Portugal is a country of food lovers, so we use a lot of different expressions to describe the food we eat and how we feel about eating it. The 2 ways to say “I’m hungry” in Portuguese are:
Estou com fomeI'm hungry | Tenho fomeI'm hungry
Hunger and Satisfaction
I’m Hungry!
For starters, instead of saying I am hungry, in Portugal we start thinking about food when we have hunger or when we are with hunger. In Portuguese, this translates to:
- ter fomefeeling hungry (to have hunger) or estar com fomebeing hungry (to be with hunger)
If you’re really feeling quite peckish, you can say:
- Estou esfomeadoI'm famished or even Estou a morrer de fomeI’m dying to eat
We take our hunger very seriously…
Tenho fome. O que há para comer?I'm hungry. What's there to eat?
Vamos depressa, eu estou a morrer de fome!Let’s go quickly, I’m dying to eat!
I’m Full!
Once we’re full, we say:
- Estou cheioI'm full
- or the more elegant alternative Estou satisfeitoI'm satisfied
- or the rare Estou saciadoI'm satiated
Já estou cheio, não consigo comer mais.I'm already full, I can't eat anymore. (male speaking)
Bear in mind that, because it is an adjective, cheio must agree in both the gender and number with the object it refers to:
- Here are the 4 different forms: cheiofull(masc., sing.) cheiafull(fem., sing.) cheiosfull(masc., pl.) cheiasfull(fem., pl.)
Não consigo comer mais nada hoje, sinto-me demasiado cheia.I can’t eat anything else today, I feel too full. (female speaking)
Há bolo para sobremesa, mas eles já estão cheios.There is cake for dessert, but they’re already full.
Meal Names and Structures
In Portuguese, the main refeiçõesmeals of the day go like this:
o pequeno-almoçobreakfast
o almoçolunch
o lanchesnack
o jantardinner
a ceiasupper
Lanche is usually an odd one for English speakers. It roughly corresponds to the British afternoon tea, that is to say, a light meal or snack eaten in the middle of the afternoon, between lunch and dinner. It can also refer to a light morning snack before lunch.
The larger meals, almoço and jantar, can be broken down like this, particularly at restaurants:
- as entradasappetizers, starters
- o prato principalmain dish
- o acompanhamentoside dish
- as bebidasdrinks, beverages
- a sobremesadessert
Food and Flavour
When discussing food, we like to describe its flavour, temperature, or just how tasty it is! Here are some common adjectives for talking about food in Portuguese:
- quentehot, warm
- frescofresh frescafresh
- friocold friacold
- podrerotten
- saborosotasty saborosatasty
- docesweet
- picantespicy
- insossobland insossabland *
- deliciosodelicious deliciosadelicious
- salgadosalty salgadasalty
- condimentadoseasoned condimentadaseasoned
- temperadoseasoned temperadaseasoned
- The correct technical term for describing something as bland is insípido(a), which is equivalent to “insipid”. Insosso refers specifically to food lacking salt. The majority of Portuguese speakers will nonetheless use insosso(a) when describing something bland or tasteless. As an alternative, you could also say: Não sabe a nadaIt doesn't taste like anything
Remember, since these are adjectives, they must agree in both gender and number with the object they’re referring to.
Examples:
Este bife está muito salgado.This steak is very salty.
A sopa está muito quente. Vou juntar água fria.The soup is too hot. I'll add cold water to it.
Este frango é delicioso, mas o arroz não sabe a nada.This chicken is delicious, but the rice is bland.
A salada está bem temperada!The salad is well seasoned!
A comida estava picante!The food was spicy!
Os vegetais frescosFresh vegetables
Os ovos podresRotten eggs
Great information. Thank you!
Fantastic, really helpful as we intend to go to portuguese cooking lessons.
Thank you
How do the Portuguese define or differentiate “jantar” and “ceia”? In English, we tend to use these interchangeably, I think: we can refer to the evening meal as “supper” or “dinner.”
Olá, David. For us, “jantar” is the main evening meal (it would correspond to our lunch, if it were daytime). “Ceia” is a smaller meal post-dinner, before going to bed. It’s more of a snack, really, not a proper meal.
In this sentence: ‘Não consigo comer mais nada hoje, sinto-me demasiado cheia’ shouldn’t it be ‘demasiada’ for feminine?
Olá. Not in this case 🙂 Since it’s being used adverbially, the word ‘demasiado’ is invariable.
What would you call it if you stopped for a mid-MORNING snack, like uma bica con pastella de nata?
You can call it “lanche” as well 🙂 If you want to be more specific, you can say “lanche da manhã”. I’ve just added that info to the Learning Note.
When would you use condimentado and temperado?
Condimentado and temperado are synonyms when used to describe food. You can use either one of them, because both are extremely common. Apart from that, the word “temperado” has other uses, such as when talking about a “clima temperado” (temperate climate) or about “temperar as nossas emoções” (moderate/control our emotions) 🙂
Very good lesson. I feel like I can go to a restaurant alone !
