What Your Brazilian Coach Is Shouting
Someone is shouting a single Portuguese word at you, repeatedly, with obvious urgency — and you have no idea whether it means "keep going" or "your shoulder is about to come out." The list is short: about twenty words, plus the one piece of grammar that explains why they're all one word.
There's a particular kind of confusion that only happens in a jiu jitsu class: someone is shouting a single Portuguese word at you, repeatedly, with obvious urgency, and you have no idea whether it means "keep going," "stop," or "your shoulder is about to come out of its socket."
The good news is that the list is short. Coaching happens in one-word bursts across a loud room, so the vocabulary a Brazilian professor actually shouts is maybe twenty words total. Here they are, sorted by when you'll hear them, plus the small piece of grammar that explains why they're all one word.
The Short Answer
The commands you'll hear most are bate (tap), vira (turn), solta (let go), segura (hold), puxa (pull), empurra (push), levanta (stand up), senta (sit), respira (breathe), calma (easy), and bora (let's go). They're all a single word because Brazilian Portuguese forms its everyday commands by taking the plain você form of the verb — no extra endings, no politeness scaffolding. Learn the twenty below and you can follow a class without watching everyone else for clues.
Learn This One First: Bate
Bate (BAH-chee) means tap. It comes from bater, to hit or strike, and it's the single most important word in this article.
You'll hear it in two situations. A coach watching a bad position will shout it at the person who's caught — meaning tap now, don't be a hero. And a training partner who has you may say it as a warning that something is locked in tighter than you've realized. In both cases the correct response is to tap immediately and sort out the pride afterward.
Related: bateu (bah-TEH-oo) is the past tense — "he tapped" — which is what you'll hear a coach say to confirm a round is over.
Starting, Stopping, and Pace
These bracket every round of every class.
Começa (koh-MEH-sah) starts the round. Para (PAH-rah) stops it — worth knowing cold, because it's also the word used when something has gone wrong. Tempo (TEHM-poo) means time, and doubles as the call that the round has ended.
Bora (BOH-rah) is the great Brazilian motivator: a squashed form of vamos embora, "let's go." You'll hear it before rounds, during rounds, and any time energy is dropping. Vamos (VAH-moos) does the same job with slightly more push behind it.
And when the pace needs adjusting: devagar (deh-vah-GAHR) is slowly, rápido (HAH-pee-doo) is quickly, de novo (jee NOH-voo) is again — the one you'll hear during drilling — and descansa (dehs-KAHN-sah) is rest.
| Portuguese | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| Começa | koh-MEH-sah | start |
| Para | PAH-rah | stop |
| Tempo | TEHM-poo | time |
| Bora | BOH-rah | let's go |
| Vamos | VAH-moos | come on |
| De novo | jee NOH-voo | again |
| Devagar | deh-vah-GAHR | slowly |
| Rápido | HAH-pee-doo | quickly |
| Descansa | dehs-KAHN-sah | rest |
Moving You Around
This set is about your body position, and they come fast during drilling.
Vira (VEE-rah) is turn — the most common of all of them, since half of jiu jitsu instruction is telling someone which way to face. Troca (TROH-kah) is switch, used for changing sides or swapping partners. Senta (SEHN-tah) is sit and levanta (leh-VAHN-tah) is stand up. Sobe (SOH-bee) and desce (DEH-see) are go up and go down, which in context usually means climbing higher on a back take or dropping your hips.
| Portuguese | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| Vira | VEE-rah | turn |
| Troca | TROH-kah | switch |
| Senta | SEHN-tah | sit |
| Levanta | leh-VAHN-tah | stand up |
| Sobe | SOH-bee | go up |
| Desce | DEH-see | go down |
Grips, Pressure, and Safety
Segura (seh-GOO-rah) is hold — keep that grip, don't let it go. Its opposite, solta (SOHW-tah), is let go, and you'll hear it both as technical advice and as an instruction to release a submission. Puxa (POO-shah) is pull and empurra (ehm-POO-hah) is push.
