Denda

The other day, someone asked me: "What does denda mean?"

I had no idea what they were talking about. I though this was not a Brazilian word. Then, I asked for an example and the person said: denda geladeira.

If you look up on a dictionary, you won't find it, this word doesn't exist, but we say it all the time. It's one of those things that we Brazilians would never notice.

Dentro de, dentro da e dentro do mean inside something. 

Sometimes, when we speak the word "dentro", the last part "tro" is not pronounced and the first part "den" is contracted  with de, da or do. The results are dendy, denda and dendue, spoken contractions of dentro de, dentro da and dentro do.

Be sure to know if the place you're talking about is masculine such as o carro, o armário; feminine like a gaveta, a geladeira; or if you don't say the gender like casa or pronouns.

• dentro da for feminine - de + a
• dentro do for masculine - de + o
• dentro de for no gender 

i.e.

Esqueci a chave dentro do carro. (dendue carro)

Coloque as roupas dentro do armário. (dendue armário)

Onde está o suco? Dentro da geladeira. (denda geladeira)

Tá dentro da gaveta. (denda gaveta)

Sinto um vazio dentro de mim. (dendy mim)

Eu estava no jardim e mamãe dentro de casa. (dendy casa)

Remember that if this happens, it's only when we speak. When writing, choose the correct way.

Até a próxima!