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- Topic: Portuguese >
- "O sinal ficou verde."
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I'm not a native speaker, but I have been reading Portuguese now for 2 years. I have found that the word ficar has dozens of meanings. For examples: got, as in ficou contento, furioso, cansado...; became, as in ficou evidente; stayed or lodged, as in ficou nos melhores hoteis; kept, as in ficou com muito odio; is located, as in Onde fica o hotel?; remained, as in ficou preso por oito anos; was, as in Pedro ficou muito arrependido; grew, as in ficou rico; stay, as in ficar alerta; to be, as in sua reputação pode ficar manchada por anos. And to all this I now add turn, as in o sinal ficou verde.
1929
All what you enumerate does not show how strange and overloaded "ficar" is. It shows how strange and distributed (or rich) English usage is for expressing a couple of related meanings:
- to become (to get, to grow, to turn, to be)
- to stay (to keep, to remain, to be located)
All of the listed meanings could be expressed with a couple of related verbs in other languages, for example in Slavonic languages with stati/stoyati. In Bulgarian actually yet another pair of related verbs could be used: stana/ostana. All verbs I listed are cognates of English "stay" originating from PIE steh₂- / stoh₂-.
Sinais de multiplicação
Sinais de linguagem/linguagens de sinais
Sinais de fumaça
Sinais de rua Sinais de doença
Etc..
if that's the case the hints should reflect it. Ficar up 'til now has never been used to mean 'become', can't expect people to pull meaning out of thin air when this programme is supposedly meant to provide you with a decent contextual meaning. Would you accept it can also be translated as 'the signal stayed green'?
1379
emeyr coloquei Was deu errado....questao de tempo? Duo colocou remained em substituiçao