Tuesday 19 June 2012

False friends - pronunciation: how to order a coconut water in Brazil


During my first degree, I started studying Spanish. It was only a few years ago in London, when I decided to learn Portuguese due to my Brazilian and Angolan friends and the Brazilian community in my Zouk-Lambada dance group.
 
When I met the prince of sun, I completely immersed in the Portuguese language and got reminded of my Spanish language knowledge one embarrassing time in a Brazilian beach café.

Ordering a chilled coconut water, I unconciously used my brain-stored Spanish language knowledge for the pronunciation of "coco" (coconut) which has the following pronunciation and stress:

coco

check:
http://pt.forvo.com/word/coco/


Now in Portuguese, cocô (stress: coco) means shit/poo... Yes...

Ordering a "agua de cocô gelada" meant I was asking for "chilled shit water". 

The correct Portuguese pronunciation for coconut is
"coco" (stress: coco).

The whole bar team started crying (due to nearly rolling on the floor laughing) so I only learned about my mistake and the correct pronunciation after they recovered.

2 comments:

  1. Classic!!! Lol
    Thanks for visiting my blog I will definitely come here more often xx

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Liza! Rsss... But I still go back to that place ;)

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