Basic measurements: Describing your body measurements to the nurse

🇵🇹 Nurses in Portugal often ask for an estimate first and then weigh you anyway. A rough figure is a perfectly fine answer.

💬 peso is also the noun "weight". You'll hear it on forms and from staff, as in o seu peso "your weight".

💬 Putting uns before a number turns it into an estimate meaning "about". The feminine form is umas: umas duas horas "about two hours".

💬 à is a "to" merged with a "the", so it reads "onto the scale". Masculine nouns get ao instead: subir ao primeiro andar "go up to the first floor".

💬 Pode plus an action word is a polite way to make a request: pode repetir? "can you repeat?". It's a handy one to reuse yourself.

💬 The ending ança is nasal, said through the nose with no full n sound: (ba-LAN-sa).

🇵🇹 Portuguese people use Então? constantly as a gentle prompt meaning "well?" or "so, how did it go?". It doesn't sound impatient.

💬 Portuguese says "they are eighty-two kilos" with plural são, because the amount is more than one. For a single unit you'd say é um quilo.

💬 Adding -inho makes things smaller or softer: bocado "bit" becomes bocadinho. People in Portugal use this ending everywhere, as in um minutinho "just a minute".

🇵🇹 aguardar is the polite, official-sounding word for "wait". You'll hear it from clinic staff and on signs, while friends would say esperar.

💬 lá means "there", so this is literally "there outside". The pairing is common: cá dentro means "in here".