A little kindness goes a long way, especially when you’re struggling to communicate in a new language! This guide covers the most important phrases to express basic, everyday courtesy in Portugal. (There are also many others that will help get you started in simple conversations or greet people properly throughout the day.)
Please
por favorplease
se faz favorplease
These are both equally correct and used in the same situations. We Portuguese tend to shorten words whenever we can. So don’t be confused if instead of se faz favor you hear ´faz favor in fast, informal speech.
Thank You
ObrigadoThank you (male speaker)
ObrigadaThank you (female speaker)
It literally means “obliged”, said to be a leftover from a polite expression that went more or less like, “I am obliged to return your favour”. Similarly, we also have: Muito obrigadoThank you very much, Much obliged
Because you are the one who feels obliged to return the favour, your thank you must reflect your own gender, not that of the person you’re talking to.
So remember: male speakers say obrigado and female speakers say obrigada.
Examples:
Obrigado pela tua ajuda.Thank you for your help. (male speaker)
Obrigada pelos presentes.Thank you for the gifts. (female speaker)
You’re Welcome
After hearing an obrigado/obrigada, you have a few different options for saying “you’re welcome” in Portuguese. The most common is:
- De nadaYou're welcome – You could think of it as a shorter version of “you are obliged to nothing“.
Here are a few common alternatives you may hear:
- Não tens de quê(informal) | Não tem de quê(formal) – basically means No need to thank me / Don’t mention it
- Com certezaOf course / Sure
- Ora essa!Oh, please!
Putting it Together
Just a couple examples of how these phrases might go together:
👩🏾🦱 Muito obrigada por tudo!Thank you so much for everything! (female speaker)
👨🏻 De nada!You're welcome!
Or…
👨🏼🦱 Obrigado pelo almoço!Thank you for lunch! (male speaker)
👴🏻 Ora essa!Oh, please!
(For something more challenging, we also have longer dialogues, like this one.)
Yes and No
These words will also come in handy, and can be combined with the phrases you just learned:
SimYes
Sim, por favorYes, please
NãoNo
Não, obrigadaNo, thank you (female speaker)
Sorry & Excuse Me
DesculpaI'm sorry (informal) or DesculpeI'm sorry (formal) is one of the more versatile polite phrases used in Portugal because it can be used to apologize, to politely ask for someone’s attention, or to excuse yourself as you walk around someone.
Another way to say “excuse me” is Com licençaExcuse me, Pardon me , which translates literally to “with license”.
👉 More details on the distinction here
Examples:
Desculpa, agora tenho de irSorry, I have to go now
Desculpe, quanto custa isto?Excuse me, how much does this cost?
Com licença, minha senhora.Excuse me, ma'am.
There are many ways to respond to com licença, from a formal Faça favorPlease do, Go ahead to a mere ClaroSure .
When you want to say sorry simply as a way to express compassion, you would say LamentoI'm sorry, I regret .
If the person is sick and you want to wish them a swift recovery, you can say As melhorasGet well soon .
Formality
It’s also important to be aware that unlike English, Portuguese has different levels of formality, which is often indicated by the choice of pronouns used to address someone. We’ll cover this more in a future Unit. 🙂
For now, let’s practice what we’ve learned in the next lesson!
Comments
Obrigado!! Is perfect now
De nada
muito bem
De nada
Would be good if there were a female voice for “obrigada”!
Goodness grief. So what is the definition of a woman Tom.
I’d like to hear spelling of “Não tens de quê” and “Não tem de quê”.
I noticed unusual spelling of letter g in “obrigado”, can you commdnt?
And still unclear when d is spelling as d and when as th….
By ‘spelling’, I think you mean ‘pronunciation’, right? Well, the pronunciation of the letter G in “Obrigado” is the same as in the English words “get”, “game”, “go” or “gaga”. The audio examples in the Learning Note demonstrate it well. As for the letter D, linguists have acknowledged both variations of the D in European Portuguese (harder D and the “Th” hybrid). They seem to only validate it between vowels, even though you might occasionally hear it in other spots. There’s some regional variability to this, it’s not prevalent everywhere 🙂
Thank you so much for clarifying this. I’ve known bits of Spanish my entire life as I was raised in central Arizona. And Portuguese is quite a different pronunciation! At times it sounds Russian, at other times Asiatic. I love this for my evolution because we’re moving to Lisbon in 11 weeks and I want to be sufficiently conversational by then. Thanks
All is well
Parabéns!