Then the safety words, which are the ones to react to rather than think about. Cuidado (kwee-DAH-doo) is careful. Calma (KAHW-mah) is easy — aimed at whoever is going too hard, and one of the most-used words in any Brazilian gym. Atenção (ah-tehn-SOWN) is attention, usually shouted to the whole room. And respira (hehs-PEE-rah) is breathe, which is what a coach says when they can see you've stopped.
| Portuguese | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| Bate | BAH-chee | tap |
| Segura | seh-GOO-rah | hold |
| Solta | SOHW-tah | let go |
| Puxa | POO-shah | pull |
| Empurra | ehm-POO-hah | push |
| Respira | hehs-PEE-rah | breathe |
| Calma | KAHW-mah | easy |
| Cuidado | kwee-DAH-doo | careful |
| Atenção | ah-tehn-SOWN | attention |
Every word above — and hundreds more — is taught with native-speaker audio and mat-ready phrases in the Fala BJJ app.
Why They're All One Word
Here's the grammar, and it's genuinely simple.
Brazilian Portuguese forms its everyday commands by using the plain você form of the verb — the same form you'd use for "he" or "she." Nothing gets added. So the pattern is:
Verbs ending in -ar take an -a: virar → vira, soltar → solta, puxar → puxa, parar → para.
Verbs ending in -er or -ir take an -e: bater → bate, descer → desce, subir → sobe (that last one shifts its vowel, because Portuguese enjoys the occasional exception).
That's the whole system. Once you spot it, you can turn almost any verb you know into a command — and, more usefully, work backwards from a command you've just heard to the verb it came from, which is how one shouted word turns into several words of vocabulary.
It Isn't Rudeness
Worth saying, because it surprises people: these commands sound blunt translated into English, and they aren't.
Portuguese doesn't soften instructions the way English does. There's no equivalent of padding a command with "could you just" — a coach saying senta! is not being short with you, they're using the normal register for coaching across a room. Brazilian gym culture is direct, loud, and affectionate at the same time, which is the same cultural setting that produces porrada as a term of endearment.
The one thing worth matching is the volume of the response. A short valeu or an oss back is all that's expected.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does bate mean in jiu jitsu? Tap. It's the command form of bater, to hit, and it's shouted when a coach or partner wants you to tap immediately.
What does the coach mean by calma? Easy, or calm down. It's usually aimed at whoever is training harder than the situation calls for.
What does bora mean? Let's go. It's a shortened form of vamos embora and it's used constantly in Brazilian gyms as encouragement.
How do you say stop in Portuguese? Para (PAH-rah). It ends the round, and it's also the word used the moment something goes wrong.
Why are Portuguese commands only one word? Because Brazilian Portuguese uses the plain você form of the verb as its everyday imperative — no extra endings. Virar becomes vira, bater becomes bate.
Are Brazilian coaches being rude when they shout these? No. Portuguese doesn't soften instructions the way English does, and the directness is normal coaching register rather than impatience.
What should I say back? Valeu (thanks), oss, or just do the thing. None of these commands expect a spoken answer.
The Bottom Line
Twenty words is the whole coaching vocabulary. They're short because they're shouted, they're blunt because Portuguese doesn't pad instructions, and they all come from a grammar rule you can learn in a minute. Get them down and a Brazilian-run class stops being something you follow by watching the person next to you.
If you want the rest of the language that goes around them — the greetings, the positions, the belts, the slang — start with Beginner Portuguese Words for Jiu Jitsu. Fala BJJ teaches all of it in short daily lessons with native-speaker audio, built entirely around the mats.
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Jiu jitsu runs on a surprisingly small core of Portuguese — a few dozen words that come up every single class. Here's that core, organized the way you'll actually meet it: the greetings, the gear, the positions, the belts, the commands, and the counting, with pronunciation for every word.