Confident, Super Excited and Really Comfortable

Olá, tudo bem? Hey, everything okay?

In our last blog we spoke about the Portuguese language of courtesy. We looked at the use and meaning of the conditional and past perfect indicative tenses and specifically “gostar de” and “poder” conjugated, respectively, into these tenses. These form the language of courtesy. I think it might be all that you will need to “get by” in Portugal, whether for a vacation or during the first several months after relocation.

While Portuguese is complex and admittedly difficult you will not need to wrestle with dozens of verb tenses and fifty conjugations of every verb, at least not on your visit or even initially. You need “o bocadinho” of courtesy as we have discussed. To this you can add a few more verbs plus some nouns, a few prepositions and a half dozen or so important phrases. Then, I think, you will be able to “get by” swimmingly on your visit.

This “bocadinho”, this little mouthful, will start you off well. It is as simple as that. Plus, you will likely stun every Portuguese person you meet. In the end, you will find that this “bocadinho” will take you quite far, and that it is really quite a lot.

The Bare Basics

From the last blog we have our two essential verbs. These are “gostar de” (“gostaria de” in the conditional tense), and “poder” (“podia” in the past imperfect indicative tense). Now, of course, we certainly need more than these two words in order to get by. The Portuguese recipe for courtesy calls for just a few more ingredients.

Verbs

Here is a list of other verbs you might need: ir (to go), ver (to see), comer (to eat), beber (to drink), experimentar (to try on), comprar (to buy), falar (to talk), trazer (to bring), and, dizer (to tell). Food is important to Portuguese so there are two other verbs worth knowing: jantar (to eat dinner) and almoçar (to eat lunch). However, pick a small subset of verbs that you think you might need depending on the situations you might find yourself, and commit these memory.

Nouns

You will need some nouns as well.

Food and drink: o vinho – tinto, branco and verde (wine – red, white and green*), o frango (chicken), a carne – de bife or de porco (meat – beef or pork), o polvo (octopus, a delicacy where I live), o peixe (fish), a salada (salad), a sopa (soup), a nata (heavy cream).

Dessert, tea and coffee: a sobremesa (dessert), o pastel de nata (custard tart, a Portuguese specialty), a bolacha (cookie), o bolo (cake), a chá (tea), o café (coffee in general), a bica (expresso), o abatanado (the Portuguese version of the Americano), a meia de leite (latte). Just remember that it is not enough to say that you would like a coffee. You will need to specify which type of coffee you would like.

On the table: a mesa (table), o prato (plate), a garrafa (bottle), o copo (glass), a faca (knife), o garfo (fork), a colher (spoon), a ementa/o menu (menu, the first for food, the second for drinks and light fare), a conta (check).

Clothing: o vestido (dress), os sapatos (shoes), a camisola (sweater), as calças (pants), a camisa (shirt), a blusa (blouse), o lenço (scarf).

Going out: os bilhetes (tickets), o espectáculo (show), o eléctrico (streetcar or tram), o comboio (train).

Numbers: um/uma (one), dois/duas (two), três (three), and, quatro (four).

This list of nouns is longer than you will likely need. Pick a smallish set of nouns for the situations in which you think you might find yourself in. Focus on committing these to memory.

No it is not green

* “Vinho verde” is not actually green. It is a young wine, lower in alcohol, slightly effervescent and absolutely perfect for “almoço” on a warm day. All the wines of Portugal are wonderful. The Portuguese, like the French, Italians and Spanish, take wine very seriously, both its production and its savoring. So enjoy!

Prepositions

Now add a few prepositions to connect your verbs and nouns. Try this short list: com (with), de (of/for), em (in/on/to), para (for/to), and, por (by/for). The correct use of these prepositions can be relatively opaque but do not worry; if you misuse them you are not likely to be misunderstood.

Very useful phrases

Now here are some important and useful phrases: olá (hello), adeus (goodbye), bom dia (good morning, used up until 2-3pm), boa tarde (good afternoon, used after 2-3pm until nightfall), boa noite (good evening/night, greeting after nightfall), obrigado/a (thank you), de nada (you are welcome), não faz mal (no harm done/don’t worry about it), peço desculpa (I’m sorry), com licença (excuse me), and, por favor (please).

