Breakdown of No casino, a batota custa caro.
em
in / on / at
caro
expensive
a
to / at (direction)
o
him/it (m)
custar
to cost
o casino
the casino
a batota
the cheating
Questions & Answers about No casino, a batota custa caro.
Why use caro instead of an adverb ending in -mente?
In Portuguese, some common adjectives can be used exactly as they are to act like adverbs. Caro is one of these. We frequently say custa caro (it costs dearly) or pagar caro (to pay dearly). While the adverb caramente technically exists, it sounds unnatural here and is rarely used in everyday speech.
Since the subject a batota is feminine, why doesn't the word change to cara?
How else can I use the word batota?
Batota specifically refers to cheating in games, sports, gambling, or exams. To say "to cheat" in these contexts, you use the phrase fazer batota. A person who cheats is called a batoteiro (male) or batoteira (female). For general deceit or cheating in a relationship, you would instead use verbs like enganar or trair.
Why is there an a before batota if the English translation is just "cheating"?
In Portuguese, you almost always need a definite article before abstract nouns when making a general statement about them. Because the sentence is talking about "cheating" as a broad, general concept, the feminine article a is required.
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