Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[ClarissaMach]

Hi! I need some help in translating these two Brazilian Portuguese expressions into English:

1) "Festa da desordem": it's an epithet used to designate the Brazilian Carnival. The idea is of "Disorder party" or "Confusion party". Do any of these expressions sound odd to native speakers?

2) "Cair dentro": it's a popular expression to say "join", to express self commitment to something. Literally translated, it would mean �fall into�. The idea sometimes is �dive�, �join in�, �take part on something�. Here follows some examples:

I had to do a history test so I �ca� dentro� [�falled into�] the history books.

I had given up going on a diet so I �ca� dentro� [�falled into�] the candies.

People left their homes to play, expecting in fact a band to pass so that they could �cair dentro� [�fall into�].

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By the way, could you tell me if something sounds odd in the texto below?

Carnival is a celebration that in other times was communitarian and agglutinating of participants that shared feelings of happiness. It was an opportunity to forget about the daily problems, of feeling free to go out on the spree. According to Ismael Silva, �� these hundred people, one hour later, were more than 500. It's the group that also had the name of dragnet, because wherever it went through it would go on dragging, increasing, increasing, increasing. They were people that wanted to play but were alone. They left their homes to play in fact expecting a band to pass so that they could �cair dentro�, as it was said. Then, it went on increasing�.
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Stormy Weather.

[Bob S.]

[ClarissaMach]

THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!

Bob saves the day...
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Stormy Weather.

[Lorikeet]

In this part of your text, "Carnival is a celebration that in other times was communitarian and agglutinating of participants that shared feelings of happiness..." I can guess that "communitarian" has something to do with community, but I never heard it before. Do you mean it was community-oriented perhaps? Also, "agglutinating" sounds odd (at least to me) because it is rarely used. Do you mean it brought people together?

[ClarissaMach]

Yes, Lorikeet. Both your guesses are right.

I imagined that "agglutinating" might sound odd, for I looked for this word at google and all the references were concerned to Science descriptions... do you suggest any other word that might replace it? And about the word Communitarian, it does not exist?
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Stormy Weather.

[Lorikeet]

Well, I googled "Communitarian" and it seems to be some kind of philosophical movement, so I don't think it fits well in your sentence. I would probably say something like:

"Carnival is a celebration that in other times was community-oriented and brought together participants who shared feelings of happiness."

if that's what you meant.

[ClarissaMach]

Thank you!
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Stormy Weather.