Xovê

Oi gente!
Again, I'm here to talk about a word that doesn't exist and that is used a lot! 
You may learn that chover means to rain and it's pronounced like shover, stressing the last part. Then you start talking to a Brazilian and hear this person saying xovê but you're quite sure they're not talking about rain or the weather. So, what's he or she talking about?


Xovê or chovê is a made up word. Actually, it's a contraction from the expression deixe-me ver and it means "let me see".
Let's see the expression first, then we move on to the made up word.
The expression is imperative, so it conjugates like this:
deixe (tu)
deixa (você)
deixemos (nós)
deixem (vocês)


If you choose to say tu, the expression is deixe-me ver, but if you say você, then the expression is deixa-me ver (If you don't know which one to say, click here). The problem is that some people say deixa eu ver and that's wrong. We use eu in subjects, eu has to do the action. Because I'm the object of the sentence - I'm not doing the action, the statement is directed to you - the correct pronoun to use is me and not eu.
Now, let's see how all this turned into chovê. 

This is a made up word so there's no correct writing, it's just how it sounds, and in English it sounds like shovel, but without the L sound in the end and stressing the last part: sho-vê.

Remember, this is informal and some people also pronounce it tchovê.

Now, let's see some examples:

-Qual vestido você prefere? (Which dress do you prefer?)

-Xovê... Hmm o verde. (Let me see... hmm the green one.)

-Tem algo errado aqui. (There's something wrong here.)

-Xovê.  (Let me see.)

Xovê se o bolo já tá pronto. (Let me see if the cake is ready.)

Xovê se eu saio cedo do trabalho hoje. (Let me see if I can leave work early today.)