Ficar

I’ve posted about FICAR before - Ficar Grammar & Portuguese Verb Ficar.

FICAR is a big deal and using it correctly can be powerful.

Italians have a big problem with this verb because apparently, it means to fuck in Italian. That’s their problem, not yours. Actually, Brazilians do use FICAR to talk about casual hook-ups like this,

But the more standard way to use FICAR is when talking about becoming (ie, getting to be). I’m getting confused just trying to explain this simply. And it really is a simple idea: becoming, getting to be. It just sounds complicated. Let’s try to say something like, I’m getting confused. Perfect.

*the Present Progressive tense.

Now try changing that to, I always get confused.

*present tense

Now put in in the past tense, I got confused yesterday.

*You_can switch it to : eu fiquei confuso ontem.

That’s what I mean by getting, becoming. There are other verbs that mean to get, but they're for the other type of getting - physically getting something.

With this, you can say things like,

» It’s getting late

» It’s getting complicated.

» Your getting angry.

» It’s getting really hard to…

» I’m getting really mad at you!

» I got so tired yesterday.

» Are you getting sleepy?

» He’s going to get rich.

The more common, standard meaning is, to remain, stay. As in: I’m going to stay here. But it also applies to things that also “stay” put (hotels, beaches, mountains). Like this:

» O restaurante fica na outra rua.

» A casa dele fica perto do centro.

» O bar fica bem perto, graças a Deus.

When you’re riding around town in a van or táxi you will be asked, onde você vai ficar? This seems really confusing at first. They are asking you where you’re going to get off. Obviously, you’re not really going to be staying there literally, but it’s your “final” destination so in the relative scheme of themes it works.