Meaning of botar a mão na massa, na ponta do lápis and eu, hein!
Meaning of botar a mão na massa, na ponta do lápis and eu, hein!
Hello there and welcome to our Portuguese Basic Tips 95, called meaning of botar a mão na massa, na ponta do lápis and eu, hein!
On today’s podcast, we are going to speak about the meaning of botar a mão na massa, na ponta do lápis e “eu, hein?”.
Visit our previous episode called meaning of bater cartão, abrir mão, haja coração and a casa caiu
Let’s get started!
Botar a mão na massa
Look, this is a simple way of saying “let’s work” in Portuguese. No matter what kind of work we are speaking of, we can say “vamos lá, vamos botar a mão na massa”.
This expression comes from Italian cuisine. When we prepare pasta, for example, we have to put our hands in the dough; we have to botar a mão na massa.
- Chega de conversa, vamos botar a mão na massa! (Stop speaking. Let’s work!)
- Eu nem queria, mas tive que botar a mão na massa! (I didn’t want to, but I had to work!)
Na ponta do lápis
This one is one that you will need a slightly higher level of abstraction if you want to understand the meaning.
Come with me. Just imagine that someone calculates too many, adding, dividing, subtracting, taking into account every penny that was spent. This guy or girl is doing it with his pencil, is doing it at the tip of the pencil.
Therefore, saying that someone did everything na ponta do lápis is to say that the calculation is closed, just, there is no room for adjustments.
- Ele é daquele tipo que gosta de tudo na ponta do lápis (He doesn’t like surprises with money)
- Já fiz tudo na ponta do lápis e a conta não fecha (I calculated every penny and the bill is not right.)
- Eu não quero viver na ponta do lápis. Eu mereço mais! (I don’t want to live counting the coins I have, I deserve more than that).
Eu, hein!
If you have had the opportunity to deal with the Portuguese language spoken on a daily basis, you have certainly heard this interjection. This expression indicates that you are surprised about something and there’s a bit of disapproval on it.
See:
- Eu fiquei lhe esperando a noite toda e você não apareceu! (- I was waiting for you all night and you didn’t show up!)
- Eu, hein? Não marquei nada contigo! ( What are you talking about? I have nothing to do with it).
- Eu, hein! Que comportamento estranho você está tendo! (What a weird behavior you have!).
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Meaning of mão na massa
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Thanks!
Marcos Sales
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