Portuguese Phrasebook, Page 2

It comes a lot, not just with the immigrants here but with travel in general. There’s these levels of language learning (woof, used up all the “l”s in my keyboard already??), but before you even try to “learn” a language you will hopefully try to put together at least a few phrases when you visit a country. A few common ones probably popped into your head already: “hello!” “where is the bathroom?” “how much does this cost?” Phrases like that are absolutely valuable, and when you’re in a country where the primary language isn’t English you want those locked and loaded to at least survive your experience. Those are the phrases that we think of as “page 1” of the phrase book. But, turning to look on page 2 can actually have a tremendous return on your investment of time and effort, especially in Portugal.

The thing about the “page 1” phrases is that people in those countries aren’t dumb – they know what’s on page 1 just as well as you do. Hell, they have probably memorized page 1 of their guidebooks for whereever they go on vacation. The moment you break out something from page 2, though, it can launch a much more genuine reaction or even acknowledgement. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the genuinely pleased look on the face of someone we interacted with in a cafe in Italy (I remember their face but I’ll danged if I can remember what town it was in) when I pulled off “come stai oggi?” – “how are you today?” Like, we aren’t hashing out political discourse, but just getting to the “we’re both humans, so how ya doin’, fellow human?” feeling loosened everything up. Embarrassingly, I didn’t understand most of what they said, but they could tell, and they laughed and switched to English; it still counted that I’d tried.

So, what’s on page 2 for Portuguese? We’ve got a few suggestions, and if any of our immigrant friends want to toss their favorites into the comments please feel free! Keep in mind, this is still rudimentary phrase book stuff. We’re not talking verb conjugation or anything, just a few extra things that we’ve noticed can really grease the conversational skids.

“Boa semana / bom fim semana“ – have a good week / have a good weekend. So, first of all, a translator on your phone would probably add “tenha um” which is the technical translation, but we’ve never heard anyone say that. Typically on a Friday or Saturday (maaaaybe Thursday, but I mostly skip it to be safe) you wish someone a good weekend. It’s very common, and you’ll know you got it right when they return with “igualmente” – technically “equally” but really just “you, too!” in this context. Seriously, so many interactions have been enlivened just by holding up either end of this exchange. The same goes for “boa semana” starting on Sunday, but Monday is good, too. Tuesday is kind of like Thursday for wishing a good weekend – you might get away with it but why push your luck? This is kind of like the “bom dia / boa tarde” divide, wherein different people draw the line in different places just use your judgment and accept any corrections with a shrug and a smile.

“Tudo bem?“ – all good? This is the universal, informal “how ya doing?” I don’t know that I’d use it everywhere, but it can be a friendly culture so the band of acceptable interactions is pretty wide. The traditional baseline response is just a return “tudo“. (all is good) The next level of this would be to ask “e contigo?” “And you?” That was definitely a phrase that won some appreciative looks – the extra bit of conversation that showed I’d at least turned the page.

“Não faz mal!” – no problem, don’t worry about, it’s no problem. This one’s a staple in day-to-day, going-about-your-business life. Somebody cuts you off at the grocery store, or backs into you, or the hundred other ways we mildly inconvenience one another, and you get an apologetic look or even a little “desculpe!” (I’m sorry). A charming little wave off with a “não faz mal” tossed in is peak participation in civil society. There’s also a good chance you’ll hear this one said to you if you apologize for, say, your poor Portuguese language skills.

Again, we aren’t trying to give you intensive grammar lessons. If you’re coming for a visit but aren’t invested in actually learning a new language, adding a few phrases like these into your lingo will let you at least crack the outer shell of pleasantries that “please & thank you” keep you on.