No. 704 in Portuguese
mal
"Mal" means "evil," "bad," or "wrong" in English.
In a sentence
Ele se sentiu mal depois de comer algo estragado.
He felt ill after eating something spoiled.
In this sentence, 'mal' is used as an adjective meaning 'ill' or 'unwell'.
Sei que ele é jovem, mas isso não significa que ele seja mal.
I know he is young, but that doesn't mean he is bad.
Here, 'mal' is used as an adjective to describe moral characteristics, meaning 'bad' in opposition to 'good'.
Ele explicou o mal-entendido com calma.
He explained the misunderstanding calmly.
In this sentence, 'mal' is part of a compound noun ('mal-entendido'), indicating a concept of 'mis-' or 'ill misunderstanding'.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “mal” in actual Portuguese podcasts.
Find “mal” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Portuguese podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into português, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Portuguese books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).