Introduce yourself in European Portuguese

Olá! Today we will learn how to greet, identify people, introduce yourself and say goodbye. We will also learn the days of the week and some grammar. This is the first lesson of our extensive course.

Verb “chamar-se”

The first verb we learn in our course A1 (module 1) is the verb CHAMAR-SE (singular)

Eu chamo-me

Tu chamas-te

Ele, ela, você, o senhor, a senhora chama-se

Here we can see that in Portuguese there are several levels of formality:

Tu (informal)

Você (formal)

O senhor, a senhora (also means “you”, but it’s the most formal)

Now you can ask the question:

Como te chamas? (= what’s your name?)

Here the word “te” (pronoun) appears behind the verb because of the word “como”. This word is an “interrogative word”, as “when”, “why”, etc., and this words pull the pronouns. By default, the pronouns appear in front of the verb. Examples:

Como te chamas?

Chamo-me Cátia.

Chamas-te Pedro?

Instead of saying “chamo-me Pedro” or “chamo-me Maria” you can also say “Sou o Pedro” (= I am Pedro) or “Sou a Maria” (= I am Maria). In this case, you must use the verb “ser” (= to be):

Verbo “SER” (singular)

Eu sou

Tu és

Ele, ela, você, o senhor, a senhora é

And you also have to use “o” (masculine article) or “a” (feminine article). For example:

Quem é ele? (= Who is he?)

(Ele) é o Pedro.

Quem é ela? (= Who is she?)

(Ela) é a Maria.

By the way, you don’t need to use the personal pronouns “eu”, “tu”, etc… all the time, only in those cases when could exist any doubt.

Let’s see a formal and an informal situation:

Dialogue 1: informal

– Olá! Como estás? (Hello! How are you?)

– Bem, obrigada. E tu? (I’m fine, thank you. And you?)

– Também estou bem, obrigado. Sou o Pedro, e tu? (I’m fine too, thanks. I’m Pedro, and you?)

– Sou a Maria. Muito prazer. (I’m Maria. Nice to meet you.)

Dialogue 2: formal

– Bom dia! Como está? (Good Morning! How are you doing?)

– Bem, obrigada. E o senhor? (Well thank you. And you?)

– Também estou bem, obrigado. (I’m fine too, thank you.)

– Bem-vindo a Lisboa. (Welcome to Lisbon.)

Men say “obrigado” and women say “obrigada”.

We say “bem-vindo” to a man, and “bem-vinda” to a woman.

In our lesson we also learnt the numbers (0-20) and the days of the week.

Números (0-20)

– Qual é o teu número de telefone? (= What’s your phone number?) (informal)

Answer: É o 91 567 44 70 (É o nove, um, cinco, seis, sete, quarto, quarto, sete, zero)

Dias da semana (= days of the week)

The word “feira” is not mandatory, we can say/write just “segunda”, “terça”, etc…

Greetings and Farewells

Finally, we learnt greetings and farewells. Sometimes we can use the same words to greeting and say goodbye.

1. a) Greetings

Olá (= hello) (informal)

1. b) Greetings and Farewells

Bom dia (= good morning)

Boa tarde (= good afternoon)

Boa noite (= good evening/ good night)

1. c) Farewells

Até já (= see you quickly)

Até logo (= see you later)

Até amanhã (= see you tomorrow)

Até quarta (= see you Wednesday)

Até à próxima (= see you next time)

Tchau (= bye) (informal)

Adeus (= goodbye)

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Caravela School – Portuguese for Foreigners