English translation: whatever we say gets back to them
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Portuguese to English translations [PRO] Slang / português dos Açores
Portuguese term or phrase:eles ó depois arrecebem aquilo que a gente dizem
This is a woman talking about making a complaint of domestic violence at the police station. The dialogue is very slangy:
"…quando a gente vão fazer queixa, eles ó depois arrecebem aquilo que a gente dizem, isso não tá drêto."
The preceding context is about how the details of what the woman says to the police is passed on to the abuser in the content of the accusation, further endangering the woman.
I really don't grasp what she means by "arrecebem" or what the word "ó" is doing there. The final clause clearly means "That's not right". Does anyone have any ideas? BTW; I don't think we should rely on the grammar being correct - I think this is a fairly uneducated person speaking.
Exactly. The woman is complaining that her testimony to the police should be confidential, but that's just in theory, they (police) end up telling the abuser exactly what she testified at the preccint which makes her life even more miserable, since the man will retaliate further.
I did wonder if it was a form of "receber" but I had no way of confirming that. That's why it's so valuable to be able to consult native speakers like yourselves.
So I suppose we can translate that clause something like "afterwards they (the abusers) receive (get to see) what you said".
Hello,
The «ó» has no meaning it is just a form of speech used by uneducated, poor people especially from a generation or two ago;
"arrecebem" is just a misconstruction of "recebem" from the verb to receive or to get - it is exactly the same situation as explained above. Hope this helps.
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Answers
4 mins confidence:
later they accept what people say
Explanation: An educated guess.
Gad Kohenov Local time: 03:50 Does not meet criteria Native speaker of: French, Hebrew
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 2 hrs (2010-11-18 13:05:10 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
'ó depois' is exactly the same as 'depois'. it's used in spoken language by 'folksy' people.
'a gente' means 'we' or 'one' as in: One can never be too careful.
'arrecebem' is 'recebem' meaning receive, write down or take note (of a complaint, for example).
The whole text, more than being 'slangy', is a transcription of the way the way words sound.
I hope it helps.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 5 hrs (2010-11-18 15:55:58 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I just realized that the recipient was not the police. In this case the text would be something like: later they get wind of what we told
José Crespo Local time: 01:50 Does not meet criteria Works in field Native speaker of: Portuguese PRO pts in category: 4
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks for the very full explanation. I already knew about 'a gente' of course.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +1
