Language in use

Portuguese for travelling

Hotel, station, café and bus: European Portuguese that helps at once on the road.

Why this field

Portuguese is spoken on four continents. In Portugal people are visibly pleased when visitors at least try — and notice at once whether someone has learnt the Portuguese of Portugal or of Brazil.

On the road a few sure sentences help. Many everyday words differ between Portugal and Brazil; this page gives the Portuguese ones.

Sentences to say aloud

The label says where a sentence belongs. The speaker next to it reads it aloud.

1. Bom dia, tenho uma reserva em nome de Becker.Good morning, I have a reservation under the name Becker.

   neutral

2. Desculpe, como é que chego à estação?Excuse me, how do I get to the station?

   polite Desculpe is the polite form; among friends you say desculpa.

3. Um bilhete de ida e volta para o Porto, por favor.A return ticket to Porto, please.

   neutral The city takes the article: o Porto, para o Porto.

4. O pequeno-almoço está incluído?Is breakfast included?

   neutral In Brazil breakfast is café da manhã.

5. Há alguma farmácia aqui perto?Is there a chemist’s near here?

   neutral

6. Uma bica, por favor.An espresso, please.

   neutral In Lisbon an espresso is often called a bica; elsewhere people simply say um café.

7. Posso pagar com cartão?Can I pay by card?

   neutral

8. Onde fica a paragem do autocarro?Where is the bus stop?

   neutral Portugal: paragem and autocarro. Brazil: ponto de ônibus.

9. Pode trazer-nos a conta, por favor?Could you bring us the bill, please?

   polite

10. Desculpe, ainda estou a aprender português.Sorry, I’m still learning Portuguese.

    polite

What matters here

• Strangers are not addressed with tu, but in the third person, often with no pronoun at all — Pode dizer-me…? — or with o senhor, a senhora.
• In Portugal the object pronoun usually follows the verb, with a hyphen: Pode trazer-nos a conta?
• What is happening right now is estar a + infinitive in Portugal: Estou a aprender. In Brazil: Estou aprendendo.

Try it yourself

Read the meaning, say the sentence aloud in Portuguese, then open it to compare.

1. Good morning, I have a reservation under the name Becker.

   Bom dia, tenho uma reserva em nome de Becker.

2. A return ticket to Porto, please.

   Um bilhete de ida e volta para o Porto, por favor.

3. Is there a chemist’s near here?

   Há alguma farmácia aqui perto?

4. Can I pay by card?

   Posso pagar com cartão?

More fields

Every sentence on this page was written for EveryLingua. There are no quotations from films, series, books or songs here, and no titles or names of artists — the page shows how people talk in this field, not what somebody once said.