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The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2011-04-05 13:54:25 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
Portuguese to English translations [Non-PRO] Slang
Portuguese term or phrase:cara
The context is a group of survey responses where participants are asked to pretend they are telling a friend about a product they’ve just tried. I do not know the gender or age of the respondents. Many responses start with something like ‘Cara, vi um novo produto muito bom…'
I have seen ‘cara’ translated as ‘dude’, but ‘dude’ is generally only used by younger people and predominantly young males (despite some limited use by others). What I need to know is if the use of ‘cara’, like ‘dude’, is limited to young males or if it is used by everyone (like, for example, ‘hombre’ in Spain). If ‘cara’ is more widespread and used by all ages and genders, I will probably just go with something like ‘hey, I just tried…etc.’
I guess it's a masculine thing. I live in Brazil and this is a common phrase that I use myself, although I'm not Brazilian.
I agree with your concerns about "dude". For me this refers to someone that you think is pretty cool, although 'cara' doesn't necessarily reflect that. You can call someone 'cara' and still think they're a fool.
The important thing is that it refers to someone you LIKE. I wouldn't call a person that I dislike 'cara' and I wouldn't call them 'cara' on a personal level.
These are my instincts. Hopefully you can come to your own conclusion. Best of luck.
Marlene Curtis United States Cara 10:19 "Not used by females, except, maybe, by very low class women or lesbians and I never witnessed a woman addressing another woman by "cara". I was born and brought up in Brazil."
I think the two guys are just having a very informal conversation about a product, (one of them is excited about it) that's all and are not trying to call anybody's attention, that's the way Brazilian males converse. I believe the translator must first capture the right connotation in the source language and next, try to adapt it to the target language.
Muriel, with all due respect, 'dude' is used quite often by some people to get the attention of others. For an interesting scholarly study on 'dude' check out http://www.pitt.edu/~kiesling/dude/dude.html. The sociolinguistic issue is trying to determine which groups use 'cara' and trying to find a parallel in English. Sure it doesn't translate exactly into English, but the point here is trying to find the best way to express the same concept, with all its semantic/syntactic/sociolinguistic elements. As a translator you have to find a way to say things in the target language. You don't have the luxury, as a scholar might have, of throwing up your hands. If you just say 'hey' you might be stripping the sentence of pertinent sociolinguistic content. In this particular case, marketing survey responses, gender and age of respondents is a pertinent issue to the client.
It's not about "cara". This is a construction that doesn't translate into English at all. The word is functioning as a 'discourse marker' to get the person's attention. The equivalent in English iis 'Hey'. Question: If you were trying to get someone's attention in English, would you really say 'Dude'? I don't think so. IMO, it's simply a sociolinguistic construction that doesn't exist in English. Anyway, that's my 2 cents based on a graduate major in sociolinguistics.
The further you drift away from the male 18-35 category, the less you're likely to hear/use "mate/dude/cara". I think we're getting to the crux of the matter.
Marlene and Richard, I think you are both kind of saying the same thing: that 'cara' is somewhat like 'dude' or 'mate'. I think it is safe to use dude/mate in its place. I really don't know whom to award the answer to but I think I have to go with Richard for taking the initiative to do some linguistic fieldwork and ask someone :). Marlene, thank you for your feedback as well, which was equally helpful.
Not used by females, except, maybe, by very low class women or lesbians and I never witnessed a woman addressing another woman by "cara". I was born and brought up in Brazil.
Sorry to contradict MC again, but females can use "cara" and sometimes do. However, "cara" is predominantly used by males because of the blunt / macho / slang element to it.
I've just taken the liberty of asking the first female within my vicinity and she says "yes, females do use it".
Be careful with this one. I don't feel comfortable with the female use of 'cara', but it does exist.
Males address anybody by "Cara" in Brazilian Portuguese, when starting a dialogue. "Mate" is very used in England, (where I lived for many years), mainly among friends, and I had to get used to hearing "Man" when I first moved to the US.
Marlene, I agree that man is a bit more widespread, but it is still probably used mainly by males; and it might be somewhat age-specific in that young people might not use it at all.
My real concern is that I do not want to inaccurately attribute an age and/or gender to a survey respondent. At the same time, I do not want to be too general in my translation if the use of 'cara' really does pigeonhole the respondent into an age and/or gender category.
Richard, you use 'cara' but would, for example, a middle-aged woman use it? would a mother in her thirties use it? would an elderly man? would a girl in her teens or twenties? etc.
Just to correct MC. You don't need to be close friends with someone to call them buddy or mate. It's an informal way of saying someone is a friend (not foe).
is not age-specific, my husband and his piers use it all the time, but "dude" is (my sons use it). "Buddy" and "mate" are used mostly among close friends from what I have noticed here in the US.
What would be really helpful would be if proposed answers explained specifically whether 'cara' is used by everyone or only by a specific group. This might require the intuition of a native Brazilian or someone who is very familiar with current Brazilian slang usage. It's more of a sociolinguistics question really. Even 'man' and 'guy' are kind of age/gender specific in English. I want to use dude/man/guy if appropriate, but not if 'cara' is more widespread and used by everyone.
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
2 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +2
man
Explanation: "Man", is is not age-specific and is used by all males here in the USA.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 4 mins (2011-04-02 12:20:33 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Oh Man...I think I messed up (Page 1) - The Super Affiliate Switch ... 16 posts - 5 authors - Last post: Jun 24, 2009 Re: Oh Man...I think I messed up. That would be my understanding as well. I don't believe Tissa receives any secondary commissions from ... acme-people-search-forum.com/topic/.../oh-mani-think-i-messed-up/
Marlene Curtis United States Local time: 22:14 Native speaker of: Portuguese PRO pts in category: 32
7 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +2
hey
Explanation: I would go with your own intuition. Some plausibly analogous sentences ripped off the web:
Hey, I've got a really dry T-zone, it's really flaky and even though I exfoliate/moisturize everyday, I CAN'T GET RID OF IT.
Hey, I've got a really annoying problem too. Every time I try to install my game it comes up with an error when I press 'try again' it continues this keeps ...
Hey, I've had a really hard time with starting cloth diapering. First of all, my hubby is against it completely, though he won't fight if I ...
STREPSIADES: Hey, I've devised a really clever way to make that lawsuit disappear—it's so good, 990 you'll agree with me. SOCRATES: What's your way?
Hey, I've seen a really old guitar with about 31 frets.... It was INSANE!!!!!
Because, hey, I've had a really good time playing all of them - more so than Joe Schmoe, who worked long, hard hours climbing the corporate ...
T o b i a s Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 8
peer agreement (net): +2