By far the most important word in Portuguese is “thank you”. It is “obrigado” when spoken by a male and “obrigada” when spoken by a female. Basically, you will use “obrigado/a” in nearly every sentence you utter whether in Portuguese or in English. More than “thank you”, it means “I am personally grateful and obligated to you for your assistance.” In English, we would consider “obrigado/a” an over-the-top expression of thanks. To the Portuguese it is pedestrian, ordinary, and expected.

Another important phrase is “peço desculpa”, or “I am sorry”. This phrase is used, for instance, when you accidentally bump into someone, as when you try to scoot around them in a grocery aisle. Likely you will hear back “não faz mal”, which means “no harm done” or “don’t worry about it”. So do not think you are being cursed or anything. Before you try to scoot around someone say, “com licença”, “excuse me” or literally “with your license” or “with your permission”.

Be sure to remember the time of day greetings. People in Portugal are definitely more likely to say hello or goodbye with “bom dia”, “boa tarde” or “boa noite” rather than with “olá” or “adeus”. Further, be sure to watch the clock! I have found the Portuguese sticklers on getting it right. If you say “bom dia” after 3 P.M. you just might get back a correctively emphatic “boa tarde”.

Num restaurante (In a restaurant)

O Mourão is a little restaurant around the corner from us. Conviviality, generated by a mix of locals and tourists, always fills and overflows from its terrace. On a typical late spring afternoon, as I walked our dogs, I noticed that a crowd of pristine white clouds chaperoned by a solitary magpie rushed toward o Mourão as well.

Here are several sample sentences that might be helpful when at a restaurant like o Mourão. “I would like a table for 2 people”, “gostaria de uma mesa para duas pessoas”; “I would like a menu in English (Portuguese)”; “gostaria de ver uma ementa em inglês (português). “I would like a bottle of sparkling water (still water)”, “gostaria de uma garaffa de agua com gás (água natural)”. To this latter request you might be asked “fresca ou natural“, meaning “chilled or room temperature”. “I would like this fish dish/chicken dish/beef dish”; “gostaria deste peixe/frango/carne de bife”. “I would like this bottle of red wine (white wine)”; “gostaria desta garrafa de vinho tinto (vinho branco)”. Or there might not be a fork for you on the table, “podia trazer-me um garfo”.

It is really as simple as that. Yes, the waitperson might speak back to you in Portuguese and you might not understand. You can always feel free to say, “would you mind speaking in English”; “podia falar em inglês por favor”.

Numa loja (In a store)

Small town living delivers some of its the delights through the many local specialty shops. The sweet shops in particular have a magnetic pull over me. As I approached this particular one, the scene within tickled my fancy. I stopped before entering to take it all in. The young, tattooed, rubber-gloved and distracted salesclerk in this decidedly old-fashioned sweet shop seemed a flesh-and-blood oxymoron.

Here are a couple of sentences for when you cannot resist going into the clothing store. Or, if you are like me, then going into the candy store. “I would like to try on this sweater”; “gostaria de experimentar esta camisola”. “I would like to buy this one (speaking of a sweater)”; “gostaria de comprar esta”. “I would like a box of these assorted (sweets/chocolates)”; “gostaria de uma caixa destes (doces/chocolates) sortidos“. And so on. As you are paying the sales clerk, he may ask you, “número de contribuente”, or simply, “contribuente”. He is looking for your taxpayer number to give you credit for the sale tax paid. Just say, “não, obrigado”

When you are at the theater or museum, try these sentences. “I would like three tickets to the show at 8:30 tonight”; “gostaria de três bilhetes para o espectáculo às oito e meia desta noite”. If it is just general admission and not a specific show, say at a museum, then “gostaria de três bilhetes”.

Na Rua (Outside, literally, in the street)

We have had more encounters on the dirt roads behind our village than you might think possible. The roads and farms are a veritable tableau vivant with characters, like our flat-capped matchup in the raspberry connection, and unexpected extras, like a handsome young Sikh farmhand biking to work. Even out and about on the dirt roads the demand for um bocadinho of courtesy endures.

For instance, you might get turned around and would like to know the direction of your hotel. Say, “podia dizer-me a direcção do hotel so-and-so”. Or perhaps you want to go toward the train station, “podia dizer-me a direcção para a estação de comboio”. Perhaps best in this situation might be, “podia ajudar-me com direcções em inglês“, that is, “can you help me with directions in English”.

