 0 • view
As I’ve been practicing my pt-PT accent I realize that I’m fucking up words I hadn’t even thought about. Lavar vs Levar is one I caught myself doing. “Para levar” I was pronouncing as “Para lavar” (thanks, Spanish)
aug 6, 2025, 9:42 pm • 1 0 • view
My mouth works faster than my brain sometimes 😞
aug 6, 2025, 9:40 pm • 0 0 • view
Same, same. But know I just get happy that people understand me, or at least most of the time 😅
aug 6, 2025, 9:43 pm • 1 0 • view
If you’re thinking of a CoLo, you’re down the hosting RABBIT hole.
aug 6, 2025, 9:24 pm • 0 0 • view
Rabbit is pronounced “coh-ell-yo” Spoon is pronounced “coll-yer”
aug 6, 2025, 9:27 pm • 0 0 • view
That’s it. Teach the ignorant foreigner through repetition.
aug 6, 2025, 9:29 pm • 0 0 • view
😉🤪
aug 6, 2025, 9:29 pm • 0 0 • view
That won’t help at all lol
aug 6, 2025, 9:26 pm • 1 0 • view
Because you're exactly the kind of person who would legitimately ask for a rabbit out of sheer shock value?
aug 6, 2025, 9:09 pm • 0 0 • view
Tastes like chicken. Pairs with this wine. Will dunk it like tea biscuits.
aug 6, 2025, 9:25 pm • 1 0 • view
Did they give you a rabbit though?
aug 6, 2025, 9:09 pm • 1 0 • view
Sadly, no.
aug 6, 2025, 9:20 pm • 2 0 • view
Maybe he would have liked the wine
aug 7, 2025, 11:26 am • 2 0 • view
did the rabbit work?
aug 7, 2025, 11:20 am • 0 0 • view
I missed my boat stop on the Amazon mistaking 30 minutes for 3pm
aug 6, 2025, 9:19 pm • 0 0 • view
It's ok. Portuguese was* my first language. We use the same proposition (em) for both "in" and "on". I'll never not fuck that up in languages that make a clear distinction. *Brain works in English now.
aug 6, 2025, 9:09 pm • 3 0 • view
Portuguese to me is so limiting sometimes. In English, we have so much more nuance in available words. I still haven’t figured that part out
aug 6, 2025, 9:21 pm • 2 0 • view
The nuance is there, but it takes decades of being embedded in the language to really pick it up. I can attest to that in English, where I now feel confident to use words like "attest" 😄
aug 6, 2025, 9:29 pm • 3 0 • view
🤣🎉 I definitely don’t have that yet. Sometimes it’s tone, sometimes it’s context, sometimes something else entirely. I still interpret pt-PT very literally, which isn’t helping - but it’s how my brain works 🫠
aug 6, 2025, 9:33 pm • 2 0 • view
Imagine when you discover that colher = spoon colher = to reap Same word, just different intonation.
aug 6, 2025, 9:37 pm • 5 1 • view
If I were to read that I think I’d get it. Hearing it spoken I’d definitely do the frozen-segfault-face
aug 6, 2025, 9:39 pm • 3 0 • view
I sorta get it tho? To scoop (via spoon)
aug 6, 2025, 9:38 pm • 1 0 • view
Different etymologies, apparently. Both from Latin: the colher "spoon" from "snail shell" (same root as "cochlea", the inner ear), and colher "reap" from "colligare" (same root as "collect"). Language is fun. Just don't look up the other word that starts with colh- 👀
aug 6, 2025, 9:48 pm • 1 0 • view
Like, I’d just go with caralho and move on. I’m a guest here, not about to start any real shit
aug 6, 2025, 9:54 pm • 0 0 • view
If you pay taxes, you're not a guest. You're part of the gang.
aug 6, 2025, 10:01 pm • 3 0 • view
I get paid as a pt employee, I pay into social security here. I know all these things, but it still feels a little weird.
aug 6, 2025, 10:07 pm • 0 0 • view
We do, but… this article fucking haunts me. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
aug 6, 2025, 10:06 pm • 0 0 • view
I jokingly asked about Portuguese swear words with my friends who run a restaurant. One brother is very playful, the other a bit more serious. As the playful one gave me the dirt (usually calling someone’s mom a whore) the muito sério one made it a point to explain in great detail the seriousness
aug 6, 2025, 9:53 pm • 1 0 • view
Interesting thing about learning swearwords in a language that is not your first: to me, it never quite feels the same guttural way as "those" words you first learnt in your mother tongue. Back then, they were forbidden words. They really carried stigma. In another language they are just… sounds.
aug 6, 2025, 9:59 pm • 4 1 • view
That’s a really interesting point I hadn’t thought about. Tho I say “fuck” every other word - it’s just normal for me. I can throw off a foda-se (sp?) or a caralho just fine, I have not yet learned the level of swear word crafting I can do in English
aug 6, 2025, 10:04 pm • 0 0 • view
When I swear it’s a visceral reaction of mine, so the language is only natural if it’s mine. Using someone else’s language feels like I’m swearing for them, not for me, and that’s never the case - the tone telegraphs the intent.
aug 6, 2025, 10:05 pm • 1 0 • view
That is very true. When my wife gets super pissed off, she falls into Spanish swearing, since it's just instinctual and natural for her. Kind of a wild thing to see.
aug 6, 2025, 10:23 pm • 1 0 • view
Heh, I only recently learned that caracóis just means “curly”. It’s a food here (as you know) and I was quite baffled about champoo for caracóis. Snail shampoo? Shampoo made from snails?? wtf? Then a friend told me it meant curly and everything fell into place
aug 6, 2025, 9:50 pm • 1 0 • view
I hate you.
aug 6, 2025, 9:37 pm • 3 0 • view
Don't shoot the messenger!
aug 6, 2025, 9:40 pm • 1 0 • view