What does “valentão” mean in Brazilian Portuguese?
Primeiro dia de escola e encontro com o valentão
A2 Portuguese listening practice · Brazilian Portuguese · Picked for people who know a little
Brazilian Portuguese has a perfect word for the schoolyard bully: valentão, formed by adding the augmentative ending -ão to valente (“brave”). The grammar makes the literal meaning “big brave guy,” but the augmentative twists into mockery. A “big brave guy” is a posturing tough, a bully who isn’t actually brave.
This clip pairs the valentão setup with a surname-Burger pun: a kid named Burger gets asked vem com fritas? (“does it come with fries?”). The combination is exactly what a Brazilian audience expects in a schoolyard comedy: a swaggering bully, a deflating pun, a kid winning by being witty rather than tough.
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
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-PT-BR 2012 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.