The 500 Portuguese phrases you actually need

500 phrases is about where a learner stops rehearsing and starts answering, and these are the 500 we would hand someone landing in Brazil with a job to start, a flat to find and a CPF to get. They run in three lanes, survive, travel and work, grouped by the situations of a day: the till asking CPF na nota?, the bus driver waiting for Me avisa quando chegar?, the email that ends Fico no aguardo. The Portuguese is Brazilian, because the app's Portuguese voice is Brazilian and because a list has to be right about one country; the notes carry the European form where daily use differs. This page will not teach grammar: Estou com fome comes with a note on why hunger takes estar com, and nothing on conjugating estar.

How to use this page

Each table has three columns: the phrase, the English, and a note. The note says what the translation can't: the register, a trap, or the word Portugal uses instead. The base is Brazilian, and the note says where daily use differs: the ônibus is an autocarro in Lisbon, the celular a telemóvel, and constipado means a cold there and constipated in Brazil. Address everyone as você. Brazilians say it to a boss, a bus driver and a new neighbour; the step up is o senhor or a senhora for an older stranger or an official, and Portugal's tu is noted where it changes a phrase.

Getting through 500 is a matter of plug-ins. Vocabcord plays one phrase each time the phone goes on the charger, the Portuguese, a pause, the English, a pause, the Portuguese again, and one word per charge explains why that beats a lesson. To keep it, print the page or save it as a PDF.

First contact: greeting, thanking, the repair kit

Of the 39, say Oi, tudo bem? and its echo Tudo bem, e você? first: question and answer are the same words, so a beginner holds a complete exchange on day one. Then the repair kit, Pode falar mais devagar? and Não entendi, because the speed of Brazilian speech is the first thing that beats a learner. The trap is thank you: it agrees with the speaker, so a man says obrigado and a woman obrigada whoever they are thanking. Missing on purpose: olá. Portugal opens with it; in Brazil it sounds like an announcement.

Arrival: passport control, luggage, the first taxi

Passport control wants one of two answers, Vim a trabalho or Vim a passeio, and the second is the one to learn as written: a passeio is how people talk, a turismo is how the form talks. Onde compro um chip? is here because the airport kiosk is where it first comes up, and the answer is usually a CPF first. The phrase that saves money is Quanto custa até o centro?, asked before the door closes; the one that saves an evening is Qual é a placa do carro?, because in the ride-app lane the plate is all that tells your car from the next.

Getting around: the bus, the metro, the ride app

The phrase that matters most is Me avisa quando chegar?, said as you board. Most Brazilian buses don't announce stops, drivers expect the request, and it is the difference between the right corner and a tour of the suburb. Dá pra ir a pé? is the second: dá pra is the everyday can I, and once it's automatic any verb goes after it. Brazilians measure the city in quadras, blocks, so Fica a duas quadras daqui is a real answer. And treat Estou chegando as an intention; the note says ten more minutes, and that is generous.

Hotel and renting: check-in, the room, the landlord

Check-in has one line worth memorising whole, Tenho uma reserva no nome de Silva, because the receptionist asks for the name first and no nome de is the phrasing they expect. The renting half is the part a phrasebook skips. O condomínio está incluso? is the question: the building charge can be as large as a utility bill and is often quoted separately. Precisa de fiador? follows, because a landlord asking for a guarantor who owns property is normal and a newcomer never has one; steer towards a deposit or rental insurance.

Eating out: ordering, the bill, the delivery

Learn É por quilo ou à la carte? first. The por quilo lunch, fill a plate, weigh it, pay by the kilo, is how a working Brazilian eats on a weekday, and knowing the format is worth more than knowing the dishes. Two traps: Um cafezinho, por favor arrives small and already sweetened, so add sem açúcar in the same breath; and Com gelo e limão gets you lime, because limão in Brazil is the green one. The bill is where people overpay. O serviço está incluído? has a standard answer, a suggested ten percent already on the slip; paying it is expected and tipping on top is unusual.

Shopping and paying: Pix, cards and instalments

Two questions come at every till. CPF na nota? is the cashier asking whether to put your tax number on the receipt, for a rebate scheme; não is a full answer. Crédito ou débito? follows, and the reply keeps its preposition: No débito. Then the one with no English equivalent, À vista ou parcelado? À vista means paying the whole amount now; parcelado spreads it across months, and shops offer the split even on groceries, often without interest. We put Aceita Pix? ahead of any card phrase on purpose: street sellers, taxis and market stalls all take it, and a visitor without it is back to counting notes.

