What is a “pegadinha” in Brazilian Portuguese?
Brincadeira com carne, gelo e uma pegadinha
A2 Portuguese listening practice · Brazilian Portuguese · Picked for people who know a little
Pegadinha is the Brazilian Portuguese word for a prank or “gotcha,” and in Brazil it’s an entire entertainment genre. From Silvio Santos’s classic 1990s TV pranks to YouTube channels today, pegadinhas are a Brazilian comedy staple. The catchphrase te peguei, daqui você não sai (“got you, you’re not getting out of here”) is the genre’s signature line, said the moment the camera reveals the trap.
This clip is a freezer-trap pegadinha with the classic catchphrase, layered with Brazilian vocatives like mô and irmão (brother). The genre has been so successful that te peguei has moved into everyday Portuguese as a stand-alone “gotcha” expression.
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this A2 Portuguese listening practice video?
How common in written Portuguese
How common in spoken Portuguese
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-PT-BR 2012 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Brazilian Silvio Santos archive and other classic TV pranks
- ▸In Brazilian YouTube prank channels
- ▸In Brazilian sitcoms where pranks are recurring plots (Sai de Baixo, A Grande Família)
- ▸In Brazilian friend-group conversation when someone got pranked
- ▸In Brazilian memes referencing the te peguei line