Hi everyone,
The part of the UK I’m from would not use supper for dinner and would stop work to eat around 12-1pm, always calling it lunch.
Also some would call lunch, ‘dinner’. and dinner, ‘tea’!
In fact having your ‘tea’ (as the main meal of the day), would be around 5-6pm and then, if having supper, this would be much later and only a very small snack before bedtime.
Those who have ‘dinner’ (as the main meal of the day) would eat this around 9pm and be considered quite ‘posh’….
Much of this confusion seems to come from the English obsession with ‘class’
This made it quite tricky when inviting people for a meal…… by ‘dinner’ did you mean lunch…..So it’s not just the Portuguese who make language difficult to learn!
Really enjoying the course. Well done! The opportunity to tea pronunciation is particularly useful for me.
Just hope my failing mental capacity can retain most of it..
Bother…in the last post it should say ‘test pronunciation’ not ‘tea pronunciation’…damn spell correct!!
Lanche isn’t unusual for English people as we have “Elevenses” which is a snack taken around 11:00.
In Canada and the US, a “snack” is basically anything thing that you eat between the three main meals, usually something small. A mid-morning snack or mid-afternoon snack for example, or a bedtime snack. And nothing stops you from having several afternoon snacks! 🙂
Would “brunch“ be called “lanche da manhã”?
No, everyone seems to have just adopted the English word. You’ll find (or would, pre-pandemic) lots of places in Portugal advertising their trendy “brunches” 🙂
Um licāo muito utíl!
As an American child, we would have Sunday dinner around 1pm, served with the good china. Then supper that day would be served around 5pm. All the in-between “meals” were called snacks. The rest of the week’s schedule was breakfast, lunch and supper, with snacks when needed. Dinner was thought of as kind of a fancy meal.
I’ve just found out about this website, I’m surprised of what it has to offer to us beginners. Quality information, I’ve always had the dream to move to Portugal on day, this website will help me a lot during the time.
How would you say that the food was spicy, like a hot spicy? Great lesson thanks!
A comida estava picante! = The food was spicy!
Just added it to the learning note 😉
I am curious about the usage of estar in this and in say salty, but then using ser when talking about sweet or bitter. Why are they different?
It’s not easy to understand those differences and the rules on how to use either “ser” or “estar” have a very thin line between them and, of course, exceptions.
However, SER is usually used when the adjective is something that implies a permanent state of the subject. As for ESTAR is used when the adjective implies a non-permanent state, a transitory state, or a state that can be determined in a specific period of time.
Examples:
O céu é azul. = The sky is blue, as a permanent state
O céu está escuro. = The sky is dark, as a transitory state.
O açúcar é doce. = It’s a permanent characteristic of the sugar being sweet
O café é amargo. = It’s expected of the coffee to be usually/permanently bitter
Este bife está muito salgado = This steak has been cooked and it’s now very salty.
When you have temporal expressions associated with the adjective, the tendency is to use ESTAR. However, not always, since the properties of the adjective often determine the usage of SER or ESTAR.
Example:
Hoje estás simpático / Today you’re being nice (today, as in a specific period of time)
És simpático / You’re nice (in general, a permanent characteristic)
Some other times it can be either SER or ESTAR, meaning different things.
Examples:
Sou feliz. / I’m a happy person.
Estou feliz. / Something got me happy.
🙂
I had the same question and presumed the use of ser V estar must be to do with transitory state but it was the coffee being bitter which threw me, I thought ‘bitter coffee’ would be temporary (ie not ‘usual’ or permanent as it would be a bad coffee if bitter?) but thanks for clarifying.
I am confused about the example “the fresh vegetables” being translated to “os vegetais frescos” (rather than “os legumes frescos”). In the previous unit about food (https://www.practiceportuguese.com/learning-notes/food-groups/?uid=1268) you said “You’re probably asking yourself why don’t we use the word vegetais for vegetables, and that’s because we reserve that word for when we are talking about plants. “
Oh, I understand your confusion! The wording in the other unit is too absolute – we need to revise it. It’s true that ‘vegetais’ is the broader term, but in the end, since every ‘legume’ is also a ‘vegetal’, the two terms actually coexist in the average person’s daily vocabulary and might be used interchangeably in the context of food. To talk about plants in general, we also have (and prefer) the term ‘plantas’.
Bom dia! When should we use ”a ceia”, instead of ”o jantar”?
Muito obrigada,
Louise
Olá! “Ceia” means supper, while “jantar” means dinner – that’s how you should differentiate them. We consider “ceia” a light, late-night meal, while “jantar” is the main evening meal, a counterpart to lunch (almoço).
Hello again! Then, Ceia is the meal around 19h00, while jantar is the meal at noonish? I thought it was almoço at noon…
No, it’s ‘almoço’ around noon, ‘jantar’ around 7-8pm, and ‘ceia’ later in the evening, if desired.
Muito obrigada Joseph, agora tudo é claro!!
Louise