Portuguese is full of expressions that make no sense whatsoever. People swallow frogs. They send you to go bother a poet who’s been dead since 1580. When something’s easy, it’s chicken soup. When a job is hard, there’s water coming up your beard.
But first, the thing no one else writing these lists will tell you: you’re probably not going to use any of these for a long time. Realistically at B2 level or above, and even then it takes real confidence to slip one in without it landing with a thud.
That’s not me being discouraging. It’s just what these things are.
But it is worth knowing them.
Think about it from the other direction. If you didn’t know “it’s raining cats and dogs” meant heavy rain, and you showed up in London and someone said it to you, you’d be completely lost. Same deal here. The value in this list is recognition — catching these when they come at you on TV, in the news, in a conversation you’re only half following. And they do come at you.
So: learn to spot them. Enjoy them. Then go back to your verbs.
Practice Portuguese has two units dedicated to expressões idiomáticas (both at B2 level), and I’ve marked below which expressions appear there (PP). It’s worth using for these specifically, because they have the audio pronunciation.
If your actual goal is to sound more like a local, Liz Sharma’s free training goes straight at it: 7 Tips to Instantly Improve Your European Portuguese. It breaks down seven of the hardest sounds — the specific ones learners consistently get wrong — with an MP3 of audio drills so you can practice until they’re right, plus an invite to her free lesson on the fundamentals.
Right, onto the weird and funny expressions.
The ones you’ll actually hear
These are the high-frequency ones. If you live in Portugal, these will land in your ears whether you want them to or not.
Estou-me nas tintas — “I’m in the paints.” I couldn’t care less. Uniquely European Portuguese, absurdly common, and it will come up in every conversation about politics, weather, and other people’s business.
É canja — “It’s chicken soup.” Piece of cake. Short, extremely common, and you’ll hear it from builders describing work they’re about to do.
Ficar a ver navios (PP) — “Left watching ships.” To be left empty-handed, stood up, hung out to dry. This is the one RTP built a segment around, which tells you something about its standing. The origin is disputed in a way that’s genuinely fun: one story says it’s the sebastianistas, who refused to accept that King Sebastião had died at Alcácer-Quibir in 1578 and kept climbing up to the Alto de Santa Catarina in Lisbon to watch for the ship bringing him home. It never came. Another version pins it on Junot’s troops arriving in Lisbon in 1807 to capture the royal family, only to find they’d sailed for Brazil hours earlier — leaving the French standing on the shore, watching ships.
Ficar em águas de bacalhau (PP) — “To end up in cod waters.” The deal fell through, it came to nothing. Portuguese fishermen sailed to Newfoundland and Greenland for cod, and a great many of them didn’t come back — boats, cargo, and men stayed in those waters permanently.
Estar com os azeites — “To be with the olive oils.” In a mood. Grumpy.
Ter muita lata — “To have a lot of can.” The nerve. The gall. Genuinely useful, because at some point you will need to describe someone’s behavior, and tens cá uma lata does a lot of work in three words.
Falar pelos cotovelos — “To talk through the elbows.” Talks nonstop. Ciberdúvidas describes it as someone who’s never quiet — the elbows are in there because of all the arm-waving.
Conversa fiada (PP) — Empty talk, or small talk, depending entirely on tone. It’s either “he’s all talk” or “I’m bad at chitchat,” and only your ears will tell you which.
Está a meter água — “It’s letting water in.” It’s going wrong.
Dar água pela barba — “Gives water up to the beard.” A tough, demanding job.
Podes tirar o cavalinho da chuva — “You can take your little horse out of the rain.” Don’t hold your breath. Give it up. The most famous one on the list, and it genuinely gets used.
Engolir sapos — “To swallow frogs.” To grin and bear it, to bite your tongue.
Queimar as pestanas — “To burn the eyelashes.” To hit the books, burn the midnight oil. Common, useful, and pleasingly grim about what studying does to a person.
Não me aquece nem me arrefece — “It neither warms me nor cools me.” I’m indifferent.
