How to Say Exploit and Explode in Portuguese: Explorar vs Explodir

Wondering how to say exploit in Portuguese? It depends on what you mean. If someone is taking advantage of people or resources, the word is explorar. If something blows up, you need explodir, which is how you say explode in Portuguese. And exploitation in Portuguese is exploração. That's the short answer, and it'll keep you away from the most common translation traps.

Here's the detail that confuses a lot of learners: in Brazil, "explorar" means both "to explore a place" and "to exploit a person", so it works almost like one of those Portuguese false friends. When we say "o chefe explora os funcionários", we're not talking about adventures, we're talking about what you'd call labor exploitation in English.

In this lesson I'll walk you through explorar vs explodir with everyday phrases, examples of exploração at work, with natural resources and with tourists, adjectives like "aproveitador" and "sanguessuga", and a video so you can hear the pronunciation. At the end there's a bonus with Brazilian slang verbs related to "bomba".

Exploit and Exploitation in Portuguese: What's the Difference?

Depending on the meaning, the English verbs "exploit" and "explode" each have their own word in Portuguese: explorar when someone abuses or takes advantage of people or resources, and explodir when something blows up. The noun "exploitation" is exploração and "explosion" is explosão. Heads up: there's no verb like "exploitar" in Portuguese, so don't try to build one from English.

Explorar: to exploit someone or something

Explorar means to exploit, in the sense of abusing or taking advantage of people, resources or situations. It also keeps the meaning of "to explore a place", so context is what decides.

• "A empresa explora os funcionários com jornadas de doze horas." (The company exploits its employees with twelve-hour shifts.)

Explodir: to explode or burst

Explodir means to explode in the physical sense of blowing up or bursting: a bomb, a tire or a balloon. Figuratively, we use it for something that grows all of a sudden or for someone who loses their temper.

• "O pneu explodiu no meio da estrada." (The tire blew out in the middle of the highway.)

Exploração: exploitation in Portuguese

Exploração is how you say exploitation in Portuguese, both labor exploitation and the exploitation of natural resources. It also means "exploration", so "exploração espacial" is space exploration.

• "A exploração de petróleo cresceu muito no litoral do Brasil." (Oil exploitation has grown a lot along the coast of Brazil.)

Explosão: explosion in Portuguese

Explosão is the explosion, the result of something that explodiu. It ends in the nasal "ão" sound, just like exploração.

• "A explosão foi ouvida no bairro inteiro." (The explosion was heard across the whole neighborhood.)

And watch out for English spelling habits: in Portuguese it's explosão, with an s, and exploração, with a ç. Like many false cognates in Portuguese, the word looks easy, but a literal translation can trip you up.

Video: How to Say Exploitation and Exploit in Portuguese

In this video I show you how to say exploitation and exploit in Portuguese, with the pronunciation of explorar, exploração and explodir the way we say them in Brazil. If the nasal "ão" sound still gives you trouble (English has nothing quite like it), check out my Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation guide.

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Phrases with Explorar

Explorar is the verb we use in Brazil for exploit when we mean abusing or taking advantage, but it also has a positive side: making the most of something or exploring a topic. First I'll show you the positive uses, then the negative ones.

• Você tem que explorar os pontos fortes das pessoas. (You have to make the most of people's strengths.)
• Esse curso explora tudo o que tem a ver com relações humanas. (This course explores everything that has to do with human relationships.)
• Acho que esse setor já tá bem explorado por nós, precisamos mudar o foco pra algo inexplorado. (I think we've already tapped this sector pretty well, we need to shift our focus to something unexplored.)

Learn how to use TUDO and TODO.

Or you can also say TIRAR PROVEITO

Tirar proveito means to take advantage of something or make the most of it. It's the most neutral way to say it in Portuguese, perfect when you don't want your sentence to sound like abuse.

• Vamos tirar proveito dessa viagem aqui no Brasil. (Let's make the most of this trip here in Brazil.)

Now in a negative context

In the negative sense, explorar means to exploit someone: taking advantage of their work, their time or their trust. That's how we talk about labor exploitation in Portuguese, a topic that also comes up in work vocabulary in Portuguese.

• Essa sua ganância tá levando você a explorar as pessoas, acho que isso vai dar errado. (Your greed is leading you to exploit people, I think this is going to end badly.)
• A justiça decretou que essa fábrica será fechada por conta da exploração de trabalho infantil. (The court ruled that this factory will be shut down for child labor exploitation.)

Your tone of voice will be key to showing whether you're talking about something positive or negative.

“Uma das grandes revelações da exploração espacial é a imagem da Terra, finita e solitária acomodando toda a espécie humana através dos oceanos do tempo e do espaço.”
― Carl Sagan

How to react to good and bad news in Portuguese.

Examples of "Exploitation"

Exploração is the word for exploitation in Portuguese, and it's almost always followed by "de" plus whatever is being exploited. These are the most common contexts in the news and in everyday conversations in Brazil:

Exploração de:

• Turistas (tourists)
• Trabalhadores (workers)
• Recursos naturais (natural resources)
• Crianças (children)
• Estrangeiros (foreigners)

Article in Portuguese: Estrangeiros resgatados de escravidão no Brasil são 'ponta de iceberg'

Article in Portuguese: Biopirataria - Exploração ilegal de recursos no Brasil

Negative adjectives for people who "exploit" others.

These are the words we use in Brazil to describe someone who exploits others. Several of them are pretty informal and sound like insults, so use them carefully. If you're curious about that side of the language, check out these Brazilian Portuguese swear words.

• Oportunista (opportunist)
• Aproveitador (user, someone who takes advantage of others)
• Se escorar nas pessoas (to live off other people)
• Sanguessuga (leech)
• Parasita (parasite)
• Espertalhão / espertinho (wise guy, hustler)

Different ways to say SCAMMER in Portuguese.

Phrases with EXPLODIR

Explodir is explode in Portuguese, in the sense of blowing up, and figuratively we use it for something that suddenly takes off, like tourism or sales. Notice how explodir and explorar show up together in the first sentence, each with its own meaning.

• Depois que o turismo explodiu por aqui os vendedores começaram a explorar os turistas cobrando bem mais caro. (After tourism exploded around here, vendors started exploiting tourists by charging a lot more.)
• Você soube da bomba que um terrorista explodiu aqui na semana passada? (Did you hear about the bomb a terrorist set off here last week?)

Some verbs related to BOMBA in Portuguese.

These verbs are part of everyday Brazilian slang: "bombar" means to be a hit or to be packed with people, "pipocar" means to pop up everywhere or to chicken out, and "chiar" means to complain.

• Bombar
• Pipocar
• Chiar