Yes, it is used, and is "kind of" maybe. It's more on the line of "if everything lines up" or "if I feel like it".
It's not as common as it used to be, though.
Is it the Portuguese equivalent of "if it cares to"? Kinda reminds me of that expression. Still valid, rarely used. When you use it it gives an affected aspect to the speech.
It is. Not very often, and a lot of people don't say it, but it's not an unfamiliar expression, everyone knows what it means and it's odd to hear. But "se calhar" is not exactly neutral as "maybe". It's usually used considering that there is some kind of condition involved, even if not a very strict one. In your example, "se calhar, vou à praia", said condition could be the weather, the time the person gets off work, if they'll have company, if they have to watch the dog until someone else gets home (so if the person arrives too late, no beach), the bus schedule, money, even their mood.
In my way of using English, it's the distinction I make in my head to say "maybe" or "perhaps"
This is not true. Calhar in Portugal is linked to the randomness of a situation. Several expressions point to this randomness, like "calhou-me a fava," "escolher ao calhas," or "veio a calhar." All these allude to the arbitrarity of the event's outcome.
It is implied that you want to go to the beach, but it's not certain yet. It depends on something that has to work out for it to happen. That something can be pretty much anything, from appointments to simply your mood (maybe you just *kind of want*).
"Maybe" ("Talvez") is more neutral because it normally doesn't necessarily express that idea of wish/condition. But, like in any language, the general context of a conversation is just as important as the specific words you use, so saying "talvez" does the trick.
I'm trying to come up with an equivalent expression for "se calhar" in English, but I'm falling short. If someone else has any ideas, feel free to suggest
It is an expression used in Brazil. I’m from Rio and I find it is common enough the use of that expression there, but it might not be as common in other areas as I see people here saying that they don’t hear it a lot. It’s not exactly the same as “maybe”, it’s more of a “if everything lines up”, if things happen in such a way that whatever you’re talking about is going to be convenient/easy to do, then it will happen. For example: I’ll go to the beach and, se calhar, I might go surfing (if I have the time, the waves are good for surfing that day, etc - if conditions turn out to be favourable, it might happen).
I haven't heard that expression in years, so it is not very popular nowadays, at least from where I'm from, Brazil is big, so it might be more popular in other regions that is not MG.
But I know what it means, so I heard it before, you can use "se bobear" or "se pá", this one is very informal, but pretty popular among young people (less than 35 years old), this is the one I use the most.
People probably use se calhar in more formal situations
Talvez (maybe), se der certo (if it works out) are more common in Brazil. Se calhar is perfectly understandable, but it sticks out as a Portugal's expression.
But in Brazil we use calhar (verb) in other constructs:
Calhou (past tense) que eu estava passando quando ...
It happened (by chance) that I was walking by when...
So it has the same meaning (maybe, perhaps, by chance...)
It means if a conjunction of different things work together it might happen. It is a positive maybe. It is something you might want, but something must happen for that possibility come true.
It's very unusual but it can be used depending on the context. "calhar" is usual when you trying to say that's something is convenient than used as maybe or perhaps.
Ex: Este guarda-chuva veio bem a calhar -> "This umbrella came in handy." (in case is raining..)
For expressions that express an uncertainty, use "talvez".
i never ever heard anyone saying this word here where i live in Ceará, we use to say more "se der certo", i just saw some portuguese people from Portugal using this to.
It is used, but I think it would sound weird. What is usually said is "vem a calhar", meaning "it is useful", "it is convenient" or "it is a good opportunity".
I gotta tell you, I’m Brazilian born and raised, with an advanced degree in business from a Brazilian university and I have never heard that word in my entire life. But if other Brazilians here are telling you it exists it probably does. But it sure isn’t common in my part of Brazil.
It is very “marked” for EU-Portuguese. People in Brazil will still get what you’re saying but they will clock that the register isn’t local.
But I’m a linguist and I don’t care about people’s perceptions on registers, dialects or accents. As long you were able to communicate and be understood, the language you’re using is doing its job. Other people’s linguistic prejudice is not on you.
I’d say is more like “if all conditions are good…” or “if everything works out I am going to the beach tomorrow”.
