# Nickname of Brazilian Teams



## Haroon

hi everyone

It is the first time to be here .....!

May I ask about the necK name of the Brazilian Teams

It is like ( Celilou or Cililou )  or alike 

What does it mean ? 


Thanks in advance


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## Tagarela

Olá,

Sorry, but I think I don't understand what you're asking for.
I guess that it's nicknames of Braziliam Teams, football teams I suppose. 

Celilou and Cililou don't remind me of any Brazilian team of any sport. 

Could you make it clear?

Até.:


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## Haroon

The Arab Media refers to the National Team Of Brazil as ( Celisaou or alike ) , I just  want to know the right spelling  and the meaning of this word.

Thanks


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## Vanda

Seleção - that means team!


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## Haroon

Oh , Thank you .


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## andre luis

*Brazil* Soccer *Selection.*


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## sound shift

andre luis said:


> *Brazil* Soccer *Selection.*



Sorry, but this is not idiomatic. We do not describe a national team as a "selection".

Very often, "seleção" is not translated. We say "the match between Brazil and Argentina", where "national teams" is understood.

You can say "the Brazilian national football team", but in many cases shorter formulations are used: "Some people think that Rogério Ceni should keep goal for the Brazilian national football team Brazil."


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## andre luis

sound shift said:


> Sorry, but this is not idiomatic. We do not describe a national team as a "selection".
> 
> Very often, "seleção" is not translated. We say "the match between Brazil and Argentina", where "national teams" is understood.
> 
> You can say "the Brazilian national football team", but in many cases shorter formulations are used: "Some people think that Rogério Ceni should keep goal for the Brazilian national football team Brazil."


 Em cache  Sorry, I saw the pics.


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## sound shift

andre luis said:


> Em cache  Sorry, I saw the pics.



I've looked at the link, andre luis. It says "Brazil National Soccer Team Selection". It is a strange expression; I wonder who devised it. I can assure you that no native speaker would say "David Beckham played 100 times for the English selection".


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## leolino

The idea is:
Someone _selects_ the players for the national team. Thus, the team happens to be a _selection_ of players.

(That "someone" can be the coach or the president of the Brazilian Soccer Confederacy - which of those actually does the choosing is a matter of eternal discussion.)


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## Giorgio Lontano

I don't find it that strange that the Arab Media would refer to the team as "Seleção" in Portuguese. Around here they call it "verde amarelha" (not quite well pronounced by the way).

Também falam da "torcida". 

Sds.


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## coolbrowne

sound shift said:


> I..."Brazil National Soccer Team Selection". It is a strange expression; I wonder who devised it...


You are right. Strange indeed!

In this sense (that of national team), "seleção" is *not to be translated literally* because it is a Brazilian *idiom*. It does come form _selecting players_, but whoever does the selecting is irrelevant here, as it remains an idiom.

When one attempts to translate to any other language, one must first convert "seleção (brasileira)" to "equipe nacional (brasileira)". Then it will make sense, no excuses, no strangeness.

Also, "torcida" indicates the (set of) team fans, something else altogether.

Regards


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## Giorgio Lontano

coolbrowne said:


> You are right. Strange indeed!
> 
> In this sense (that of national team), "seleção" is *not to be translated literally* because it is a Brazilian *idiom*. It does come form _selecting players_, but whoever does the selecting is irrelevant here, as it remains an idiom.
> 
> When one attempts to translate to any other language, one must first convert "seleção (brasileira)" to "equipe nacional (brasileira)". Then it will make sense, no excuses, no strangeness.
> 
> Also, "torcida" indicates the (set of) team fans, something else altogether.
> 
> Regards


 
It's not only Brazilian Coolbrowne. In Spanish we call our national teams the exact translated word.

Cheers!

P.S. Mine plays against the US tomorrow, by the way


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## MOC

coolbrowne said:


> You are right. Strange indeed!
> 
> In this sense (that of national team), "seleção" is *not to be translated literally* because it is a Brazilian *idiom*.


 

Not really. It's used in Portugal, Angola, etc.. It's just the portuguese word for selection. Maybe it would sound strange for an english native to use the word selection to refer to it, but as it was said before by leolino, It is a selection of the best players of the country. Sele(c)ção Nacional de Futebol (National Selection of Football), or Sele(c)ção for short. In Portugal, like in Brazil, people will refer to it just as selecção. What happens is the international media will always think Sele(c)ção is just a nickname for the Brazilian National Team, because it's a famous national team, and therefore the term got associated with it, unlike the portuguese team who only gained a bit of reputation in recent years, or the african teams who haven't gained it yet.


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## coolbrowne

I stand corrected. 

The idiomatic use of the local word for "selection" to refer to a national sports team happens in a number of countries, not only Brazil.

Thank you, *Giorgio* and *MOC*


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## Denis555

It's as simple as that: there are preferred translations for different things.

In Portuguese we use "seleção"(in Portugal "sele*c*ção" for a couple of years more) or as in Spanish "selección" to refer to national teams whereas in English they don't use the word "selection" for that purpose. Just like in Italian they don't usually use "selezione" in that sense.

Having said that, those words "selection, seleção, selección, selezione" are equivalents in a variety of other meanings:
Natural selection (en)
Seleção natural (pt)
Selección natural (es)
Selezione naturale (it)

Apart from that, I've seen the English word "side" being used as "team", but we certainly wouldn't translate it into Portuguese as "lado" in that sense.


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## andlima

Okay, Coolbrowne may have made a mistake in stating it's a *Brazilian* idiom, but it's not idiomatic in English, and that's important. So, they got a point: "selection" doesn't fit in the acception of "national team".


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## Giorgio Lontano

You're right, Denis and Andlima. In the US, they don't even use the word "football" to name this particular sport. So you have different word usage in both Brazil and the US:

Seleção Nacional de Futebol do Brasil
Brazil's National Soccer Team

(Sorry it didn't went so well for you guys on your last game )

Regards.


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## Dom Casmurro

The verbatim translation of "seleção brasileira de futebol" is _Brazilian football select_. I understand that the noun "select" (not selection) can aptly serve as a synonym for "national team". Am I wrong?


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## sound shift

Dom Casmurro said:


> The verbatim translation of "seleção brasileira de futebol" is _Brazilian football select_. I understand that the noun "select" (not selection) can aptly serve as a synonym for "national team". Am I wrong?



I am afraid you are. "Select" is not a synonym for "national team".


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## Dona Chicória

Hi folks:

I was thinking about this thread and remembered the real nickname of our team: Seleção *Canarinho* (*) or  little canary bird! 
And this because of the colors of the Brazilian uniform, that were changed to green and yellow for the 1954 World Cup.
This combination was not considered very beautiful for many years, and we were the only few to wear it.
You can  check at (only Port. sorry) http://www.duvidacruel.com.br/duvida2.php?secao=esp&pagina=1


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## Haroon

Thanks everybody for this wonderful debate.        I have never dreamt that a spelling mistake or a non-confirmed pronunciation ( of mine , of course ) would create all of this.                Thanks again, the debate is still open for any updates   .


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## coolbrowne

Haroon, I dare say I speak for everyone in this discussion when I say: 
*You're welcome.  *​


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