Ai Se Eu Te Pego
Michel Teló
- Language
- Portuguese
- Released
- 2011
- Genre
- sertanejo
- Level
- A1+
- Difficulty score
- 259
- Special
- Blockbuster
- Duration
- 2:46
The smallest card in the catalogue — six nouns, five verb forms, not a single adjective — and that is exactly why it works as a first Portuguese lesson. There is nothing here to be intimidated by. sábado, menina, balada, galera, coragem, delícia is a complete vocabulary you can hold after two listens. galera is the one to keep: it means a crowd, or your mates, it is everyday Brazilian, and no textbook will offer it to you this early. você me mata puts the pronoun in front of the verb, which is the Brazilian habit rather than the European one. Fifteen minutes of work in total, and a genuinely useful fifteen.
How to study this song
“Ai Se Eu Te Pego” carries 9 Portuguese words, 1 adjective and 10 verb forms — 20 study entries in all, graded A1+. Work through the glossary first: sábado, menina and balada are the words you will lean on most. The list is short, 20 entries, so it works well as a first card in Portuguese. At this level the goal is recognition: hear a word, place it, keep going.
The words of this song, in several languages
Every word below is taken from this song and translated by us. Nothing here is the lyric itself — these are the individual words you need in order to follow it.
Vocabulary
| PT | EN | ES | IT | FR | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sábado | Saturday | sábado | sabato | samedi | zaterdag | Samstag |
| menina | girl | niña | ragazza | fille | meisje | Mädchen |
| balada | party | fiesta | festa | fête | feest | Party |
| galera | crowd | pandilla | comitiva | bande |
What this song teaches you
Level · A1+
- Vocabulary words
- 9
- Adjectives
- 1
- Word combos
- 6
- Expressions
- 7
- Verb forms
- 10
- Quiz questions
- 35
More Portuguese songs at this level
Background
About the song
“Ai Se Eu Te Pego” is an exuberant Brazilian sertanejo-pop single by Michel Teló, released in 2011. Built on a simple, foot-stomping accordion-and-guitar groove and a shout-along chorus, it is pure flirtatious party music — a playful boast about the effect a certain someone has on the singer.
Its irresistibly catchy hook and easy dance move helped it leap far beyond Brazil to become one of the defining global party songs of the early 2010s.
The song is not Teló’s own: it was written in 2008 by Sharon Acioly and Antônio Dyggs, with three more authors later recognised, and Teló recorded his version in 2011 for the album “Na Balada”, produced by Dudu Borges.
Did you know?
The song went viral thanks to football: Brazilian star Neymar and his Santos teammates performed a little dance to it during goal celebrations, and when Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcelo followed suit, the track exploded across Europe.
It reached number one in more than fifteen countries, an extraordinary reach for a Portuguese-language sertanejo song.
Charts & streaming
“Ai Se Eu Te Pego” sold in the millions and ranked among the best-selling singles worldwide of its year, topping the charts across Europe, Eastern Europe and Latin America. With hundreds of millions of streams and video views, it turned Michel Teló from a regional Brazilian singer into a global one-song phenomenon.
With more than seven million units it was the sixth best-selling single of 2011 worldwide, became the most downloaded track in Germany since 2006, peaked at 81 on the American Hot 100 and passed a billion YouTube views.