What does “viajar” mean in Brazilian slang?

Sonhos de infância sobre viagens espaciais e Vênus

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B2 Portuguese listening practice · Brazilian Portuguese · Curated for upper-intermediate learners

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viajar
Brazilian Portuguese slang for daydreaming
“to travel,” and also “to drift off, daydream, get lost in thought”

Viajar means “to travel,” but Brazilians also use it for trips in your head. Eu viajo muito nessas coisas means “I get really carried away thinking about this stuff.” If you tell someone você está viajando, you mean “you’re zoning out” or “that makes no sense.” The longer version is viajar na maionese, literally “to travel in the mayonnaise”: to ramble off into nonsense.

This clip plays with both meanings. The speaker says that as a child she dreamed of holidays on Venus. The interviewer asks if she means Rio de Janeiro, and she answers eu já estou falando de Vênus (“I’m already talking about Venus”). Then she admits eu viajo muito nessas coisas.

Vocabulary frequency

How common is the vocabulary in this B2 Portuguese listening practice listening practice?

91.7%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common Portuguese words
Based on this reel’s transcript, most of the vocabulary is high-frequency, everyday Portuguese.

General Portuguese frequency

84.4%
Top 1,000
91.7%
Top 2,000
96.9%
Top 5,000

Spoken Portuguese frequency

81.3%
Top 1,000
91.2%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000

Words above this video’s level

Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s B2 level.

vênus
2×
Rare / outside top 5,000
Venus (planet/goddess)

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-PT-BR 2012 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.

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