We have to talk about ourselves not only when meeting someone, but also in some institutions. For example, in a bank an employee asks questions about personal data; in a clinic you need to fill out a form. Often, in order to make an appointment with any authority, you need to provide detailed information about yourself. Today we will look at the main points, the answers to which you need to memorize in Portugal.
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Dialogue
Let’s simulate a dialogue on this topic and tell you what you need to pay attention to.
Funcionário: Boa tarde! Preciso de algumas informações suas para preencher o formulário. Qual é o seu nome completo?
Cliente: Boa tarde! Claro, o meu nome é João Meireles Silva. (Good afternoon! Of course, my name is João Meireles Silva.)
Funcionário: Obrigado, sr. João. Qual é a sua data de nascimento? (Thank you, sir. João. What is your date of birth?)
Cliente: 18 de março de 1988. (March 18, 1988.)
Funcionário: Qual é o número do seu cartão de cidadão. (What is your citizen card number?)
Cliente: O número do meu cartão de cidadão é 13998357. (My citizen card number is 13998357.)
Funcionário: E o seu número de contribuinte, por favor? (And your tax number, please?)
Cliente: O meu número de contribuinte é 2945802. (My tax number is 2945802.)
Funcionário: Obrigado. Qual é a sua profissão? (Thanks. What do you do for a living?)
Cliente: Sou engenheiro. (I am an engineer.)
Funcionário: E o seu estado civil? (And your marital status?)
Cliente: Sou casado. (I am married.)
Funcionário: Qual é a sua morada? (What is your address?)
Cliente: Moro na Rua da Paz 25, 3º andar esquerdo, em Coimbra. (I live at Rua da Paz 25, 3rd floor left, in Coimbra.)
Funcionário: Qual é o código postal? (What is the zip code?)
Cliente: É o 3000-224. (It’s the 3000-224.)
Funcionário: Obrigado. Qual é o seu contacto telefónico? (Thanks. What is your telephone number?)
Cliente: O meu número de telemóvel é o 912 395 608. (My cell phone number is 912 395 608.)
Funcionário: E, por fim, qual é o seu e-mail? (And finally, what is your email?)
Cliente: O meu e-mail é joao.silva@gmail.com. (My email is joao.silva@gmail.com.)
Funcionário: Muito obrigado, senhor João. Já temos todas as informações. (Thank you very much, Mr João. We already have all the information.)
Cliente: Obrigado! Boa tarde! (Thanks! Good afternoon!)
Personal data
Of course, every person remembers his name and date of birth. However, in Portugal you need to remember a certain list of numbers. Yes, these numbers are indicated on the identity document, but it is not always convenient to get it. Moreover, you can forget it at home! Therefore, let’s get acquainted with the main ones.
Firstly, the identity document of Portuguese citizens is called cartão de cidadão. A person receives a citizen card from birth, and it must be changed every 10 years. There is another term for residents – título de residência. Its duration varies from one to ten years. Both of these documents have a number consisting of numbers and letters.
The tax identification number in Portugal is important. It is called even more often than an identity card number, because by indicating it on receipts for purchases and payments for services, at the end of the year you can return part of the taxes paid. So, it is called Número de Contribuinte or Número de Identificação Fiscal, or NIF for short.
The Social Security Identification Number in Portugal is called NISS for short. It allows you to make tax deductions, receive government subsidies, and so on. But in order to receive a prescription or a referral for tests, you also need to have a patient number – Número de Utente. These three license numbers do not change throughout life and are indicated on the back of the identity card.
To travel, the Portuguese need to obtain a special passport, which can be affixed with a visa. Email
In addition to the phone number, which is also often used, you need to correctly name your email address, but while numbers are quite easy to figure out, email, which contains not only letters, but also special characters, is confusing. Let’s master this specific vocabulary:
arroba (@, at), ponto (“.”, dot), traço (“-“, dash), underscore (“_”, underscore)
Go back to the dialogue and read the email out loud, and also practice saying yours.
Address
The main thing in an address in Portugal is the index. For example, if you want to send a letter or parcel in Portugal, it is important not to make a mistake in the index, because it is this that determines the specific building in which the addressee will be searched. The operator at the post office does not manually fill in the address you wrote, he enters the index into the system and your parcel is automatically assigned an address corresponding to the index.
If the city, street and house number are determined by an index, then the apartment number must be indicated separately. In Portugal, the apartment number also contains additional information in addition to the number. Namely, the floor is first indicated, and then the abbreviation for the position of the apartment on the floor is added.
That is, if we return to the dialogue, we see that the apartment number is indicated as “3º andar esquerdo” (3rd floor left). This means that when you go up the stairs, you will see apartments opposite you, to the right and to the left. In the dialogue in particular, you need to go up to the third floor and go to the apartment on the left. However, you will almost never see the full phrase, you will only see abbreviations.
For example:
- 3° Esq = 3º andar esquerdo
- 2° Dto = 2º andar direito
- 1° Fr = 1° andar frente
Another distinctive feature of Portuguese addresses is the floor numbering. The floor you enter directly from the street is rés do chão. The next one will be considered first and so on.
Civil status
This section has a fairly standard set of statuses, but there is something to add. Statuses associated with the possibility of marriage may be taken into account:
solteiro (single), casado (married), divorciado (divorced), viúvo (widower)
In Portugal, relationships without formal marriage are also recognized. That is, if a couple lives together for more than two years, then this relationship is called “união de facto” and has a number of advantages, the same as for a married couple.
For example, you can file a joint tax return, continue to live in your spouse’s apartment if he dies, claim leave at the same time if the couple works in the same company, and you can also legally miss work if your spouse gets sick and needs to be cared for. After the dissolution of such a union, you can return to the status of “solteiro”, but after a divorce or obtaining the status of a widower, this label can only be removed by getting married again.
The question is “which”
To ensure that the article is not just informative, let’s add a little grammar. In the dialogue you see a very useful word “qual” (which?), with which you can create a hundred questions. We just wanted to add that this word is declined according to numbers and in the plural it becomes “quais”.
- Qual é o teu código postal? (What’s your zip code?)
- Quais são os teus dados pessoais? (What is your personal information?)
Conclusion
Our article is an instruction on how to go through a standard set of questions in any government agency in Portugal, so that you do not get confused. Of course, if you speak Portuguese at the highest level, such difficulties do not arise, but while you are studying, even the simplest question can leave you stumped. To prevent this from happening, we try to anticipate such situations and inform you on our blog.