Say these words out loud: queque, bife, lanche. Do they sound oddly familiar? Cake? Beef? Lunch?
Portuguese has borrowed plenty of words from English. Many recent arrivals, like smartphone or online, kept their English spelling when they moved to Portugal. Others adapted to their new home with a Portuguese makeover: a new accent, a new spelling to match, and often a twist in meaning too.
That twist is what trips learners up. The word looks familiar, so you assume it means the same thing, and then you order a lanche at noon. Here are some of the most common ones to know, grouped by where you’re likely to meet them.
At the table
o quequemuffin (from “cake”)
In Portugal, a queque is a small round sponge cake, closer to a muffin than a birthday cake. Said about a person, it means posh, affected or pretentious: Ele é um bocado queque. (He’s a bit of a snob.)
o bifesteak (from “beef”)
A bife is a steak of any meat, not just beef. You’ll see bife de peru (turkey steak), bife de frango (chicken fillet) and bife de vaca (beef steak) on menus all over the country. Bife (masc.) and bifa (fem.) are also slang for English speakers, usually Brits. Among friends, it’s a playful jab. From a stranger, it lands less kindly. You may also hear the expression ” (edit)]
o lanchesnack (from “lunch”)
This is the big false friend. A lanche is the afternoon snack between lunch and dinner, not lunch itself. Lunch is o almoço.
a sandessandwich
Sandes is short for sanduíche (sandwich). It stays the same in the singular and plural: uma sandes, duas sandes.
Around the house and beyond
o champôshampoo
This one travelled further than most. English got the word from Hindi chāmpo, meaning to press or knead, and Portuguese then took it from English.
o iateyacht
A iate is a yacht, as you’d expect. In Madeira, though, iates are also boat shoes.
On the pitch
Football gave Portuguese a whole family of English borrowings. Three come up in almost every match.
o futebolfootball, soccer
That’s soccer, for North American readers. Fun fact: “soccer” itself started out as British slang for “association football”.
o gologoal
A golo is only the point scored. The physical goal you shoot at is a baliza.
o penáltipenalty kick
A penálti is only a penalty kick in football, not any other kind of penalty. Watch the stress: it falls on the second syllable, not the first.
A French detour
o piqueniquepicnic (from “pique-nique”)
This one looks English but didn’t come from English at all. Portuguese took piquenique from the French pique-nique, which is also where English got “picnic”.