Introduce yourself
Studying individual words and rules, we experience a sharp lack of opportunity to see their usage in everyday life, in context. That is why we have decided to explain new grammar and vocabulary through dialogues, which serve as a real-life example of basic communication in Portuguese. Here, you do not need to cling to every word, as many things will be intuitively understandable.
Dialogue 1 – informal
Ana: Olá! Como estás? (Hello! How are you?)
Pedro: Bem, obrigado. E tu? (I’m good, thank you. And you?)
Ana: Tudo bem, obrigada. Como te chamas? (I’m good, thank you. What’s your name?)
Pedro: Eu chamo-me Pedro. E tu? (My name is Pedro. And you?)
Ana: Muito prazer, Pedro. Eu sou a Ana. (Nice to meet you, Pedro. I’m Ana.)
Pedro: Muito prazer, Ana. De onde és? (Nice to meet you, Ana. Where are you from?)
Ana: Sou de Lisboa. E tu? (I’m from Lisbon. And you?)
Pedro: Eu sou de Coimbra. (I’m from Coimbra.)
Ana: Ah, interessante! Coimbra é uma cidade bonita. (Oh, interesting! Coimbra is a beautiful city.)
Pedro: Sim, e a Lisboa também. Ana, és estudante? (Yes, and Lisbon too. Ana, are you a student?)
Ana: Sim, sou. E tu? (Yes, I am. And you?)
Pedro: Eu também. (I am too.)
Ana: Tenho uma aula agora, Pedro. Até breve! (I have a class now, Pedro. See you soon!)
Pedro: Até breve! (See you soon!)
Greetings
The first words that any foreigner learns in the Portuguese language are greetings. Let’s look at the main greetings:
- Olá (hello) – informal greeting;
- Bom dia! (Good morning!) – before 12:00
- Boa tarde! (Good afternoon!) – from 12:00 to 20:00
- Boa noite! (Good evening!) – after 20:00
Since no one looks at the clock to choose the right greeting, at borderline hours people greet each other as they see fit.
Verb “CHAMAR-SE”
After greeting, people usually exchange names, and for this we need to get acquainted with the verb “chamar-se”. If translated literally, it would be – “to call yourself”. This is a regular verb ending in “-ar”. By looking at the conjugation of this verb, you can see the standard rule for conjugating all regular verbs ending in “-ar” and learn how to conjugate the reflexive particle “-se”. You can go back to the dialogue and see this verb in context, while we gather the rules into a table.
| CHAMAR-SE | |
| eu | chamo–me |
| tu | chamas–te |
| ele, ela, você | chama–se |
Surely you have noticed that in the question “What is your name?” the reflexive particle has moved to a position before the verb. This is due to the questioning word “como”. Furthermore, we want to add that all questioning words pull the reflexive particle forward.
Verb “SER”
To create an alternative answer to the question about name, the irregular verb “ser” (to be) will help us. Its conjugation forms must be memorized by heart, as it is a universal verb and will be useful to us many times in the future.
| SER | |
| eu | sou |
| tu | és |
| ele, ela, você | é |
In the dialogue, you can see that the person’s name is followed by a definite article (unlike the verb chamar-se). Yes, names of people in Portuguese are used with articles: “o” – for men, and “a” – for women. Remember that!
The uniqueness of this verb is that with it, we can indicate the city of our origin: “Sou de …” (I am from…), as well as give characteristics both to cities: é uma cidade bonita (it is a beautiful city); and to people: és bonita (you are beautiful). In
Portuguese, the question “Where are you from?” will sound short: De onde és/é?
The question “de onde” (from where?) consists of the preposition “de” (from) and the adverb “onde” (where). Note that in the answer we also use the preposition “de”: Sou de Aveiro. (I am from Aveiro.)
Levels of formality
In the first dialogue, the girl and the boy are speaking informally and using “tu” (you). It is obvious that the dialogue is completely informal. If we want to add formality to the conversation, we can address the other person using “você” (you), as you can see in the second dialogue. And if we want to raise the communication to the most official and formal level, we need to address the other person in the third person – “o senhor/a senhora” (sir/madam).
Dialogue 2 –formal
Joana: Boa tarde, António. Chamo-me Joana Almeida. (Good afternoon, António. My name is Joana Almeida.)
António: Muito prazer. (Nice to meet you.)
Joana: O prazer é meu. De onde é? (The pleasure is mine. Where are you from?)
António: Eu sou de Aveiro. E a senhora? (I am from Aveiro. And you?)
Joana: Eu também sou deAveiro. (I am also from Aveiro.)
António: Interessante. (Interesting.)
Joana: Desculpe, Sr. António, tenho uma reunião agora. Até terça. (I’m sorry, Mr. António, I have a meeting now. See you on Tuesday.)
António: Até terça! (See you on Tuesday!)
Farewells
As farewells, we can use the same greetings, except for “Olá”, because wishing a good morning/day/evening can be done not only at the beginning of a conversation, but also at the end. There is also the unique word “Até”, which allows us to create different farewells for the day, week, and beyond, simply by adding the date or day of the week to bid farewell beautifully:
- Até amanhã (until tomorrow)
- Até à próxima (until next time)
- Até breve (see you soon)
- Até terça (until Tuesday)
The standard farewells sound as follows:
- Tchau (bye) – informal
- Adeus (goodbye) – formal
Days of the week
To be able to say goodbye to any day of the week and not only, you need to expand your vocabulary and get acquainted with the days of the week in Portuguese:
- segunda – Monday
- terça – Tuesday
- quarta – Wednesday
- quinta – Thursday
- sexta – Friday
- sábado – Saturday
- domingo – Sunday
Usually, the days of the week are used with the definite article “o/a” depending on the gender, however there is an exception – farewells: Até _ sexta! (Until Friday!) This rule works for any day of the week.
Conclusion
Of course, we will not force you to memorize phrases from the dialogue, but we recommend paying close attention to them, because they are so standard that you will hear them from Portuguese people more than once, and in the future you will have to use them yourself. Furthermore, this vocabulary and grammar will come in handy in future topics for discussion!