# business as usual



## chocolateconchurros

Como se diz "business as usual" em portugues?

"negócios como de costume"

Does this make sense both literally, ie for an actual business, and also for other situations?  eg.  "It was business as usual after he got after the shock"  Thats not a very good examlple, but I can't think of another!
 
Obrigada


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## Dom Casmurro

I'm not comfortable with the verbatim translation ("negócios como de costume"). You are not going to find anybody out there saying that in Portuguese - not in the context you English speakers are familiar with. I just can't think of one phrase that could convey the same idea. In certain situations, you could say: "_As coisas voltaram ao normal_", or "_A situação voltou ao normal_". What I mean is, there is not one single idiomatic expression in Portuguese that could serve the same semantic function as _business as usual_, which sounds like an all-purpose tool that can be used in a vast number of different situations.


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## arbilab

'Business as usual' is an implicative phrase.  What it implies is determined by context.  

Example:  The company reorganized, dismissing senior managers and adopting new policies, but from the perspective of the customer it was _business as usual_.  Meaning that the new efforts produced no perceptible change in results.

Example:  The government investigated the corruption and several high officials were sent to prison.  But when the dust settled, it was _business as usual_.  Meaning that the corruption continued.

The phrase has connotations of cynicism, of institutionalized corruption and incompetence.

(If Brazil does not have instutitionalized corruption and incompetence in business and government, I will eagerly be moving there as soon as my lease expires!)


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## andlima

arbilab said:


> Example:  The government investigated the corruption and several high officials were sent to prison.  But when the dust settled, it was _business as usual_.


 
In that case, we could use the phrase indicated by Dom Casmurro:

"O governo investigou a corrupção, e vários funcionários superiores foram presos. Mas quando a poeira baixou, _as coisas voltaram ao normal_".



arbilab said:


> The phrase has connotations of cynicism, of institutionalized corruption and incompetence.
> 
> (If Brazil does not have instutitionalized corruption and incompetence in business and government, I will eagerly be moving there as soon as my lease expires!)



Actually, we have plenty of instutitionalized corruption and incompetence over here. The problem is that this business rarely changes enough to become unusual. What we do have, however, is a very cynic idiom which means that nothing changed at all: "_acabar em pizza._" This one is used very often after government investigations:

"O governo investigou a corrupção, mas ninguém foi punido. Não encontraram evidências satisfatórias, e tudo _acabou em pizza_."


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## Frajola

andlima said:


> "O governo investigou a corrupção, mas ninguém foi punido. Não encontraram evidências satisfatórias, e tudo _acabou em pizza_."


 
You took it out of my mouth! 

That's EXACTLY it!


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## arbilab

"this business rarely changes enough to become unusual"

That translates the intent of the phrase perfectly!


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## olivinha

I've never heard of tudo acabou _em pizza_. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this a reginal expression given that _eating pizza_ is business as usual in São Paulo?  (No Rio por exemplo, tudo poderia acabar num churrasquinho.)
As it was said before, and generally speaking _business as usual_ refers to (going back to) some sort of daily routine:
_business as usual - _
rotina do dia-a-dia, os hábitos consagrados, não inventar moda, deixar as coisas como estão; conservador (business-as-usual scenario)


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## Denis555

It doesn't seem to me that's a regionalism.
Acabar em pizza:
Definição
Exemplo


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## Frajola

olivinha said:


> I've never heard of tudo acabou _em pizza_. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this a reginal expression given that _eating pizza_ is business as usual in São Paulo?  (No Rio por exemplo, tudo poderia acabar num churrasquinho.)


 

'Acabar in pizza' is hardly a regionalism. It is rather a somewhat ubiquotous expression in the Brazilian media as a whole. 

Here is an email message sent by a *carioca *reader to Jornal do Brasil.

"A sentença do juiz Lafredo Lisbôa é um exemplo de justiça, principalmente no Brasil, onde vemos os crimes dos colarinhos-brancos _*acabarem em*_ _*pizza*_. Parabéns!" 

"Tudo acabou em pizza" may mean _'It is business as usual'_, only it is more colloquial in tone. "Acabar in pizza", as per the email above, seems to also mean _'They got away with it'_.


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## Dom Casmurro

_Acabar em pizza_ is a catch phrase that has been part of Brazil's political lingo for more than 15 years now. I think it traces back to the time when the _budget dwarfs_ (_anões do orçamento_) corruption ring made the headlines in the late 80s. Please correct me if I am wrong.


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## olivinha

Ok, ok, ok, I stand corrected! I'm triple-convinced. 
(É isso que dá estar fora tanto tanto, hehe.)
Still, judging by the explanations of what _acabar em pizza_ is, it doesn`t seem to be the best translation for _business as usual, _even though _acabar em pizza_ could be _business as usual_ in Brazilian politics.
Peace __


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## Dom Casmurro

olivinha said:


> judging by the explanations of what _acabar em pizza_ is, it doesn`t seem to me the best translation for _business as usual, _even though _acabar em pizza_ could be _business as usual_ in Brazilian politics.


Now there I agree with you. _Acabar em pizza_ has a specialized meaning, as it applies exclusively to situations where someone is indicted but no punishment is inflicted on him. If you take the example used by chocolateconchurros, _acabar em pizza _is not going to to make sense as a translation option for _it was business as usual_.


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## arbilab

Heard in person, the intent is easier to discern, when accompanied by the vocal tone and roll of the eyes, and the context of the preceding conversation.

It is not used to mean 'normal function was restored', except in the cynical sense that 'normal function' is chronically inadequate.

(You have pizza in Brazil?  Muito afortunado!  I'm sensitive to unfamiliar foods, so at least I wouldn't starve.  But when the newspaper reported 'to finish the pizza', now I'll know to roll my eyes.)


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## Denis555

arbilab said:


> (You have pizza in Brazil? Muito afortunado! I'm sensitive to unfamiliar foods, so at least I wouldn't starve. But when the newspaper reported 'to finish the pizza', now I'll know to roll my eyes.)


 
Yes, we have unfamiliar foods but don't worry we also have a lot of familiar ones. 
Acabar em pizza literally means "end up in pizza", "end up with a pizza".


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## arbilab

Muchisimas agradable, Denis (en Espan~nol)!  The B. Portuguese expression is much more colorful than the bland English expression.


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## Dom Casmurro

I'm not quite sure where _acabar em pizza_ derives from. My guess is: _acabar em pizza_ = _to end up with a pizza _[being ordered after a long, stressul day, and being cheerfully shared among the guy who was in trouble and friends who helped him out.]. Any other guess?


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## andlima

Dom Casmurro said:


> Now there I agree with you. _Acabar em pizza_ has a specialized meaning, as it applies exclusively to situations where someone is indicted but no punishment is inflicted on him. If you take the example used by chocolateconchurros, _acabar em pizza _is not going to to make sense as a translation option for _it was business as usual_.



Yes... I didn't mean to indicate that "acabar em pizza" is the same as "business as usual", but just correlated in a certain way. I should have made my point more clear...


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## manel1976

business as usual = nada de novo, tudo na mesma, sem novidades....


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## Perception

I would say: "voltou tudo ao mesmo" - literally means: things got back to the same.


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