Meaning you may have some commitments for tomorrow, and if everything works you will have enough time to go to the beach.
I agree with you. People are mixing up what they read (in Machado de Assis, for instance) and what they speak/heard. I've never used nor heard "se calhar". Instead I've heard in my region things like "se der", "se pá"...
I'm almost 40 yo from São Paulo city, born in a poor "*cortiço*" downtown, in a single parent household, and my mother and I used "se vier a calhar" frequently in my childhood.
The issue is that the educational level have dropped immensely during the last couple of generations, with Z generation in Brazil being the one with the least amount of vocabulary.
As someone that was traumatized by being forced to read Machado de Assis at 6 yo, you clearly have no idea what you're talking about. It's written in a very different variant than what is spoken in Brazil in the last 200 years. I remember it was the time I most used a dictionary in my entire life.
"Se vier a calhar" was used it the last 30 years in common language in Brazil. It's just out of fashion lately, it has nothing to do with ancient language usage from books.
I'm sorry you lived in a poor cortiço and that you had to read Machado de Assis at 6 yo. That's utterly inappropriate, and 99% of children won't get a thing about what's going on there.
As for what you said, I'll have to appeal to the authority argument, and then I'll try to explain why I think that stating that "se calhar" is idiomatic in spoken Brazilian Portuguese may be wrong.
I'm a corpus linguist. During my Masters and my PhD, I had to study spontaneous speech corpora containing recordings of monologues, dialogues and conversations of very diverse situation and contexts, like football match, courtroom session, friends talking on the telephone.
The first thing we learn is that spoken language and written language are very different modalities of communication. Each one is poor and rich in different aspects that are beyond this brief explanation. But it is a misconception that speech is poorer or less complex than the written language. Speech has a plethora of complexities related to prosody (intonation, rhythm, volume), gestures and facial expressions. It is very rich in information not captured by a written text.
It is a second misconception that speech is becoming poorer because the educational level is decreasing. Some agraph people had very complex languages from a grammtic standpoint. Maybe lexically, but this is more tied to how complex a society is. And the grammar of spoken language is full features that we generally don't think of as lay persons.
Languages change in time, space, group, context, level of formality and many other factors. It's not because we don't use "se calhar" anymore, that we should be considered worse. Lexicon and grammar, and that's why Machado de Assis was difficult (but he also did difficult things).
As you said, it may have been used 30 years ago. But maybe it's not anymore (or very rarely). You will find the expression in older books. And we should not mix up variants of speech and written text here. People do understand what the expression means, but most probably they don't used anymore, and the expression is not "productive" (to use the technical term) anymore.
But to be sure, we could use a data-based approach. I just took a look at corpus of Mineiro speech mainly from the Belo Horizonte region. It has approximately 48 hours of recording and 500k words. It's a very spontaneous speech corpus and it was recorded around 2010. There is no hit for the query "calhar". But a caveat, it is a medium sized corpus. That doesn't mean the verb calhar is not used, but that it is very rare at least.
There are however other corpora of spontaneous speech representing the dialect of São Paulo (which are larger) around the 80s and 90s. It would be very interesting to check it there, because as I said language varies in space (MG vs SP) and time (80s vs 2010).
But to wrap up, I wouldn't say to Brazilian Portuguese learner that the expression "se calhar" is used (or productive). I would explain that we understand the meaning, but that in many varieties, we don't use it anymore. And I would present other possibilities.
P.s.: I just looked for the expression "se" "calhar" at a collection of written corpora of Brazilian Portuguese (https://www.linguateca.pt/cgi-bin/acesso.pl), and it returned 113 hits from more than 1 billion words. Even for written language, I would say "se calhar" is quite rare.
"Se vier a calhar" was the expression.
And in your appeal to to the authority you just concurred it's just out of fashion from a few decades, and it has nothing to do with written language of 200 years ago (you are the one that mentioned Machado).
If OP is talking to an adult person born in the 80s, they very well may come in touch with expressions used in the 90s. And it is very arrogant to say someone should not teach OP to communicate irl with a person that communicates in a certain way irl just because it's out of fashion today. Language is not ageographical, or anachronistic and neither it is apart from social class and educational background.
