Recommend - Commitment

Compromisso - Commitment

Compromise does NOT mean Commit. To compromise means to find a middle ground in negotiations. You reach a compromise when you agree to less than you requested, understanding that the other party has also done the same. Commonly called a win - win solution.

Indicar - Recommend, Nominate

I have seen the two films that were INDICATED for the Oscar - IS WRONG. I have seen the two films that were NOMINATED for the Oscar is how this is said.

The new Manager was  INDICATED by a friend of mine - IS WRONG. The new manager was RECOMMENDED by a friend of mine is the way you should say this.

Escrever - Subscribe, Enrol

Emprestar - lend
Tomar emprestado - borrow

Take - tomar

Levar - get

Beat vs Win

So, did you WIN a team or did you BEAT it? Of course, you BEAT the team.

And, did you BEAT a game or did you WIN it? And again, you WON the game.

In English we usually participate in competitions to WIN. To BEAT our opponents.

WINNING it where you get the best result which usually means first place.
   -  In Business, when you WIN a contract, it is usually because you submitted a better bid or offered better terms in your proposal.
   -  If you don't WIN, then you LOSE. (Not loose - which means slack, not tight)

To BEAT requires someone or something else to compete against.
   -  You can BEAT another team.
   -  You can BEAT another company with a better bid or proposal.
   -  You can BEAT the ODDS by doing something unbelievable.
   -  If you don't BEAT an opponent, you are BEATEN by that opponent.

(To be a success in life, you have to BEAT the odds and never stop WINNING when the opportunity comes.)

Rob vs Steal

You can NOT STEAL a person.
You can ROB a person by STEALING the things that person has.
 - You might KIDNAP a person, as you would when you take that person against their will to someplace and then demand money for their return.
 - You might STEAL a baby. In this case the Baby is the object of value taken from the person.

You can NOT STEAL a Bank. The Bank is too large to carry (usually)
 - You ROB banks when you STEAL money from them. (Usually called a HOLD-UP)

If you STEAL a car, you take the car and all the contents.
If you ROB a car, you take only the objects from it.


That is it. Think of stealing in the way it is described above and it might become a little easier to differentiate between STEALING and ROBBING. 

( Here are some references;
A ROBBER ROBS or STEALS by ROBBING people or STEALING from people.
A THIEF STEALS from people or ROBS people by ROBBING them or STEALING from them.)

The Things That Drive A Sane Person Mad

I hope you enjoy this.

This is not my work, but part of something I receive every morning from ArcaMax
(Click on the link to subscribe to any number of ezines, and start your day the right way)

• You have to try on a pair of sunglasses with that stupid little plastic thing in the middle of them. 
• The person behind you in the supermarket runs his cart into the back of your ankle. 
• The elevator stops on every floor and nobody gets on. 
• There's always a car riding your tail when you're slowing down to find an address. 
• You open a can of soup and the lid falls in. 
• There's a dog in the neighborhood that barks at EVERYTHING. 
• You can never put anything back in a box the way it came. 
• Your tire gauge lets out half the air while you're trying to get a reading. 
• A station comes in brilliantly when you're standing near the radio but buzzes, drifts and spits every time you move away. 
• There are always one or two ice cubes that won't pop out of the tray. 
• You wash a garment with a tissue in the pocket and your entire laundry comes out covered with lint. 
• The car behind you blasts its horn because you let a pedestrian finish crossing. 
• A piece of foil candy wrapper makes electrical contact with your filling (or braces). 
• You set the alarm on your digital clock for 7pm instead of 7am. 
• The radio station doesn't tell you who sang that song. 
• You rub on hand cream and can't turn the bathroom doorknob to get out. 
• People behind you on a supermarket line dash ahead of you to a counter just opening up. 
• Your glasses slide off your ears when you perspire. 
• You can't look up the correct spelling of a word in the dictionary because you don't know how to spell it. 
• You have to inform five different sales people in the same store that you're just browsing. 
• You had that pen in your hand only a second ago and now you can't find it. 
• You reach under the table to pick something off the floor and smash your head on the way up

Multiple Meanings

Just for fun I thought I would post this amusing text I received from a site recently. There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is "UP." It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP ! our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP! the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special. And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll! wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so..........Time to shut UP! Oh...one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night? U-P

Part 2 of some of the things that confuse Portuguese speakers across the languages

Esquecer - leave, forget

    -  It isn't usual for English speakers to say, I FORGOT something AT A PLACE. 
    -  When we use a PLACE reference, we wish to say WHERE we were when we FORGOT to remember something.

    -  It is more correct to say either, I LEFT something at a PLACE or I FORGOT something WHEN I was at a PLACE.

    -  I FORGOT something at home means I FORGOT something when I was at home. We don't necessarily mean that the FORGOTTEN thing was LEFT at home.
    -  I FORGOT to pack my computer when I was at home, is the same as I LEFT my computer at home.

(Note. This is also a mistake some English speakers make, and it tends to lead to all types of confusion)

    -  Frank Sinatra said it best, "I LEFT my heart in San Fransisco".

                                                         --ooOO\\//OOoo--

Take versus Get

    -  I will TAKE my books is a very common phrase here in Brazil. What the person really wants to say is, 
    -  I will GET my books.

If you TAKE your books, you are TAKING your books with you TO another place, not retrieving them from somewhere else. 
    -  The word TAKE translates to LEVAR . The word GET is PEGAR or BUSCAR in Portuguese. 

    -  We normally use TAKE when we want to place the object we are carrying somewhere else, so we carry (TAKE) the object to another place.

    -  I will TAKE you TO the Airport when you are ready to leave. Then when you return, I will GET you from the Airport (Pick you up) and bring you back here. GET means to collect or pick something/someone up, to bring them back. 

    -  I need to go to the bank to GET some money because I do not have any.

    -  I need to TAKE some money TO the bank to deposit it in my account.

The only explanation I can find for this mistake might be related to the expression we use to say;

    -  I think I will TAKE a coffee. Would you like one? (HAVE/DRINK tomar) There is a sense that TAKE means GET, when in fact it does not. The speaker is suggesting that he/she will go and DRINK a coffee and is actually inviting the listener to drink a coffee too. 

    -  I need to TAKE a shower. (HAVE tomar) expresses the true use of TAKE as is meant in TAKING a coffee..

                                                         --ooOO\\//OOoo--

(Just out of interest. 

I have a student who repeatedly says:

    -  My friend LEFT my computer TO RJ on Saturday. I kept correcting her (took to or left in), unable to understand why she was using LEFT. Then it dawned on me. The Portuguese word for TAKE is LEVAR.. So she was looking at LEVAR and thinking LEAVE (quite similar looking words when you look at the spelling) then used the past tense of LEAVE, LEFT, to construct her sentence.)

It takes a lot of work sometimes to understand the mechanics behind these misunderstandings.

Part 2 of some of the things that confuse Portuguese across the languages

Esquecer - left forgotten
Parentes - Parents family
Emprestar - lend
Tomar emprestado - borrow

Take - tomar

Levar - get

Bia uses The girls left the computer to Sao Carlos.

Left comes from leave which is a bad translation from Levar.

Avoid vs Prevent