Brazilian Slang 101: ANIMAL (it's not what you think it means)

I often hear Portuguese learners talk about how they can understand the news and audiobooks just fine, but then go to Brazil and can't understand anyone on the streets.

I get it.

Not only does the spoken language have significant differences from how it's taught in textbooks and apps, but Brazilian Portuguese has an INSANE amount of slang.

So I decided to start this blog series as a fun way of helping you navigate the colorful world of Brazilian street slang!

This is the type of language you'll need to be familiar with if you want to understand:

• People on the streets in Brazil
• Movies & TV shows
• MMA fighters & soccer players
• Trap/funk artists
• Informal podcasts

Just to name a few!

So in this post, I wanted to explore the use of the word "animal".

Yes, it can mean what you think it does.

But you will often hear people describe something as "animal".

For example, you might hear someone say:

     "Cara, a gente ficou num hotel animal"

No, they're not saying that they stayed at an animal hotel! :P

They're saying that the hotel was nice.

Like super nice.

Maybe it had an amazing ocean view, infinity pool, elegant Mediterranean architecture.

You get the idea.

It's used really similar to how "dope" or "sick" is used by a lot of people in English.

So "Cara, a gente ficou num hotel animal" is kind of like "Dude, we stayed at a sick hotel".

In the clip below, the guy is describing a hotel that he went to in Bangkok, Thailand:

     "Cara, a gente ficou num hotel em Bangkok...animal!".

In this one, the guy talks about visiting a gym ("academia" in Portuguese) that his friend had just opened. He says it was:

     "animal...animal a academia" 

Let's take a look at another example:

     "Esse show foi animal!" = "That show was dope!"   

Just like how "dope" or "sick" tend to be used more by younger people in English, the same goes for "animal" in Portuguese (especially common among younger guys in Rio).

That's it for this one, see you in the next post :)

-Andrew