Bendicion

Question

I am meeting my boyfriends grandmother. She is Brazilian and I am Puerto Rican. Now usually when greeting elders I say bendicion but I don't know if I should say it to her. Is there like a cultural difference or something?

Answer 1

Hmm, I'm not sure. You may already know this, but the people of Brazil speak Portuguese, unlike the rest of South America (unless your boyfriend's abuelita also speaks Spanish).

From what little Portuguese I know, "bendición" in Portuguese is "bênção" but I'm not sure if this is used as a greeting in Portuguese like it sometimes is in Spanish. :/

I'm sorry I could not offer more help!

Answer 2

Hello Yami,

Welcome to our Spanishdict community forum

You asked:

I am meeting my boyfriends grandmother. She is Brazilian and I am Puerto Rican. Now usually when greeting elders I say bendicion but I don't know if I should say it to her. Is there like a cultural difference or something?

Spanish is the predominant (principal) language spoken in South America. It is spoken by the natives of all the other states except Brazil whose national language is of course, Brazilian Portuguese!

Some of the Brazilian people, (perhaps about a quarter 25%) of the population also understand and speak Spanish ....more likely this will be the younger generation under 50 years old! Sometimes Brasilian native people may understand Spanish but not know how to speak it! Many people I have met online, especially native Spanish speakers, and some offline too, have commented that they believe it is easier for Brazilians to learn to understand and speak Spanish than for Spanish people to learn and understand Brazilian Portuguese.

You can say this/I would recommend that you say this in Portuguese, instead:

Muito prazer = I'm very pleased to meet you!

Phonetical pronounciation: (Muy-too-praz-air)

Muito prazer (Braz Port) = Mucho gusto (Español) = I'm very pleased to meet you! (English)

I sometimes say as a parting blessing: ¡Qué Dios te (se) bendiga! o ¡Vaya con Dios!

I took lessons in Brazilian Portuguese from a native Brazilian Youth Pastor in our church for about 2 years. He comes from Sao Paulo.

Por cierto, nací en Lima, Perú pero mis padres son ingleses.

I hope this helps