Making business phone calls: Scheduling a meeting over the phone

💬 Chamo-me literally means "I call myself". The me attaches after the verb with a hyphen, which is normal in Portugal.

💬 When you're arranging a time, Pode ser? means "Would that work?", not "Could it be?" Add any time after it: Pode ser amanhã? "Can it be tomorrow?"

💬 Weekdays from Monday to Friday are numbered: segunda "second", terça "third", quarta "fourth", and so on. In speech, -feira is usually dropped.

💬 Parts of the day take de: de manhã, de tarde "in the afternoon", à noite "at night" is the odd one out. Add a time for precision: às dez da manhã "at ten in the morning".

💬 na is em + a: "on the". Times of day take de: de tarde "in the afternoon", à noite "at night".

💬 The day goes first for emphasis, with no "on" needed. Reuse it: Sexta não posso "I can't on Friday".

💬 às is a + as. It takes as because horas "hours" is understood. For one o'clock, use the singular: à uma.

💬 Tag está bem? onto the end of any proposal to turn it into a question, as in Quarta-feira às dez horas, está bem?. In speech it's usually clipped to (shtah BAYNG), with the first e swallowed.

🇵🇹 Business in Portugal often uses the 24-hour clock, such as às quinze horas "at 15:00". It's worth confirming morning or afternoon.

💬 vosso means "your" when you're talking to a group or company. Here, it means the whole firm's office. no is em + o.

💬 When it follows em "in", o escritório becomes no escritório "at the office". This joining is automatic, so you'll hear no escritório far more often than the two words apart.

💬 The im is nasal, with no real m sound: roughly (seeng). People also often answer by repeating the verb, like posso "I can", instead of saying sim.

💬 Lisbon takes no article, so it's em Lisboa. Porto does take one, which gives no Porto.

💬 Men say obrigado and women say obrigada. The ending matches the speaker, not the person being thanked.

💬 "Thanks for" uses por, which combines with "the": pela is por + a, and pelo is por + o. For example, obrigado pelo café "thanks for the coffee".

💬 obrigado matches the speaker, not the listener. Men say obrigado and women say obrigada.

💬 Até "until" plus a time makes a goodbye: Até amanhã "See you tomorrow", Até já "See you shortly".