Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Hello and welcome to Portuguese Survival Phrases brought to you by PortuguesePod101.com, this course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Brazil. You will be surprised at how far a little Portuguese will go.
Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by PortuguesePod101.com and there, you will find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.

Lesson focus

In today's lesson, we'll cover an extremely important phrase: "Where is the bathroom?"
In Portuguese, "Where is the bathroom?" is Onde fica o banheiro?
Let’s break it down by syllable: Onde fica o banheiro?
One time fast: Onde fica o banheiro?
Let's take a look at the components. The first word, onde, means "where."
So let's break down this word and hear it one more time: onde
And one time fast: onde
This is followed by fica, which in Portuguese is "stays."
So to recap here, we have onde fica. Literally, this means "where stays," or "Where is it located."
The word fica is used for things that are permanently located somewhere, like buildings, countries, and monuments.
Let's take a look at the next word, o, which means "the."
O
O
Last, we have banheiro, which means "bathroom."
Banheiro
Banheiro
Banheiro
So all together, we have Onde fica o banheiro? Literally, this means "Where stays the bathroom?" or "Where is the bathroom?"
This phrase is very useful if you are in a restaurant or at a meeting in a new place, but if you're at someone's home (which is very probable because Brazilians love guests), a request like "May I use the bathroom?" is much more appropriate.
In Portuguese, "May I use the bathroom?" is Eu poderia usar o banheiro?
Eu poderia usar o banheiro?
Eu poderia usar o banheiro?
Let's take a look at the components. The first word, eu, means "I."
Eu
Eu
Next, we have poderia, which means, "could" or “may.” This is followed by usar, which in Portuguese is "use."
Usar
Usar
So to recap here, we have Eu poderia usar. Literally, this means, "I could use." Let's take a look at the next word, o, which means "the."
O
O
And again, we have banheiro.
Banheiro
Banheiro
So all together, we have Eu poderia usar o banheiro? (Literally, this means "May I use the bathroom?")
Cultural Insights
So a quick culture tip on this that is very important for you to know and understand is that Brazilians put their toilet paper in a special trash can near the toilet. They don't flush the paper. The reality is that plumbing is done with small pipes and the paper clogs the tubes. I don't know why they just don't put in bigger pipes, but that's how it's done. I told an American this and she thought I was trying to play a trick on her so she didn't do it. Lo and behold, the toilet she was using became clogged and started overflowing. It wasn't a big deal, and we got everything taken care of and cleaned up pretty quickly, but she was very embarrassed.

Outro

Okay, to close out this lesson, we'd like you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for saying it aloud. You have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so boa sorte!
"Where is the bathroom?" - Onde fica o banheiro?
Onde fica o banheiro?
Onde fica o banheiro?
"May I use the bathroom?" - Eu poderia usar o banheiro?
Eu poderia usar o banheiro?
Eu poderia usar o banheiro?
Alright, that's going to do it for today. Remember to stop by PortuguesePod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.

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