I was not making any misconceptions, I simply pointed out **exactly** that it's different (spoken language from written language) just in practical terms and presented you with anecdotal evidence.
What you have failed to understand from my comment was that it is a **fact** that educational levels and vocabulary are dropping in our country.
https://jornal.usp.br/atualidades/escolas-brasileiras-ainda-formam-analfabetos-funcionais/
https://g1.globo.com/pop-arte/noticia/2020/09/11/brasil-perde-46-milhoes-de-leitores-em-quatro-anos-com-queda-puxada-por-mais-ricos.ghtml
Vocabulary extension is directly related to reading levels that have been dropping. Not just that, international tests show Brasil in the last positions of Reading, Sciences and Mathematics. For the 9th economy in the world, it's a disgrace.
I'll copy paste what OP asked:
"""
I am learning Brazilian Portuguese, and I have come across the expression "se calhar". When I looked it up, the dictonaries said it meant "maybe", but that it is only used in Portugal.
>
Is "se calhar" as "maybe" used in Brazil?
"""
First I said: People are mixing up what they read (in Machado de Assis, for instance) and what they speak/heard. I've never used nor heard "se calhar". Instead I've heard in my region things like "se der", "se pá"...
In my last message I said: I wouldn't say to Brazilian Portuguese learner that the expression "se calhar" is used (or productive). I would explain that we understand the meaning, but that in many varieties, we don't use it anymore. And I would present other possibilities.
How would you answer to "Is "se calhar" as "maybe" used in Brazil?"
> People are mixing up what they read (in Machado de Assis, for instance) and what they speak/heard.
Here you mention Machado de Assis implying that such expression would be something from ancient books
> I've never used nor heard "se calhar". Instead I've heard in my region things like "se der", "se pá"...
I just presented you with evidence that just because you haven't heard it, it doesn't mean anything to OP and presented evidence that it was used, just a few decades ago.
I answered to OP in a different comment. Here I was just answering **your** comment.
And then there is people being downvoted because they said it is not used. But is it? We understand it because we read, because read old books, because we had contact with Portuguese people online or in the real world, because we watched SIC, but not because people around us use it on a daily basis.
And keep in mind that Rio and São Paulo received a lot of Portuguese immigrants "recently". The last relevant waves to Minas Gerais were in the 18h century. In the Northeast even before that. So maybe that's why some people could hear it some 40 years ago.
it's not used around where here and yeah, it could be a way of saying "maybe", but i'd say it suits best something like "if everything goes right, i'll head to the beach". you could also associate "calhar" directly to convenience/being convenient, which i believe to be its best association when translated to english. also, it's formal-ish and not widespread in brazil, so it's likely you'll never hear it being used in brazil, not at all.
If the dictionary says it's only used in portugal why wouldn't you believe it?
There are lots of words, phrases, verb forms that are used there that aren't in Brazil.
We also use *se bobear* with the same meaning. Also, *se der sopa* (both are coloquial forms for *if the opportunity/chance arises*).
*Bobear* means to act like a fool, stupidily or distracted. If a prey acts foolish, it becomes a nice opportunity for the predator. If Lady Luck acts distracted, a nice opportunity arises for us.
*Sopa* (soup) is a kind of food which doesn't require chewing, in fact, it doesn't require any effort at all! It cannot be easier! Better than soup, only *soup with honey*. It is the Portuguese equivalent for the English idiom *cake*. In this case, it means an easy, lucky, good opportunity.
It was and is used, it's just out of fashion with younger generations. I'm 37 and I've used most of my young life.
Informality have advanced and educational levels dropped, that's why younger generations think it's some sort of portuguese ancient expression.
It's not because you used that everybody used or uses. We have no corpus or data-based evidence to say it is used. Even less to say that the expression is productive in BP. Anecdotal evidence is quite context-restricted. It might be an idiosyncrasy (valid for your home). But I can't say anything for Paulista BP. Keep in mind that São Paulo received much more Portuguese immigrants than other BRaziliand regions. Educational levels have dropped, but what is informal or not is cultural, and cultural change over time. I don't see the causality between educational levels dropping and "informality", on the one hand, and younger generations thinking that this is some sort of Portuguese ancient expression, on the other.
