Elementary 12: Look At Those Muscles!

MP3 Audio (Lesson) | MP3 Audio (Dialog)

Going to the gym, working out, exercising, for some these words all carry a positive feeling. For others, they bring up feelings of dread or guilt. In today’s lesson Andreia is really into working out, or at least watching others work out. Cassia, not so much. And even if you are not in perfect shape, after today’s lesson you will at least be able to talk about it.

Lesson audio

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Dialog audio

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Dialog
Discussion
 A: Uau, olha aquele cara que está fazendo abdominais.
Wow, look at that guy who is doing sit-ups.
  B: Para Andréia, você sempre está olhado os homens. É uma doença isso, viu?
Stop it Andreia, you are always looking at men. It’s a sickness, you know?
  A: Não Cássia, é que eu aprecio o corpo de quem malha, saradão.
No Cassia, I just appreciate the bodies of those who work out.
  B: "Aprecia o corpo de quem malha", não vem com essa não.
“You appreciate the bodies of those who work out”, please don’t give me that.
  A: Não, olha pra aquele na barra, aquele ali, você não acha legal ver alguém com esses músculos?
No, look at that guy at the barbells, don’t you think it’s cool to see someone with those muscles?
  B: Não, eu só penso em esteroides e suplementos artificiais.
No, I just think of steroids and artificial supplements.
  A: Bom, eu acho lindo.
Well, I think it’s beautiful.
  B: E eu acho que não é nada natural.
And I think it is not natural.

3 comments

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  1. Bret Kauffmann

    Hi Orlando – another great dialog!

    One question:

    In the fifth line when you are doing the line-by-line analysis you and Sonia skip over the part of the sentence that says, “…,aquele ali,..”.
    She says it during the dialog but it’s not translated in the English part.
    This just means ‘that one there’, right?

    Also, one other thing to point out – in the second line there is a typo in the word “olhando” (“olhado”).

    Thanks again – these are really helpful!
    Bret

    1. Orlando Kelm

      Hi Bret,
      The word “aí” and “alí” are interchangeable. And both refer to something that is close to the person being spoken to. A good rule of thumb: aqui = close to the speaker, aí & ali = close to the person being spoken to, lá = farther away from both the speaker and the person being spoken to. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but a pretty good general guideline. As to “aquele”, a grammar book might say that Brazilians have three adjectives: este, esse, aquele, but in everyday speech, they generally really only use two: esse and aquele. All that to say, “aquele alí” is like saying, “that one that is over near where you are.”

      As to my typo, thanks, now we’ll see how lazy I am to see how long it takes me to get into it to correct it!

      Orlando

      1. Sam

        This took me a long time to catch on to… but Orlando, once again… perfectly written words of wisdom! I wish I had this back when I was trying to figure out the difference between ai and la.

        “A good rule of thumb: aqui = close to the speaker, aí & ali = close to the person being spoken to, lá = farther away from both the speaker and the person being spoken to.”

        1. Orlando Kelm

          É isso aí meu!