Numbers, times and dates as they come up

This is the shortest section because numbers belong inside the phrases that use them; a list from one to a hundred teaches nothing about the moment a shopkeeper says Deu trinta e cinco reais. Deu, it came to, is how a total is announced. The trap is the date: Dia quinze de março is day then month, and so is every form, so 03/05 is the third of May. Tenho trinta e dois anos is here because age takes ter, to have, and the English instinct to reach for sou produces a sentence nobody says.

Health: the pharmacy, the symptoms, the doctor

The trap in this table is worth the whole section. Estou resfriado is how a Brazilian says I have a cold, because constipado in Brazil means constipated; in Lisbon estou constipado is exactly a cold. Resfriado is understood in both countries. Symptoms take estar com, so Estou com febre is the pattern and tosse and dor slot in after it. The pharmacist will sell you something for a headache without a prescription, and Precisa de receita? finds out where the line is. Ask Pode me dar um atestado? before you leave the doctor's room; your employer will want it.

Emergencies: help, theft, lost documents

Three numbers and one phrase. The numbers sit in the note beside Chama uma ambulância!: 192 for an ambulance, 190 for the police, 193 for the fire brigade, 112 for everything in Portugal. The phrase is Ela está passando mal, because passar mal covers faintness, a bad reaction and a collapse, and it is the sentence that makes a room move. For theft, Quero registrar um boletim de ocorrência produces the document the insurer and the consulate ask for. In an emergency you will say Socorro! and point; the phrases here are for the ten minutes after.

Phone, data and online: the SIM, the wifi, the sign-up

The first line decides your first week. Quero um chip pré-pago works at any kiosk, and the reply will usually be a request for a CPF, because Brazilian SIMs are registered to the tax number. Me liga depois carries the one grammar note we allowed ourselves: Brazilians put the pronoun before the verb, me liga, te ligo, where Portugal says liga-me. Preciso fazer um cadastro covers every sign-up from a loyalty card to a government portal, and the word will follow you for years. No app is named in the section; the phrases work whichever one the delivery came through.

Admin: the CPF, the bank, the queue

Do the first phrase in week one. Preciso tirar o CPF gets you a tax number, and the SIM shop, the bank, the landlord and the pharmacy discount card all ask for it first. Then Tem que agendar pela internet?, because the honest answer at most public offices is yes, and walking in without a booking sends you home with a date. The trap word is senha: at a counter Onde pego a senha? asks for the queue ticket, on a website it is your password. Visa vocabulary is left out; it changes with the visa, and a page for everyone would get yours wrong.

The first day at work

The work lane starts with Oi, sou a Ana, comecei hoje, and the article before the name is what makes it sound like a colleague: most Brazilians say a Ana and o Marcos. Tem que bater ponto? is here because clocking in is written into the CLT employment law; Que horas é o almoço? because lunch is an hour, eaten away from the desk, and a sandwich over the keyboard reads as a statement. The softener to learn is Posso te interromper rapidinho? The diminutive is how Brazilians make a request gentle, and the trick transfers: um minutinho, um cafezinho, uma olhadinha.

Meetings and video calls

The phrase that does the most work is Desculpa, estava no mudo, because every remote meeting in Brazil opens with somebody saying it and no mudo is unguessable from English. Não concordo lands harder than I don't agree; give the reason in the same breath. Pode ser reads as a maybe and is often a yes; listen for the tone. Our favourite is Combinado. It closes a plan, a time or a favour in one word. Alguma dúvida? ends the meeting; dúvida here means a question, so tenho uma dúvida is how you raise one politely.

Messages, deadlines and time off

Written Brazilian Portuguese at work is shorter and warmer than the English it replaces. Segue em anexo is the first line of most emails with an attachment, and Fico no aguardo is the sign-off that reads as patient where I look forward to hearing from you reads as pressure. The phrase to say early is Não vou conseguir até hoje: a delay announced the moment you know it is forgiven, and a delay discovered at the deadline is remembered. Folga is a day off and férias is holiday, and Estou de folga hoje is a message to send the day before.