Is ” Não há de que” used for “You’re welcome”as in the spanish “No hay de que”?
Yes, they’re the same!
Estou gostando das aulas.
Is “perdão” ever used as a way to say “excuse me”?
“Perdão” is not used as frequently, but it’s still well in use as an alternative way of saying “sorry”, “excuse me” or “pardon me”. “Perdão” actually has a very specific use, as the preferred mode of apology for inconvenient bodily noises!
I’d like to see an example sentence for “se faz favor”. Thank you!
Olá Mario! “Por favor” and “se faz favor” are used in the same way, so the same example could be used for both: “Poderia trazer-me água, por favor?” = “Poderia trazer-me água, se faz favor?”. I’ve just added it to the article for extra clarity 🙂
Great 🙂
Com licença reminds me of “con permiso” in spanish. It’s literally saying,” with permission”, and so its easy for me to remember.
Yes, very similar! That’s a good way to remember it.
Muito obrigada. This is the best explanation of all the different formal/informal ways of being polite that I’ve seen
Is it also acceptable to use “sinto muito” for “I’m sorry”? If so, is there any functional difference between “sinto muito” and “Eu lamento”? In “Eu lamento,” does this change with the gender of the speaker, e.g., “Eu lamento” (for a male speaker) and “Eu lamenta” (for a female speaker)? Obrigado antecipadamente.
Sure, we also use “sinto muito” and there’s no functional difference between that and “eu lamento”. Lamento is a verb conjugation (from the verb lamentar), so it has only one form, irrespective of gender.
I enjoyed that. Obrigado
Desculpe, quanto custa isto? is translated above to Excuse me, how much does this cost?
Wouldn’t that be I’m Sorry, how much does this cost?
Why would this not be Com licença, quanto custa isto?
Would Com licença just be a more formal way to say this?
Olá, Jeanette! Like the Learning Note says, the word “Desculpe” is rather versatile, so you could translate it either way, depending on context. Even though both expressions could be used here, I’d say that “Desculpe” sounds more natural than “Com licença” in these types of questions. “Com licença” is more commonly used when you want someone to get out of the way, when you want to politely enter someone’s house or another place, or even when you want to end a phone call or close the door on someone. Formality isn’t a factor here, because “Desculpe” is already formal enough (“Desculpa” is the informal option). It’s all about common patterns of use of each expression.
I sometimes hear Portuguese speakers drop the “a” and the “o” so they say “Obrigard”. I’m assuming this is just a modern way of staying gender neutral
Haha, I would think that’s rarely the real reason, but it might be a convenient side effect. Dropping vowels is just our national sport 🙂
This answers my question about what I should teach my gender neutral oldest child! Thanks!
Can I say Obrigada pela tua música if I want to say thank you for your music?
Absolutely! 🙂 If you feel like you need to say it formally, you can say “Obrigada pela sua música” instead.
Just starting out on this adventure with you. Found it confusing that the audio clips for “obrigada” are often spoken by a man. Am I right in thinking a man would only ever use obrigado? Might be worth updating the audio clips if this is the case.
Welcome, thanks for joining us! 🙂 Yes, you’re exactly right: men say obrigado and women say obrigada. We have plans to update the audios for the phrases that should be female speakers. In the meantime, sorry for the confusion there!
Started today. So far so good, no i find it really good. Did many lessons with D. l. Until I noticed that a learn the wrong language (?)
Muito obrigado
Hi,
Just joined & confused already !
When man says Sim the ‘m’ appears silent. When the woman speaks, it sounds more like an ‘n’
Sorry for the confusion! The end of that word is pronounced like a nasalized i. This sounds similar to the sound made by “ng” in English, as in “walking“. The woman speaker is just enunciating a bit more and dragging that sound out a bit, so that explains the difference. I hope that helps! Let me know if we can clarify further. 🙂
How to response to “desculpe”?
Olá! It depends on the intention behind the “desculpe”.
