Portuguese Starter Kit

If you’re just starting to learn European Portuguese, these 30 essential Portuguese phrases for beginners will help you communicate straight away.

In this lesson, you’ll learn simple, practical survival phrases like sim, não, por favor, and obrigado – the kind of everyday expressions you’ll actually use in real conversations.

You can read and practise each phrase below with audio, or scroll down to watch the full video lesson. Let’s begin!

(click here for more greetings)

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Essential Portuguese Phrases for Beginners

Next, you have the audio demos for the essential Portuguese phrases every beginner should know.

1.

Olá (hello)

2.

Bom dia (Good morning)

3.

Boa tarde (Good afternoon/evening)

4.

Boa noite (Good evening/night)

5.

sim (yes)

6.

não (no)

7.

adeus (goodbye)

tchau (goodbye)

Note: “adeus” means “to God” and is used for longer goodbyes or if you’re never going to see someone again. In some ways, it’s like farewell.
“tchau” on the other hand, is much more colloquial, but it’s also quite informal. It’s also common in Portuguese to say good morning, “good afternoon”, or “good night” to say goodbye to people.

8.

obrigado /obrigada

Note: the word for thank you varies according to the gender of the person saying it
so “obrigado” (if a male is saying it) and “obrigada” (if a female is saying it). I have a video lesson about this here.

9.

de nada (you’re welcome). Other ways to say “you’re welcome” are explored here.

10.

se faz favor / por favor (please)

Note: “por favor” tends to be a lot more formal (imo) and is also used in the context of pleading or begging someone. But don’t feel like you can’t say it ever, because as a beginner, it’s easier to remember than “se faz favor“. Read more in this lesson here.

11.

desculpe (I’m sorry/ excuse me)

12.

com licença (excuse me/with permission)

13.

como se chama? (“What’s your name?” – How are you called?)

14.

Chamo-me Adelina. (I’m called Adelina)

15.

muito prazer (“lots of pleasure” – pleasure to meet you)

16.

Sou Inglês/Inglesa. (I’m English)

Note: nationalities have gender and will vary according to the gender of the person being described. Inglês = masculine / inglesa = feminine.

17.

Estou de férias. (I’m on holiday)

18.

Agora moro em Portugal. (Now I live in Portugal)

19.

Ainda não falo português. (I don’t speak Portuguese yet)

20.

Fala inglês? (Do you speak English?)

21.

Não compreendo. (I don’t understand)

22.

Pode falar mais devagar por favor? (Can you speak more slowly, please?)

23.

Pode repetir por favor? (Can you repeat, please?)

24.

Como se diz _______ em português? (How do you say _______ in Portuguese?)

25.

Como está? (How are you?)

26.

Estou bem obrigado/a. E o senhor? (when asking a man)/ E a senhora? (when asking a woman) – I’m well, thank you. And you?

27.

Tudo bem? (Everything well?)

Note: This is a very common greeting in Portugal.

28.

Até já. (see you in a moment)

Note: in this context, the equivalent to “see you” as in see you later or tomorrow is to say “até” which means until, however, it’s very common at native speed
for it to just sound like “té“

29.

Até logo (see you later)

30.

até amanhã (See you tomorrow)

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Video Lesson

In this video, we cover all the sentences above, so sit back, relax and listen to all the sentences in one go.

Here you have your Portuguese starter kit for absolute beginners. Now that you’re on your way to getting some of the basics down, try this free quiz to practice some of these expressions and learn a few other ones, too!

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Frequently Asked Questions About Essential Portuguese Phrases

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If you’re an active supporter on any of my Patreon tiers (starting with Meia-de-Leite), you get access to a printable PDF containing all the vocabulary from this post.

How to Say Things in Portuguese

The Portuguese Learning Hub | Beginner Pathway (A0-A1)