The 25 Most Important Gestures in Brazilian Portuguese

You can't speak Portuguese without moving your hands. And, as you might expect from a people with their own style of kissing, Brazilians have a grand repertoire of unique gestures. Among them: "big fat liar", "this person's quality stuff", and "in the hood".

The following is a video anthology of 25 of Brazilians' most important gestures for communicating about relationships, failure, theft, scheming, sex acts, etc. And as a bonus, a little instruction on the unique Brazilian finger snap. This documenting of Brazilian supra-verbal communication took place a few drinks during last year's carnival.

 The gestures, in order, are:

1. Mentirona — big fat liar
2. Rapidinho — faster
3. Gostoso — that (person/thing) looks pretty damn tasty
4. Gostoso (mais sutil) — pretty damn tasty (more subtle)
5. Sujou — it didn't work out
6. Fudeu — fucking doesn't work
7. Sujou 2 — it didn't work out
8. Vamos alí — let's sneak off together
9. Afogar o ganso — to drown the goose (have sex)
10. Faz tempo — it was long ago
11. Nossa, muito trabalho — God, I'm tired, it's so much work
12. Escorrendo o veneno — Salivating venom (talking shit about someone)
13. Boquete — blow job
14. Bola gato — roll a cat (oral sex)
15. Igual — the same
16. Do mesmo jeito/tudo igual — on the same wavelength
17. Planejando alguma maldade — scheming
18. Na quebrada — in the hood
19. Na faixa/meu brother — this person's quality stuff
20. Amigo do peito — we're tight
21. Vou furar o teu olho — I'm going to puncture your eyes, you dipshit
22. Robou — stolen
23. Parabens — congratulations
24. Tô de mal — broken up with someone
25. Tô de bem — we're together

Bonus: How to do the Brazilian finger snap (o estalo brasileiro)

The standard caveats apply: I don't pretend that this is a definitive anthology, and I certainly don't expect that all Brazilians will agree on the meanings of every one of these gestures. You may want to supplement your studies with this more sober look at Brazilian gestures. And, as always, feel free to chime in below or contact me with your comments, questions and recriminations. 

Brazilians even have their own finger snap

This is just one of the countless gestures integral to communication in Brazil, and never taught in any Portuguese class. The estalo brasileiro, or Brazilian snap, is used to indicate speed; sometimes it's used to (rather rudely) tell someone to pick up the pace.

To snap like a Brazilian, start with your hand pretty much as it would be for the international version of the snap, in which your middle finger ends up hitting the base of the thumb. In the Brazilian version you keep your middle finger pressed against the tip of your thumb and the sound comes from your index finger hitting your middle finger as you waggle your arm. Keep your index finger very loose.

As you can see in the video above, I completely failed at this, much to the delight of the Brazilians who instructed me. Perhaps you'll fare better.

Someone else has created a more sober (though not necessarily more useful) demonstration of the same.