After-work drinks: Talking about your weekend

💬 The -aste ending is "you did" for tu; swap to -ei for "I did": gostaste? → gostei.

💬 de + a becomes da: o Palácio da Pena. With a masculine name it's do, as in o Castelo dos Mouros "the Moorish Castle".

💬 The accent in visitámos marks the past "we visited"; without it, visitamos means "we visit". Portugal keeps this distinction in writing.

💬 gente is treated as singular, so it's muita gente, not muitas.

💬 Portuguese uses estava "was" here where English says "were there": estava muita gente is literally "was much people".

💬 em casa means "at home" with no "the"; add it and it changes: na casa da Ana "at Ana's house".

💬 vi is "I saw" from ver, and Portuguese uses "see" for films: vi uma série "I watched a series".

💬 The s at the end of às before vezes sounds like English "z", and the final s of vezes like "sh": (ahz VAY-zesh).

💬 precisar always takes de, which merges with what follows: de + isso becomes disso. Same with de + ti: preciso de ti "I need you".

🇵🇹 pois é is the go-to agreeing noise in Portugal, used constantly to keep a chat flowing, like "yeah, right" or "tell me about it".

💬 In Portugal "have to" is ter de + action: tenho de trabalhar "I have to work". You may also hear tenho que ir.

🇵🇹 Opening with bem signals you're wrapping up, a polite way to leave drinks without seeming abrupt.

💬 até + a time is a ready-made goodbye: até logo "see you later", até segunda "see you Monday".

💬 por + a becomes pela; with a masculine word it's pelo: obrigado pelo café "thanks for the coffee".