How to use "zuar"?

Question

Brazilians keep bullying each other and playing tricks on each other in a friendly way all the time. The word that they use for this is zuar.

I struggle with it a little because I don't know how to use it. I coudn't find any conjugations. The only expression that I actually found is the continuous form estar me zuando.

But how is the imperativo in order to say samething like "don't zuar me!"? Is it transitive? Which preposition goes along with it? It would be great if you could provide me with some examples.

Answer 1

"Zoar", "fazer zoação", "tirar sarro" are Brazilian slang words and mean "zombar de alguém", "fazer gozação".

• "Deixe de fazer zoação com a minha cara" (fazer troça, fazer gozação)
• "Cara, tu não vê que ele tá zoando contigo?" (fazendo uma gozação, brincando)
• "Ele está te zoando."
• "Para de ficar zoando."

If you are not acquainted with these words and the contexts where they are used, I advise you to avoid them. They are slang words used by young people, most of them 10 to 25 years of age, and a middle-aged person using any of them will probably sound ridiculous. I never use them, my children do. You'd be much safer sticking to non-slang terms like caçoar, brincar, fazer troça ou gozação, until you have heard enough of "zoar" in real life situations.

Answer 2

You probably mean zoar, same sound as and often spelled "zuar":

(Brasil, informal) Fazer troça de; caçoar, zombar.

It follows the regular conjugation. You can zoar alguém, or zoar com alguém: so, não me zoe, não zoe comigo, or pare de zoar comigo.

Answer 3

As 'zoa' is rather informal and used by young people, as Centaurus said, 'Não me zoa!' is more common than say, 'Não me zoe!'. You may also tell how someone is 'zoeiro'. Some complementary examples are

Esse cara é muito zoeiro.

Ah, raposinha, não me zoa!

Ele tá zoando, cara.

When speaking, it is common to stress the 'zo' part, as if you were actually speaking 'zuêro'. The same goes to 'zoar' spoken as 'zuar', 'zoeira' spoken (or even written) as 'zuera'.

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A less age-specific informal option (but slightly stronger) is 'sacanagem'. Be careful with this one, as it may also be used to represent non-friendly tricks (as, for example, a betrayal) or, sometimes, represent sexual intercourse.

Ele é muito sacana.

Sacanagem ele ter feito isso, olha. (This one actually means 'falta de consideração'.)

Ah, era sacanagem dele. (When 'ele' jokingly lied to you and someone is telling you the truth.)

There is also a meme involving sacanagem, 'P*** falta de sacanagem'.