Formality

Mafalda has a pleasant chat with her neighbour.

Coworkers João and Camila chat about family responsibilities and routines on their way into the office.

D. Maria and Catarina have a pleasant chat in the supermarket. Language focus: formal and informal “you” Cultural note: D. is an abbreviation for Dona, which is an honorific, similar to Ms. or Mrs. You may hear some Portuguese speakers use Dona to respectfully address a middle-aged or older woman who is a homemaker, or […]

We often get asked about how to say sorry and excuse me in Portuguese. Is there a difference between Com licença and Desculpe? What about Sinto muito? Lamento? Perdão? With so many options that have similar translations, it’s important to take context and cultural norms into account. In this Learning Note, we’ll cover which phrase(s) […]

Paulo hasn’t received his order yet, so he writes an email to customer service.

Fernando meets with his real estate agent, Eduarda, to tour a house that’s for sale. Notice how they navigate formal/informal treatments in Portuguese.

A woman goes shopping for new eyeglasses. Follow along to learn some new vocabulary you could use in this situation.

Jan visits the Câmara Municipal to get his certificado de registo (registration certificate).

Clara gets a lot of packages delivered, all by the same delivery man!

Matilde picks out some bed linens and towels with some help from the shopkeeper.

This Learning Note was designed to serve as a very condensed overview of basic Portuguese grammar. We hope this will help give you a “big picture” view of the language before you dive into the details. You’ll notice there are many links throughout, in case you want to explore a particular topic, or bookmark it […]

Senhor Esteves stops by to say hello to Dona Graça and her daughter, Carla. Since it’s almost lunchtime, they invite him to stay for a meal. Notice the different levels of formality used among the different speakers.

Bianca and Rodolfo meet at a mutual friend’s party. Notice the variety of ways the preposition “de” is used throughout their conversation.

A woman visits a clothing shop to exchange a blouse she received as a gift.

Sílvia picks up her bicycle from the repair shop.

Do you want to show an effort to speak a bit of Portuguese, but don’t yet know enough to say everything you’d like? In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask “do you speak English?” in Portuguese, for those times when the topic is above your current level. We’ll cover both informal and formal contexts, […]

Luísa stops at the bakery to buy some bread and chat with Sr. Ramiro, an old family friend who seems to have had every profession imaginable! Notes for this episode: Notice how Luísa treats Sr. Ramiro with the formal form of “you” and he treats Luísa with the informal form (tu). Learn more about informal […]

Vasco writes an informal email to Barbara after returning from a vacation they went on along with their significant others.

Luisa finally stands up to her terrible boss.

Ivo emails a cover letter along with his resume to apply for a position as a Chief Financial Officer.

Practice the imperative mood as Carlos tries to keep up with Sara’s cooking instructions!

Gustavo’s mother teaches him how to make his favourite dessert.

Grammatically speaking, the pronouns si and consigo belong to the 3rd person subjects: ele(s)/ela(s). This is because they were initially only used as reflexive pronouns*, which are pronouns that refer to the same subject or thing as the verb. For example: The sentence above is still correct and wouldn’t be confusing because the context makes […]

Handwashing is more fun when you do it in Portuguese!