Anywhere and everywhere

Do not be embarrassed to say at any point, “podia falar em inglês”, or, “would you mind terribly to speak in English”. Your Portuguese peer will understand completely and will comply if she/he can; likely she/he will be able to. For your initial start in Portuguese simply be as gracious and open as your Portuguese hosts. In addition, you want to gain some confidence in this new language of courtesy.

And confidence you should have. Did you know that more than one-third of English words are either direct or semi-direct cognates from Greek or French? These Greek and French words have similar or nearly equivalent pronunciation and meaning as their Portuguese counterparts. So you already know a whole lot of Portuguese and you probably did not even know it! Let’s take a closer look.

Uma Dica (A Tip): It Is All Greek To Me

About 5% of both English and Portuguese words are derived directly from Greek. These are mostly similar in spelling and pronunciation. For instance, Greek-into-English words that end in “y”, simply drop the “y” and substitute “ia” in Portuguese. For example “biology”, “comedy”, “democracy”, “economy”, “energy”, “fantasy”, “history”, “photography/photograph”, and “strategy”, become, respectively, “biologia”, “comédia”, “democracia”, “economia”, “energia”, “fantasia”, “história”, “fotografia”, and “estratégia”.

Additionally, there are many Greek-derived words in Portuguese and English that are exactly the same. For example, there are “aroma”, “cinema”, “chorus”, “cosmos”, “drama”, “echo”, “kinetic”, and “stereo”. And there are others that are very nearly the same, for example, “center”/“centro”, “dialogue”/“diálogo”, “diet”/“dieta”, “idea”/“ideia”, “idiot”/“idiota”, “paper”/“papel”, “phase”/“fase”, and “system”/“sistema”.

Outra dica (Another tip): English is a lingua franca

About 30% of all English words are derived from French, thanks to the Norman Conquest in 1066. For example, any English noun ending in “-tion” and “-sion” plus any adjective ending in “-able” and “-ible”, is actually of French derivation. These Romance language words are approximately the same in Portuguese.

To get the Portuguese equivalent of the nouns you simply change the “-tion” to “-ção” and the “-sion” to “-são”. And for the plurals, to “-ções” and “-sões”, respectively. You change the adjective endings “-able” to “-ável” and “-ible” to “-ível”. It does not work all the time but it does most of the time. And while the written spellings may be different, the pronunciations are fairly similar.

For example “ambition” = “ambição”, “collections” = “colecções”, “directions” = “direcções”, “friction” = “fricção”, “expressions” = “expressões”, “recession” = “recessão”, “sessions” = “sessões”; and, “sociable” = “sociável”, “recyclable” = “reciclável”, “accessible” = “acessível”, and, “impossible” = “impossível”.

My point here is quite simply do not be too afraid. English and Portuguese are not as foreign from one another as you might think. In fact there is a great deal of overlap. The “bocadinho” you already know is actually quite a lot.

A minha melhor dica (My best tip)

My very best tip is to bookmark on your phone’s browser DeepL or to download its app. It is the absolute best translator available. It is especially good for Portuguese because it provides options between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, which, while similar, are not the same. Most translators only provide Brazilian Portuguese because 200 million more people speak it.

With DeepL write the English the words and the sentences that you think you will need given the situations you expect to find yourself. DeepL will give, if not the exact, then the best translation available. DeepL will also allow you to hear the words and sentences spoken aloud in a fairly good facsimile of Portuguese. This will bear only minimal aural resemblance, however, to a native Portuguese speaker. It will, nonetheless, help improve your pronunciation. Try to do this for 5 to 10 minutes everyday for the two weeks leading up your visit.

Please remember that the purpose of all these tips and suggestions is not to make you a fluent Portuguese speaker. The purpose is to give you some basics so that you feel more confident and comfortable. You are setting the table in order to show your Portuguese hosts that they and their language are important to you, important enough for you to take the risk to try to speak their language. Again, you can do it, you can get by with “o bocadinho”, and you will not disappoint your hosts nor be disappointed by their response.

Até à próxima! Until next time! E Feliz Páscoa para todos! And Happy Easter everyone!