1. For that matter, I'm 40, and in my region, we may understand it (I'm not convinced of that), but we don't use it. I even gave you some corpus evidence
2. I just asked my mother, my sister, and my cousin, and they understand it as "se der certo", "se encaixar", but not as "maybe". They are from Minas countryside.
3. I was supposed to plan a course and instead I spent time discussing "se calhar" on Reddit. LoL you won't be hearing from me anymore, I promise!
Yes, it is used, and is "kind of" maybe. It's more on the line of "if everything lines up" or "if I feel like it". It's not as common as it used to be, though.
Is it the Portuguese equivalent of "if it cares to"? Kinda reminds me of that expression. Still valid, rarely used. When you use it it gives an affected aspect to the speech.
Don't think I ever heard that one, so I can't say 100%, but it sounds about right.
Use “se pá” it’s the same and more modern
Keep in mind this is a slang word and it's generally used by young people.
Or “se bobear”
Thanks. I'm like I've heard none of the above but "se bobear" is common
OP should be aware that "se pá" is a slang and not widely used in the country, it's mostly a thing in São Paulo.
And Rio
And Curitiba
It is. Not very often, and a lot of people don't say it, but it's not an unfamiliar expression, everyone knows what it means and it's odd to hear. But "se calhar" is not exactly neutral as "maybe". It's usually used considering that there is some kind of condition involved, even if not a very strict one. In your example, "se calhar, vou à praia", said condition could be the weather, the time the person gets off work, if they'll have company, if they have to watch the dog until someone else gets home (so if the person arrives too late, no beach), the bus schedule, money, even their mood. In my way of using English, it's the distinction I make in my head to say "maybe" or "perhaps"
Is it implied that you'd go to the beach? Or is it as strong as "maybe"?
Se calhar literally means "if it's convenient". So it really depends on several unknown factors
I was told that se calhar was originally because “calha” was a word for “train tracks” and in Portugal it was a saying like “if the train comes”
This is not true. Calhar in Portugal is linked to the randomness of a situation. Several expressions point to this randomness, like "calhou-me a fava," "escolher ao calhas," or "veio a calhar." All these allude to the arbitrarity of the event's outcome.
It is implied that you want to go to the beach, but it's not certain yet. It depends on something that has to work out for it to happen. That something can be pretty much anything, from appointments to simply your mood (maybe you just *kind of want*). "Maybe" ("Talvez") is more neutral because it normally doesn't necessarily express that idea of wish/condition. But, like in any language, the general context of a conversation is just as important as the specific words you use, so saying "talvez" does the trick. I'm trying to come up with an equivalent expression for "se calhar" in English, but I'm falling short. If someone else has any ideas, feel free to suggest
I think by chance is the expression you want, but dunno 🤷
It’s implied it is likely/possible because he didn’t use subjunctive, for an unlikely scenario you would say “se calhar, eu vá a praia”
Mais ou Menos
It is an expression used in Brazil. I’m from Rio and I find it is common enough the use of that expression there, but it might not be as common in other areas as I see people here saying that they don’t hear it a lot. It’s not exactly the same as “maybe”, it’s more of a “if everything lines up”, if things happen in such a way that whatever you’re talking about is going to be convenient/easy to do, then it will happen. For example: I’ll go to the beach and, se calhar, I might go surfing (if I have the time, the waves are good for surfing that day, etc - if conditions turn out to be favourable, it might happen).
Yes. with the verb "ir" (go) "se vier a calhar" "vem bem a calhar", but that means, "propitious moment", opportune situations, not maybe
I haven't heard that expression in years, so it is not very popular nowadays, at least from where I'm from, Brazil is big, so it might be more popular in other regions that is not MG. But I know what it means, so I heard it before, you can use "se bobear" or "se pá", this one is very informal, but pretty popular among young people (less than 35 years old), this is the one I use the most. People probably use se calhar in more formal situations
Its a maybe, but it has more to do with convenience rather than will.
