4. NEM TE CONTO!

Calling all the gossip people out there! This one is for you.

Not that I’m much into gossip, okay? No intentions from my part to pass on any juicy information about others people’s business. Not a gossip girl here, just a dead curious lady with one best friend in the world that shares my absurd curiosity about everyone else’s lives. Do you see the difference there? We don’t want to spread around any info, we just want to know, it’s not gossip, we’re just sharers. And I still use this trick to get her attention when she is taking too long to reply to any of my messages, and gotta say it works every single time.

And now that we’re clear about me not gossiping, let me spill the beans to you, dear foreign!

There’s a Brazilian saying that starts every piece of gossip: “Nem te conto!”

The literal translation? “I don’t even tell you!”

What a better way to say you want to tell some tittle-tattle than saying you won’t tell the tittle-tattle?

This couldn’t be any more confusing for non Brazilian-Portuguese speakers, I know. But despite the contrary literal translation, the expression actually means “I will tell you. And, girl, it’s going to shake your world!”

The expression that says someone is about to tell you something, it’s also used to arouse the attention of the receptor of the gossip, build up a little tension, assuring the climax of the story.

To be honest, it’s one of my favourites, because it means the exact opposite of the literal saying, and yet delivers the anticipation every time.

So, dear gringo, I don’t even tell you that there’s more coming tomorrow, and it will be another of my favourite ones (you can kinda see I have a problem choosing just one here, can’t you?).

Till tomorrow,

expressionada