Raiza Ponticelli
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''Prejudicar alguém". Is it possible to ...

''Prejudicar alguém". Is it possible to translate this expression to English?

Apr 28, 2022

POST IN ENGLISH-(BR)PORTUGUESE.

If you are Brazilian, you have definitely come across this linguistic conundrum before.

As it happens, "prejudicar" (verb) has lots of different translations to the English language, namely:

a) Damage (Example: "Her reputation is damaged" - sua reputação está prejudicada)

b) Harm; which, at times, is related to physical harm (Example: "The man harmed me" - o homem me machucou, me prejudicou)

c) Injure; which it's mostly used to talk about physical harm too (Example: "She fell and injured her shoulder" - ela caiu e machucou seu ombro)

d) Impair; which is used to talk about something that decreases the likelihood of something being successful (Example: recurring knee injury may have impaired his chances of winning the tournament. - Uma lesão recorrente no joelho pode ter prejudicado suas chances de vencer o torneio)

e) Undermine; which is similar to impair but it's used when there is a blatant attempt to make someone less confident, less powerful, or less likely to succeed. (Example: The president has accused two cabinet members of working secretly to undermine his position/him).

f) Last but not least: PREJUDICE. Prejudice is quite formal and means something that has a harmful influence on it. (Example: The fact that you were late all this week may prejudice your chances of getting a promotion). In this case, harm, impair, and damage could be used as synonyms.

The first real problem here is: PREJUDICE needs to be used with caution, as it also means "Preconceito" in English (Example: English people are prejudiced against American English).

The second, and perhaps major problem here, is that although we have various words to describe PREJUDICAR in English, we don't have a single one to describe prejudicar ALGUÉM, at least not one that would have the same ring to it in English.

Prejudicar alguém can be used in various contexts. It wears many hats and we don't need to think too much about the context. Prejudicar alguém is prejudicar alguém.

A few options that might be of use are:

a) Usar "harm". Na falta de uma tradução perfeita, "harm" entraria como um improviso.

Vamos imaginar o seguinte contexto: alguém no trabalho está tentando te prejudicar.

Você poderia dizer: "So-and-so is trying to harm me", mas ainda assim, teríamos que tomar cuidado porque "harm" tem uma conotação física ligada à palavra. Em alguns casos, algumas pessoas poderiam entender como "alguém está tentando algo físico contra você".

b) No mesmo contexto, de alguém está tentando te prejudicar no trabalho, você poderia dizer:

"So-and-so is trying to get me into trouble". Get someone into trouble means "fazer alguém entrar em apuros de propósito".

c) Em um contexto mais BRITISH, há um phrasal verb perfeito para isso que é: STITCH someone UP (mas ele só é usado em inglês britânico).

Example: Paul is trying to stitch me up (Paul está tentando me prejudicar).

De acordo com o Cambridge Dictionary, "Stitch someone up means to deliberately make someone look guilty of doing something that they did not do"

Phew, that was a long post, wasn't it? But this is what makes language interesting. You don't get answers right off the bat. You have to unpick things, research and come out with a solution.

We might not have the PERFECT translation to PREJUDICAR ALGUÉM, but we sure have some other interesting ways to say this in English.

Hope you enjoyed it!

See you next time.

Raiza

Sources: Cambridge Dictionary and Word Reference.

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