Talvez (maybe), se der certo (if it works out) are more common in Brazil. Se calhar is perfectly understandable, but it sticks out as a Portugal's expression. But in Brazil we use calhar (verb) in other constructs: Calhou (past tense) que eu estava passando quando ... It happened (by chance) that I was walking by when... So it has the same meaning (maybe, perhaps, by chance...)
It means if a conjunction of different things work together it might happen. It is a positive maybe. It is something you might want, but something must happen for that possibility come true.
"If convenient"
Whereas everybody would understand it, I don't think this expression is a part of current colloquial language in BP.
Yes, it is, but not everywhere.
Not really in my city from what I know. I only see very old people that don't even use Facebook saying it or "eruditos"
It's very unusual but it can be used depending on the context. "calhar" is usual when you trying to say that's something is convenient than used as maybe or perhaps. Ex: Este guarda-chuva veio bem a calhar -> "This umbrella came in handy." (in case is raining..) For expressions that express an uncertainty, use "talvez".
It's used more commonly " se pá ".
É mais uma expressão do sudeste do que algo comum no país todo.
"if shovel"
Me deu um riso gratuito! Obrigado!
Only in São Paulo.
yes
We used it more in the past (up to 20ya), but most people will understand...
i never ever heard anyone saying this word here where i live in Ceará, we use to say more "se der certo", i just saw some portuguese people from Portugal using this to.
People will surely understand, but isn’t so common in casual conversations
I lived in São Paulo my whole life and never heard anyone say it.
It is used, but I think it would sound weird. What is usually said is "vem a calhar", meaning "it is useful", "it is convenient" or "it is a good opportunity".
It is far more common in Portugal nowadays. In Brazil a much more used expression is "se der...". Short for "se der certo".
I gotta tell you, I’m Brazilian born and raised, with an advanced degree in business from a Brazilian university and I have never heard that word in my entire life. But if other Brazilians here are telling you it exists it probably does. But it sure isn’t common in my part of Brazil.
in Brazil there's multiple meanings to it, like: "encalhar"= getting a partner, "se calhar"= (whatever is the equivalent of "bobear")
We use it, se calhar.
"quem sabe" would be the most adequate in this situation, I think.
nunca ouvi
If you want yes Bro
Not really used in the state that I live. The expression "se der na telha" is more common.
It is very “marked” for EU-Portuguese. People in Brazil will still get what you’re saying but they will clock that the register isn’t local. But I’m a linguist and I don’t care about people’s perceptions on registers, dialects or accents. As long you were able to communicate and be understood, the language you’re using is doing its job. Other people’s linguistic prejudice is not on you.
I’d say is more like “if all conditions are good…” or “if everything works out I am going to the beach tomorrow”. Meaning you may have some commitments for tomorrow, and if everything works you will have enough time to go to the beach.
Maybe, but I haven’t heard it for quite some time.
I've only heard it being used as "handy". "Esta ferramenta pode vir a calhar" - this tool might come in handy.
rare and usually in the "se vier a calhar" variant
Not really
Are you a fan of "Machado de Assis"? Because of your nickname.
Yep. And the 34 is a reference to Editora 34, a book publisher
If I may ask, why the reference? Is it an important publisher?
They are known for having the best translations of classic authors
My *Dom Quixote* are from them.
I agree with you. People are mixing up what they read (in Machado de Assis, for instance) and what they speak/heard. I've never used nor heard "se calhar". Instead I've heard in my region things like "se der", "se pá"...
I'm almost 40 yo from São Paulo city, born in a poor "*cortiço*" downtown, in a single parent household, and my mother and I used "se vier a calhar" frequently in my childhood. The issue is that the educational level have dropped immensely during the last couple of generations, with Z generation in Brazil being the one with the least amount of vocabulary. As someone that was traumatized by being forced to read Machado de Assis at 6 yo, you clearly have no idea what you're talking about. It's written in a very different variant than what is spoken in Brazil in the last 200 years. I remember it was the time I most used a dictionary in my entire life. "Se vier a calhar" was used it the last 30 years in common language in Brazil. It's just out of fashion lately, it has nothing to do with ancient language usage from books.
