Expect the Unexpected.

By James Hall / / (2) Beginning Portuguese

When Brazilians want to say that something unexpected came up, they do it like this:

"Aconteceu um imprevisto!"

Which just seems strange for two reasons: 1) The verb is at the very start of the phrase; and 2) where is the 'came up' part?

(from Semantica Series 2: advanced dialogs)

A beginner would try and say this more literally and likely end up with: 'Alguma coisa imprevista aconteceu'.  And this wouldn't be wrong, but it wouldn't be the way it's actually said here in Brazil.

Let's break it down:

1) Brazilians often place the action verb at the beginning of a sentence:

> Acabou que ele não foi à festa porque estava chovendo.

> Fez muito sol ontem.

> Conseguiram vender o apartamento.

2) PREVER is the verb 'to predict'. PREVISTO/A is of course, unpredictable.

A few variations on this sentence are:

> O imprevsito aconteceu. (the unexpected happened)

> Acontece o imprevisto. (the unexpected happens >> 'shit happens' 😉