Basic expressions: Expressions

💬 After preciso, Portuguese uses de: preciso de ajuda, preciso de água, preciso de um médico. That little de is part of the pattern.

💬 Ajudar-me shows the same European Portuguese pattern as ajuda-me: the "me" part often goes after the verb. You'll see it a lot with other verbs too, like dizer-me and explicar-me.

🇵🇹 Pode ajudar-me? is a polite, useful default with strangers. It lands better than a bare command like ajuda-me.

🇵🇹 In Portugal, casa de banho is the normal everyday term for a restroom. Banheiro is what you'd expect in Brazilian Portuguese, not in Portugal.

💬 Fica is used for where something is located: Onde fica a estação?, Onde fica o hotel?. Think of it as "where is it situated?"

🇵🇹 Tens wifi? is informal tu. With strangers, staff, or anyone you want to be polite with, Tem wifi? or Tem wi-fi? is usually safer in Portugal.

💬 Perceber in Portuguese often means "to understand," not just "to notice." So Percebes? is a natural way to ask "do you understand?"

🇵🇹 Percebes? is informal tu. With strangers or in customer situations, Percebe? or Percebeu? will usually sound more polite.

💬 Amo-te uses the same attached-object pattern: te means "you" and gets added to the verb with a hyphen. Compare amo-te "I love you" and vejo-te "I see you."

🇵🇹 In Portugal, amo-te is strong and personal, usually for romantic partners or very close family. For things, places, or experiences, people more often say adoro.

🇵🇹 This is a very polite way to ask someone to repeat or explain, good with staff or strangers. In everyday conversation, people also often say Pode explicar outra vez? for a slightly less formal version.

💬 Disto means "of this" and comes from de + isto. You'll see the same kind of combination in disso (of that) and daquilo (of that over there).

💬 Portuguese says cometer um erro for "make a mistake." It's a useful fixed pairing, like cometer um crime.