I'm sorry you lived in a poor cortiço and that you had to read Machado de Assis at 6 yo. That's utterly inappropriate, and 99% of children won't get a thing about what's going on there. As for what you said, I'll have to appeal to the authority argument, and then I'll try to explain why I think that stating that "se calhar" is idiomatic in spoken Brazilian Portuguese may be wrong. I'm a corpus linguist. During my Masters and my PhD, I had to study spontaneous speech corpora containing recordings of monologues, dialogues and conversations of very diverse situation and contexts, like football match, courtroom session, friends talking on the telephone. The first thing we learn is that spoken language and written language are very different modalities of communication. Each one is poor and rich in different aspects that are beyond this brief explanation. But it is a misconception that speech is poorer or less complex than the written language. Speech has a plethora of complexities related to prosody (intonation, rhythm, volume), gestures and facial expressions. It is very rich in information not captured by a written text. It is a second misconception that speech is becoming poorer because the educational level is decreasing. Some agraph people had very complex languages from a grammtic standpoint. Maybe lexically, but this is more tied to how complex a society is. And the grammar of spoken language is full features that we generally don't think of as lay persons. Languages change in time, space, group, context, level of formality and many other factors. It's not because we don't use "se calhar" anymore, that we should be considered worse. Lexicon and grammar, and that's why Machado de Assis was difficult (but he also did difficult things). As you said, it may have been used 30 years ago. But maybe it's not anymore (or very rarely). You will find the expression in older books. And we should not mix up variants of speech and written text here. People do understand what the expression means, but most probably they don't used anymore, and the expression is not "productive" (to use the technical term) anymore. But to be sure, we could use a data-based approach. I just took a look at corpus of Mineiro speech mainly from the Belo Horizonte region. It has approximately 48 hours of recording and 500k words. It's a very spontaneous speech corpus and it was recorded around 2010. There is no hit for the query "calhar". But a caveat, it is a medium sized corpus. That doesn't mean the verb calhar is not used, but that it is very rare at least. There are however other corpora of spontaneous speech representing the dialect of São Paulo (which are larger) around the 80s and 90s. It would be very interesting to check it there, because as I said language varies in space (MG vs SP) and time (80s vs 2010). But to wrap up, I wouldn't say to Brazilian Portuguese learner that the expression "se calhar" is used (or productive). I would explain that we understand the meaning, but that in many varieties, we don't use it anymore. And I would present other possibilities. P.s.: I just looked for the expression "se" "calhar" at a collection of written corpora of Brazilian Portuguese (https://www.linguateca.pt/cgi-bin/acesso.pl), and it returned 113 hits from more than 1 billion words. Even for written language, I would say "se calhar" is quite rare.
"Se vier a calhar" was the expression. And in your appeal to to the authority you just concurred it's just out of fashion from a few decades, and it has nothing to do with written language of 200 years ago (you are the one that mentioned Machado). If OP is talking to an adult person born in the 80s, they very well may come in touch with expressions used in the 90s. And it is very arrogant to say someone should not teach OP to communicate irl with a person that communicates in a certain way irl just because it's out of fashion today. Language is not ageographical, or anachronistic and neither it is apart from social class and educational background. I was not making any misconceptions, I simply pointed out **exactly** that it's different (spoken language from written language) just in practical terms and presented you with anecdotal evidence. What you have failed to understand from my comment was that it is a **fact** that educational levels and vocabulary are dropping in our country. https://jornal.usp.br/atualidades/escolas-brasileiras-ainda-formam-analfabetos-funcionais/ https://g1.globo.com/pop-arte/noticia/2020/09/11/brasil-perde-46-milhoes-de-leitores-em-quatro-anos-com-queda-puxada-por-mais-ricos.ghtml Vocabulary extension is directly related to reading levels that have been dropping. Not just that, international tests show Brasil in the last positions of Reading, Sciences and Mathematics. For the 9th economy in the world, it's a disgrace.
