Cadê

The shortest way to ask "where is" in (Brazilian) Portuguese is with a single word: "Cadê"

I have one informal source that says

Cadê é sim regionalismo do Brasil mas é somente usado em linguagem informal. Foi originado de que é feito de, que passou a quede e então a cadê.

I can't find anything to either confirm or deny that explanation, nor does the longer original phrase suggest the question "where is?" to me. What I can find are a lot of examples of its use. For one thing, one of Brazil's bigger search engines is called "Cadê?" and was acquired by Yahoo! in 2002. They kept the catchy name.

An interesting aspect of this word's use is that it doesn't change based on whether it's followed by a singular or plural noun. "Cadê seu amigo" or "Cadê seus amigos" -- tanto faz.

So the next time you're looking for something, think "cadê."