– If it’s an apology, you can answer however you feel, from “Não faz mal” (it’s okay, no problem) to “Estás desculpado” or “Estás desculpada” (You’re forgiven), or even “Não desculpo” (I don’t forgive you!).
– If it’s “desculpe” in the sense of “Excuse me, let me through”, you can respond just as you would to “Com licença”: “Faça favor” (go ahead), “Claro” (sure), “À vontade” (feel free).
– If it’s “desculpe” in the sense of “Excuse me, can I ask you something?”, a simple “Sim?” (Yes?) or “Diga” (Tell me) is fine 🙂
Typical English and never spoke another language in my life. Just started 121 lessons via video with a Portuguese lady. Had 4 1hr lessons so far and feel like I have already made progress. Well when i say progress, I have learnt 50 words, understanding male and female differences in words etc like the o’s and a’s, and can read the alphabet without looking. As well as my lessons I have been using a couple of apps to help me along the way. My tutor recommended I had a look at this site last week. First impressions…. wow!…. not seen anything else like it and so real and personal with the passion of a couple of guys with a very obvious passion and skill. I am blown away, to be honest. I find myself on this site more than any of the others and for good reasons… it’s so well thought out and put together and I love that the words and phrases are read by a human and the read-back feature to see if I am saying it correctly is a killer feature, to be honest. The site is fully packed with so much content I was a little unsure where to start. I finally got started with the very first option on the menu LEARN/Units. It’s great how everything is explained in plain English(excuse the pun) and position what your learning into real-life situations. I do have a couple of questions about bookmarking and pressing the + sign on the words if someone can help as I have tried a couple of times and cannot find where they are saved or referenced to. Good luck to you all, whatever level you are and wish you luck learning Portuguese. I expect I’ll be at it for many months, maybe years but I know every single thing I learn, even if just one word a day is another step in the right direction to success. Practice makes perfect and practice is what I do, every single day without fail…. going over and over the same old things but by doing so they become more natural each time. Darren (UK)
Thanks so much for all the kind feedback! And glad to hear you are making progress already!
The + sign when you hover over a word/phrase is to add it to “Smart Review” (found under the Learn tab in the menu). Smart Review keeps track of all the phrases you learned in the Lessons so you can review as you go along, using Flash Cards or Quiz Mode. When you come across phrases in other parts of the site, that + lets you add those to Smart Review as well.
As for the bookmarks, if you bookmark a Learning Note, Shorty, Video, etc, it will show up on your “Bem-Vindo” (Welcome) page, which is under the Account tab. If you go to that page and scroll down, you’ll see everything you’ve bookmarked. I hope that helps! Feel free to reach out at [email protected] if any other questions come up. 😊
I learned as much from the comments/questions as I did from the lessons. Obrigada!
I am a professor of English and we teach formality in language. English has different levels of formality although they are not as obvious as in Portuguese. Native English speakers adjust their word choice and forms of address according to age. This becomes clear when young non-native speakers speak to older native speakers in a way that appears not to recognize the older age or earned status of the native speaker. Formality also exists in written English.
Very true! For example, in government or legal proceedings, sometimes you’ll hear a lot of indirect versions of “you”:
Will the defendant please rise…
Will the senator yield…
And we do adjust our word choices and wording choices to be more/less formal in different contexts, both spoken and written. In English, I would say it’s often more of a stylistic choice, and there’s more variation in how language is made informal/formal, across contexts and dialects. In Portuguese, like you said, it’s more obvious. It’s more prevalent and consistent in everyday language.
Is it my ears or is Bom dia prononunced Bon dia with an N rather than an M?
It’s actually pronounced more like “Bõ dia”, as if there is no m or n, and the o is nasalized. Maybe it’s sounding similar to “bon dia” just because when your tongue moves toward the “d” in “dia” it’s going near the same place where it would go for an “n” sound. However, it’s really just a nasal vowel sound there, so don’t put your lips together for an “m” and don’t add an “n”.
We don’t really differentiate nasal vowels in English, so it’s tricky at first. Nasalization is sort of like a more pronounced version of the way a vowel sounds a bit different when it’s before the letter m or n, as in sang (vs. sat), or when you say “uh huh”. Then you just apply the same type of nasal airflow to the o in “bom”.
