O Brasil na Primeira Guerra Mundial

What does “sair ganhando” mean in Portuguese?

Sair ganhando pairs the verb sair (“to leave,” “to exit a situation”) with a gerund to describe how someone comes out of it — ganhando (“winning”) if they benefit, perdendo (“losing”) if they don’t. It’s a pattern more than a fixed idiom: the same “sair + gerund” slot can hold other verbs, but ganhando and perdendo are by far its most common partners in everyday Portuguese.

This clip builds its whole argument around the question: “o Brasil saiu ganhando ou perdendo nesta guerra?” (“did Brazil come out ahead or behind in this war?”). The answer is mixed — Brazil lost ships and coffee exports, but it saiu ganhando diplomatically, gaining a seat at the Treaty of Versailles and a role founding the League of Nations.