Linguistic Gymnastics

This happened a couple months back, but I've kept it in the back of my mind to write about when I had a chance.

LS and Mamãe were driving in the car, and LS says from the back "you is também".

This didn't seem to make sense at first, but LS repeated it and she seemed very intent on it as a fact. Not just some random playing with words.

It took Mamãe a few minutes, but she caught on to what was going on. When she relayed the story to me later on I didn't get it. Even on the first explanation I didn't quite catch on.

Here's how it plays out.

• "you" is "tu" in Portuguese


• "tu" sounds like "too" in English


• "too" has the meaning "also"


• "also" is "também" in Portuguese

So, "you" -> "tu" -> "too" -> "também".

Unlike losing something in the translation, this was kinda like adding something in the translation. Funny stuff learning is.