* It spans over a vast area between central South America and the Atlantic Ocean, and borders Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French department of French Guiana—basically, it neighbours every South American country save Chile and Ecuador.
* Its name came about from "brazilwood" (pau-brasil), a tree that was highly valued by early colonists.
* Since it was colonised by Portugal, Brazil’s official language is Portuguese. Spanish, however, is common at places where Brazil borders Spanish-speaking countries (heck, the whole of South America except Brazil has got Spanish as their mother tongue).
* There is such a thing as a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese, known as Portunhol/Portuñol.
* Football is the most popular sport. Other than the traditional gameplay, three other variations of the sport are widely practiced by Brazilians:
(1) futsal (the 5-a-side version),
(2) beach football (which originated in the beaches of Rio de Janeiro), and
(3) footvolley (a cross between football and volleyball that’s played on sand, where players can only use their head and feet to get the ball over the net onto the opponent's court)-- source: wikipedia.com
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