So far, so good.
Need space between lessons thanks.
I love your responses to the questions. Many times it hadn’t occurred to me to ask that yet.
Olá! I really love this course! A question regarding the pronunciation of “muito”. Am I mistaken or do I hear an “n” sound in this word, like “muinto”? If so, is it possibly because the vowels have a nasal sound? If not, I will get my hearing checked. Thanks!
Olá! That’s absolutely correct. Over time, the nasality of the M spread to the “UI” diphthong and became reflected in how we pronounce the word, with that “muinto” sound. Still, it should always be written as ‘muito’. Your ears are working very well 🙂
I just started this. In the lesson on polite phrases between units 1 and 2, the more challenging phrases were not included in the practice. I’d added them to smart review, and when I heard them, I didn’t remember covering them because they were not in the practice section. It shed light on how I learn, but I bring it up here in case I’m missed something? Thanks!
Because this is such an early unit, we decided to keep the lessons simpler. But we still included additional phrases in the “Polite Phrases” Learning Note, just to make them available to anyone who found them useful. Let me know if there are any particular phrases you wish had been covered in the lessons. 🙂
Muito bom, obrigado!
So there is “faz favor” and “faça favor” what is the (verb?) root word of faz and faça ?
These are imperative forms of the verb fazer, which means “to do”. Faz is informal and faça is formal.
Muito bem
I’m enjoying the course.
I’m finding it difficult to know what I’m supposed to be doing inside my mouth to make the pronunciations.
I’ve never made many of these sounds before.
Very interesting.
uma pergunta por favor …….. how would I say “our sincere condolences for the loss of your father” in European Portuguese. We would like to offer our wishes to a family at our parish. Obrigada
I’m sorry for the late reply and, also, we’re sorry for their loss.
There are a few different – but similar – ways of sending wishes to someone who lost a loved one.
The translation to Our sincere condolences for the loss of your father, would be: As nossas sinceras condolências pela perda do seu/teu/vosso pai.
Other forms could be:
– Os nossos pêsames pela perda do seu/teu/vosso pai.
– Sentimos muito pela perda do seu/teu/vosso pai.
– Os nossos sentimentos pela perda do seu/teu/vosso pai. (this could be one of the most common forms!)
Instead of “pela perda” (“for the loss”) you could use “pelo falecimento”, which is a softer term for “death”, like “decease”, “demise” or “passing”.
You probably know it already but you’d use “seu” in a formal way to a singular person; “teu” if you’re close enough to have an informal interaction with a singular person, despite the solemn moment; or “vosso” if you’re addressing the children of the deceased.
obrigada!
👍🏻
Having a hard time with Lamento que tu estejas doente. The que tu seems so abbreviated in the faster dialogue.
When I listen to the pronunciation of certain words, it seems they are not pronounced as written. For example, “estejas” above, seems to be pronounced as if it were “esteijas.” Elsewhere, I’ve noticed the second “e” in “vermelho” sounding as if it were spelled “vermalho.” I hear this e–>ei sound and e–>a sound in several other words. Am I mishearing, or are these simply colloquial pronunciations that don’t follow the rules?
The pronunciation variations you’re noticing are indeed common in spoken European Portuguese! The “e” to “ei” (in “estejas” and “vejas”, for example) and “e” to “a” (in “vermelho” or “coelho”) shifts you’re hearing occur frequently in the natural flow of the language.
For instance, “estejas” might sound like “esteijas” due to the influence of the following “j” sound, which can cause the preceding vowel to be pronounced more like “ei”. Similarly, the second “e” in “vermelho” can sound like “a” in some regional accents! Many regions pronounce “vermelho”, “coelho”, “joelho” with the “e” medium sound you’d probably expect to hear.
These are not strict rules but rather tendencies in pronunciation that can vary among speakers. It’s a good observation on your part, and understanding these subtleties will enhance your listening skills and your own pronunciation! 🙂
Thank you for such a thorough explanation. The responsiveness and care that Practice Portuguese shows to its learners is truly impressive. Muito, muito obrigado!
Totally agree.
In Italian, I would use ciao only with friends, relatives, colleagues (maybe) and children. So, for instance, I would not walk into a store and say ciao. I would say buongiorno or buona sera. Is the usage the same for tchaou in Portuguese?
