Noite de São João: Wishing 'Bom São João' to passersby

🇵🇹 On São João night (23–24 June), the usual reserve drops. Strangers greet, joke and tap each other with plastic hammers in the street, and nobody finds it odd.

💬 -inho makes things small or cute: martelo "hammer" becomes martelinho. You'll hear it everywhere: cafezinho, um bocadinho "a little bit".

🇵🇹 Squeaky plastic hammers are the signature of São João in Porto. People bop strangers lightly on the head as a friendly greeting.

💬 fazer mal means "to hurt" or "to be harmful". But não faz mal on its own is also the everyday "no problem, don't worry" after someone apologises.

💬 ser de tells you what something is made of: é de plástico, é de madeira "it's made of wood".

💬 experimentar means "to try" or "to try out", not "to experiment". You'd also use it for trying on clothes or tasting food: experimenta isto "try this".

💬 aquele points to something further away, like "that one over there". For something near you, use este: este senhor "this gentleman".

🇵🇹 Portuguese switch from boa tarde "good afternoon" to boa noite once it's dark, and it works as a hello as well as a goodbye. On São João night the whole city is out in the streets, so you'll hear it everywhere.

💬 Viste? is literally "Did you see?", a past form of ver "to see". Portuguese uses the past where English says "See?".

💬 Que + a describing word makes a quick exclamation: Que bonito! "How pretty!", Que giro! "How cool!".

💬 obrigado matches the speaker, not the listener: a man says obrigado, a woman says obrigada. Also, por + a merges into pela.

💬 ão in São and João is nasal, like "ow" said through the nose with no hard n at the end: (sowng zhoo-OWNG).

🇵🇹 Bom São João! is the standard greeting all night on 23 June, especially in Porto. Shout it to anyone passing by, often with a tap of the hammer.

💬 ti is the informal "you" used after words like para, de and sem. With someone you'd address formally, it becomes para si.

🇵🇹 In Portugal, Até logo! is a casual goodbye, used even when you might not see the person again that day. It doesn't commit you to anything.