Brazilians use the word lá to express much more than just the literal, there, that place over there. Lá in Portuguese is actually used in many different expressions in everyday speech. Later, we'll look at the other ways (the other words!) also used to say there besides lá! » ali and aí -- these ALSO mean "there" but are used in different ways. Right now, we're just going to talk about lá in Portuguese.
Lá can express location
fica lá = stay there
lá vem ela = here she comes (there she comes)
lá em casa = at home
On this example it would be fine to just say simply "em casa" : Minha bicicleta está em casa. The lá is included to add emphasis: it's THERE at home.
Lá also gets used to say things like, inside, outside, upstairs & downstairs.
Lá can express an emotion
Just as we say things like. "there you go again" and "there is something wrong", Brazilians use Lá in Portuguese to convey an emotion or feeling. These are the most common sentences that I hear all the time:
sei lá = whatever
vai lá = go on, go ahead
deixa para lá = let it be, leave it alone, forget about it
até lá = until then, until later
Notice here that people mostly say até logo when saying until then. But if it's some event at some specific location like a meeting or an outing, people will often say até lá » Ok, I'll see you at the festival » Até lá então.
And what, so you suppose "de lá e de cá" means?
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