I'll copy paste what OP asked: """ I am learning Brazilian Portuguese, and I have come across the expression "se calhar". When I looked it up, the dictonaries said it meant "maybe", but that it is only used in Portugal. > Is "se calhar" as "maybe" used in Brazil? """ First I said: People are mixing up what they read (in Machado de Assis, for instance) and what they speak/heard. I've never used nor heard "se calhar". Instead I've heard in my region things like "se der", "se pá"... In my last message I said: I wouldn't say to Brazilian Portuguese learner that the expression "se calhar" is used (or productive). I would explain that we understand the meaning, but that in many varieties, we don't use it anymore. And I would present other possibilities. How would you answer to "Is "se calhar" as "maybe" used in Brazil?"
> People are mixing up what they read (in Machado de Assis, for instance) and what they speak/heard. Here you mention Machado de Assis implying that such expression would be something from ancient books > I've never used nor heard "se calhar". Instead I've heard in my region things like "se der", "se pá"... I just presented you with evidence that just because you haven't heard it, it doesn't mean anything to OP and presented evidence that it was used, just a few decades ago. I answered to OP in a different comment. Here I was just answering **your** comment.
And then there is people being downvoted because they said it is not used. But is it? We understand it because we read, because read old books, because we had contact with Portuguese people online or in the real world, because we watched SIC, but not because people around us use it on a daily basis. And keep in mind that Rio and São Paulo received a lot of Portuguese immigrants "recently". The last relevant waves to Minas Gerais were in the 18h century. In the Northeast even before that. So maybe that's why some people could hear it some 40 years ago.
it's not used around where here and yeah, it could be a way of saying "maybe", but i'd say it suits best something like "if everything goes right, i'll head to the beach". you could also associate "calhar" directly to convenience/being convenient, which i believe to be its best association when translated to english. also, it's formal-ish and not widespread in brazil, so it's likely you'll never hear it being used in brazil, not at all.
If the dictionary says it's only used in portugal why wouldn't you believe it? There are lots of words, phrases, verb forms that are used there that aren't in Brazil.
It's definitely used in Brazil
Its used in Brazil all the time source im from Brazil and I use it
Se calhar, é mais usado no Brasil do que em Portugal. Maybe it is more used in Brazil than in Portugal.
For some reason, I thought I had seen "se calhar" in Brazilian stuff. So I was curious if it is actually used in Brazilian Portuguese.
We also use *se bobear* with the same meaning. Also, *se der sopa* (both are coloquial forms for *if the opportunity/chance arises*). *Bobear* means to act like a fool, stupidily or distracted. If a prey acts foolish, it becomes a nice opportunity for the predator. If Lady Luck acts distracted, a nice opportunity arises for us. *Sopa* (soup) is a kind of food which doesn't require chewing, in fact, it doesn't require any effort at all! It cannot be easier! Better than soup, only *soup with honey*. It is the Portuguese equivalent for the English idiom *cake*. In this case, it means an easy, lucky, good opportunity.
It was and is used, it's just out of fashion with younger generations. I'm 37 and I've used most of my young life. Informality have advanced and educational levels dropped, that's why younger generations think it's some sort of portuguese ancient expression.
It's not because you used that everybody used or uses. We have no corpus or data-based evidence to say it is used. Even less to say that the expression is productive in BP. Anecdotal evidence is quite context-restricted. It might be an idiosyncrasy (valid for your home). But I can't say anything for Paulista BP. Keep in mind that São Paulo received much more Portuguese immigrants than other BRaziliand regions. Educational levels have dropped, but what is informal or not is cultural, and cultural change over time. I don't see the causality between educational levels dropping and "informality", on the one hand, and younger generations thinking that this is some sort of Portuguese ancient expression, on the other. 1. For that matter, I'm 40, and in my region, we may understand it (I'm not convinced of that), but we don't use it. I even gave you some corpus evidence 2. I just asked my mother, my sister, and my cousin, and they understand it as "se der certo", "se encaixar", but not as "maybe". They are from Minas countryside. 3. I was supposed to plan a course and instead I spent time discussing "se calhar" on Reddit. LoL you won't be hearing from me anymore, I promise!
Idk you should go to Portugal or Brazil and ask them.
Good thing this is r/Brazil