English Experts

[donay mendonça]

Hello everyone,

Take a look at the dialogues:

Phelip:I haven´t see you lately!Where have you been?
Lia:Oh,I´ve made a break.I´ve decided to take english lessons and stop playing tennis.



Good luck!

[Silvia Mattos]

Hi,
What about these expressions. Are they correct?

GIVE ME A BREAK and
GIVE IT A REST!

Silvia

[donay mendonça]

Silvia,

Estão sim.Em um contexto diferente,mas estão sim.

Dá um tempo!
Give it a rest!
Give me a break!


Boa sorte!

[Lu Interact]

Donay,

I don't understand - I am new to this. Are you posing a question?

If so, here goes my attempt at answering.

Phelip:I haven´t see you lately!Where have you been?
Lia:Oh,I´ve made a break.I´ve decided to take english lessons and stop playing tennis.

I believe that the expression "I've made a break" in this case does not refer to "dar um tempo" but rather it makes reference to make a "clean break or stop something, brake ties" - in this case, start something new. Stop the tennis and start the English lessons.

Make a break - also can imply to make a run for it, an attempt to escape, run from the past, etc...the use of it in this sentence would be correct albeit somewhat odd.

If the intent was for Lia to say that she has taken a break from on to start another then she should have said: Oh, I've taken a break (from tennis). I've decided.....

Ok, sorry, I think I may have overcomplicated my response. Hope this helps rather than confuse.

[maryziller]

Spot on, Luciana!

I would say I've been taking a break to bring it up to the present encounter with Phelip, since they bumped into one another.

I've taken a break makes it seem somewhat removed from the present, to me, as if it is finalized and relegated to a period in the past.

[donay mendonça]

Hello,

I agree that "make a break" refers to "stop doing something" and start something new.I believe that the most commom meaning in Portuguese refers to "temporary interruption" which is better translated by "Take/have a break".I´d also say that people(here in Brazil) often use "dar um tempo" the same way you can use "make a break" in English.Now I´ll rewrite the dialogue with your suggestion which is the most commom option:

Phelip:I haven´t see you lately!Where have you been?
Lia:Oh,I´ve taken a break.I´ve decided to take english lessons and stop playing tennis.


All the best,

[Henry Cunha]

Donay,

The expression is generally "I`m taking a break" (or "I've been taking a break") for an ongoing action. You can also use a past tense, "I took a break from..." , and it will also be understood as an ongoing action unless some other time element is added to the sentence.

"Dar um tempo" should generally come out as "give it (some) time."

Regards

[donay mendonça]

Hi Henry,

Yes,your suggestion makes sense to me.In spite of being influenced by the literal translation from portuguese,which,to me, would be "I´ve taken a break"(23,300 occurrences) on Google.I feel that "I´m taking a break" flows better.


All the best,

[JERRYDORIEN]

Hi,

before I left home I chilled for half an hour.
Antes de sair de casa, dei um tempo de meia hora.

See you!!

[mlm]

Also:

Give me a break!