Asking for help, and money at work

The money half is the one nobody teaches. É CLT ou PJ? is the first question about any job in Brazil: CLT is the employment law that brings paid holiday, a thirteenth salary and clocking in; PJ means invoicing through a company of your own. É líquido ou bruto? sits next to it because the same offer can be either, at very different net figures. Tem vale-refeição? sounds small and isn't; the meal and transport cards are standard enough that asking is normal. Quem sabe mexer nisso? is the verb to keep: mexer em is how Brazilians talk about operating anything.

Small talk: where you're from, the weekend, a beer

Brazilians will ask Está gostando do Brasil?, hoping for Estou adorando; a lukewarm answer is met with concern. Que calor, hein? is the model for half the small talk in the country: any statement plus hein becomes an opening. Vamos marcar! is warmth, and it becomes a plan only when a day gets named. Vamos tomar uma? is the real invitation, and uma means a beer without saying so. This is the section we are least sure of: its beach and football are big-city office talk, and a reader headed for Lisbon will want to swap a third of it.

Feelings and opinions

Feelings take estar, the temporary verb, and most take estar com: Estou com fome, com sede, com frio. The one to get right is Estou com calor, because the direct translation, estou quente, means something you did not intend to tell a colleague. Estou com saudade de casa is here because saudade is the word every Portuguese course romanticises, and in daily use it is plain: you have it of your mother, your city and a particular bread. Foi tranquilo answers how was it, was it far and are you okay, and means no stress.

What we left out

We cut four kinds of phrase. Proverbs, because a foreigner quoting quem não tem cão caça com gato is performing a party trick. Textbook sentences, like the book is on the table. Slang that dates: legal and beleza have survived for decades and are in, but this year's abbreviations are out. And anything a course teaches for grammar rather than use, so conjugation tables stay in the coursebook and the only grammar in the notes is the kind that stops a mistake: ter for age, estar com for symptoms.

Two things a reader should add. First, the twenty words of your own trade; a nurse needs different nouns from a developer, and no general list can carry them. Second, the phrases of your own city. Rio and Porto Alegre disagree even on you, since the south says tu, and a week there hands you the local versions of what is here.

How to make them stick

Nobody memorises 500 phrases from a table, and we would rather you didn't try. Read it once, print the two sections you need this week, and let the rest arrive. A phone goes on the charger a few times a day and each time one phrase plays, so the whole list takes months to come round once. That is the pace we would choose anyway. The sampler decides which phrase plays: each one's weight grows with the days since you last heard it, and a phrase never heard counts as long overdue, so new ones dominate early. In plain words, the phrases you are about to forget come back first.

This collection is an article first. It becomes a pack with audio later, and we are not putting a date on it. Until then the corpus behind the app holds 5,960 Portuguese entries, and the Portuguese corpus statistics page shows how they split by level and theme.

Common questions

How many Portuguese phrases do you need to get by in Brazil?

Fewer than 500 for a week, all 500 for a year. The 39 in first contact plus the 31 in shopping and paying carry a visitor through most days, because Oi, tudo bem?, Não entendi and Aceita Pix? cover greeting, repair and paying. The work lane, 130 phrases, only matters once there is a job.

Should I learn você or tu first?

Você. It is what Brazil uses for nearly everyone, and every phrase on this page is written with it. Tu belongs to Portugal and to some Brazilian regions, and the notes flag it where a phrase changes shape.

Are these phrases for Brazil or Portugal?

Brazil, by choice: the app's Portuguese voice is Brazilian, and a list has to be right about one country. Where daily use differs, the note carries the European form, autocarro for ônibus, telemóvel for celular, and the constipado trap in the health section.

What is the fastest way to memorise them?

Say them in the situation, the same day you read them. Pick the section for tomorrow and read it aloud the night before; five phrases used once beat fifty read twice. Let the app play one per plug-in; the sampler brings back the ones fading. CPF na nota? sticks after the third cashier asks it.

Why is thank you sometimes obrigado and sometimes obrigada?

Because it agrees with the speaker. A man says Obrigado, a woman says Obrigada, whoever they are thanking. The same rule runs through the page: perdido and perdida, alérgico and alérgica, cansado and cansada.