Muitos anos a virar frangos (PP) — “Many years turning chickens.” I know the ropes. You say it after someone compliments your work — it carries a whiff of pride, usually with a cheeky smile. “Wow, you finished that fast!” “São muitos anos a virar frangos, amigo.”
Encher chouriços (PP) — “Stuffing sausages.” Padding, filling time, going through the motions while waiting for something. A professora estava a encher chouriços na aula — the teacher was spinning out the lesson.
Puxar a brasa à sua sardinha (PP) — “Pulling the coals toward his own sardine.” Looking out for number one. In a country this committed to grilled sardines, this is a devastating thing to say about someone.
Partir a loiça toda — “To break all the dishes.” Here’s one worth getting right, because nearly every English-language list has it backwards. They’ll tell you it means causing a commotion or being furious. The dominant usage is the opposite kind of energy: to smash it. To kill it. “O jogador entrou e partiu a loiça toda” — he came on and was on fire. When The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was subtitled into Portuguese, “You were on fire tonight, Midge” became “Partiste a loiça toda hoje, Midge.” That’s the sense you’ll meet.
Gira o disco e toca o mesmo — “Turn the record over, same song plays.” You’ll also hear vira o disco; both are alive. This one’s genuinely mischaracterized everywhere, so look at how it’s actually used. Record ran it as a headline three weeks ago over a Benfica player’s dig at his rivals. A Bola used it over a story about Gyökeres being voted striker of the month again. It’s not “you’re repeating yourself.” It’s for when an apparent change turns out to have changed nothing — new government, same bad policies; new season, same guy scoring.
The more interesting ones
Lower frequency, better stories. This is the stuff that’s actually worth reading rather than memorizing.
Cair o Carmo e a Trindade (PP) — “The Carmo and the Trindade have fallen.” All hell’s broken loose. In the 1755 earthquake, two Lisbon convents — Carmo and Trindade — came down. The phrase started as genuine terror and has softened over 270 years into what you say when someone can’t find the good stapler. Usually ironic now. You can go stand in the ruins of the Carmo this afternoon.
Resvés Campo de Ourique (PP) — “Just barely Campo de Ourique.” That was close. Same earthquake: Campo de Ourique is the neighborhood the destruction stopped just short of. There is a Lisbon neighborhood whose name means “phew.”
À grande e à francesa (PP) — “In a big and French way.” Lavishly. Dates to the Napoleonic invasions and how General Junot’s men lived it up in Lisbon — the same Junot who, a few entries up, was left standing on the dock watching ships.
Para inglês ver — “For the English to see.” Done purely for show. This almost certainly originated in Brazil, around 1831 anti-slave-trade legislation passed largely to placate the British with no real intention of enforcing it. So it’s a phrase about performing compliance for the English.
Vai chatear o Camões — “Go bother Camões.” Get lost. Camões wrote Os Lusíadas, is the national poet, has a public holiday, and his chief function in modern conversation is as a place to send people you’d like to stop talking to. He’s been dead since 1580. He also had one eye. The joke is that only a man that dead could put up with you.
A pensar morreu um burro (PP) — “A donkey died thinking.” Said to someone who keeps saying they’re thinking about it when what they need to do is decide. Decide-te!
Onde Judas perdeu as botas — “Where Judas lost his boots.” The middle of nowhere.
Cabeça de alho chocho (PP) — “Head of withered garlic.” Chocho is dried-out, shriveled, hollow — not “rotten,” which is the translation that’s been copied around. Someone forgetful, vacant, nobody home. Originally for the genuinely distracted, now often affectionate. Often.
Vai pentear macacos — “Go comb monkeys.” Buzz off. Mild, faintly old-fashioned, and used in both Portugal and Brazil.
So what do you actually do with all this?
Mainly: enjoy them.
The common ones at the top are worth recognizing because they genuinely do crop up — in the news, on TV, in the half of the conversation you’re still catching up with. The others are really just a fun way to procrastinate from studying grammar.
Now after that fun interlude, get back to learning Portuguese.
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