English Experts

[Flavia.lm]

Povo,

Como digo "pegar o bonde andando" em inglês?

ex: qdo a gente chega num lugar e quer entrar na conversa que já tá rolando...

tks in advance

[Marcio_Farias]

Flavia, my copy of A Dictionary of Informal Brazilian Portuguese has this:

pegar o bonde andando (sl.)
to join (something) already in progress, come in on the middle of (a program, conversation, etc.)

"Murilo turned on the TV a bit late just to find he had come into the middle of the movie he planned to watch" meaning he had to jump onto the passing tram. Whatever.

[zumstein]

Alô Flávia!

O Felipão pegou o ‘bonde andando’?

Luiz Felipe Escolari one more soccer coach to start working on an ongoing competition.

(entrar no meio de uma situação ou conversação não totalmente inteirado dos precedentes).

Bye

[donay mendonça]

Opções:

>> didn't hear the whole conversation

''Smith and Andrews said they didn't hear the whole conversation but don't recall any yelling. "It was a heated moment," Andrews said.'' - Google USA

[Thomas]

For conversations, "to butt in/into" is common.

I hate to butt in, but I heard you mention Porto Seguro, and I....
Frank is always butting into private conversations.
(The idea is that the person is hitting with his head as a goat or bull might do.)
"To interrupt" is more formal.

You can walk in halfway through the movie, in the middle of the movie...

You can crash a party.
Forgive me for crashing the party. I needed to talk to Susan and I neglected to call first.

[pondedaniel]

a dependender do contexto...podemos pensar em:

chime in

Definition: To interrupt the speech of others, especially with an unwanted opinion.

Ex: her husband always chimes in, even when he is not involved in the conversation

fonte: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/chime+in

[Thomas]

Pondedaniel, "to chime in" is an excellent phrase! Good post!