In my limited exposure to Portuguese, I haven’t come across any double consonants, but I’m wondering if they are pronounced differently from single consonants and give the word a completely different meaning, as in Italian.
You folks are explaining elements of pronunciation and usage that it took me years of living in Italy to figure out. It’s one thing to know a language, but it takes special talent to be able to explain it. Muito obrigada!
Thank you so much for your kind words!
Regarding the use of “tchau” in Portuguese, it is indeed similar to “ciao” in Italian, even though we only use it as a “bye” not a “hello”. It’s typically used in informal situations among friends, family, and sometimes with colleagues. In more formal contexts, such as entering a store, “bom dia” (good morning), “boa tarde” (good afternoon), or “boa noite” (good evening) would be more appropriate. However, if it was between young people – even a young costumer and a young shopkeeper – it would be OK to use a Tchau in a polite manner.
As for the double consonants, I’m not sure if I understood your question. Anyway, we have several words that change meaning wether it’s a single consonant or a double one, and the pronunciation also changes. It happens with the R vs. RR and S vs. SS.
For example,
CARO and CARRO: CARO means expensive (masc. sing.) and CARRO means car;
PARA and PARRA: PARA means either for/to or stop (verb “parar”/”to stop”) and PARRA (vine foliage);
PRESA and PRESSA: PRESA means prey or stuck/arrested (fem. sing.) and PRESSA means hurry.
🙂
Hi Relogio (no accent, sorry)
Thanks for the tchaou explanation.
Regarding the double consonants, thanks for that explanation, too. Based on your examples, you understood my question perfectly. Do the single/double consonants appear in Portuguese verbs also? Italian examples: andremo (we will go) vs andremmo (we would go). That distinction was pretty tough for my English ear to hear initially.
I’m glad I was able to clarify your question! 🙂 In European Portuguese, the distinction you’re referring to, similar to the Italian andremo vs andremmo, doesn’t typically apply. Portuguese verbs do not usually change meaning with the addition of a consonant, so you won’t encounter the same challenge as in Italian.
Interesting pronunciation of estejas. The “es” sounds like the German “sch”. And the “e” in the middle sounds like the German “ei”.
Many letters seem to be “eaten”.
“Lamento que tu estejas doente.” This is the first time I’ve encountered estejas, why is it that we don’t use ‘estas’ in this instance? (“Lamento que tu estas doente”)
In this case, the subjunctive is triggered by the conjunction ‘que’ combined with the expression of a feeling/emotion. We can also word this in the personal infinitive, as long as we use a preposition in place of the conjunction: “Lamento por estares doente”.
Bread (Pao) but from what I’ve heard pronounced “pooww” somehow. I feel like bread is the most dangerous thing to mispronounce, and the nasal thing is really hard to achieve too. Do you have any tips on how to think or what to try, to succeed with the pronunciation?
The A of ‘pão’ may sound a bit more open in some accents than in others. In Practice Portuguese, we’re mostly demonstrating the Lisbon region accent, where it would kind of sound like the vowel of “pun”, just slightly more closed. For the nasality, it might help to think of the ‘ng’ sound in English, as in ‘hung’ or ‘sung’, except you don’t fully articulate it (i.e. the tongue doesn’t quite reach the top of the mouth). Try to play with that and see if it brings you closer to success 🙂
My friend would say “Não faz mal” in response to people apologizing. Is this common? I’ve been using it ever since it if I need to be using faça favor instead I can change my response.
They’re used in different contexts. “Faça favor” (“Please, go ahead”) is in response to someone asking for permission/room to walk around you, for example. “Não faz mal” (“It’s okay”) is in response to someone actually apologizing for something bad they did 🙂
I discussed the sentence “
Desculpa, agora tenho de ir” with my Portuguese friend, and he said it’s more common to say “tenho que ir”. Are they both acceptable?
Olá! For the most part, “ter de” and “ter que” are used interchangeably nowadays. Different native speakers might have a preference to one or the other, but both are very common.
Here’s a forum thread where we further explain the potential differences between the two forms: Ter de vs. ter que | Practice Portuguese Forum
perfect review