Restaurant reservations (Advanced): Setting preferences for seating, such as indoor, outdoor, or specific views.

💬 à is a + a merged, written with a grave accent. Same in junto à janela.

🇵🇹 Sala is the indoor dining room, and the esplanada is the outdoor seating on the pavement or a terrace. Esplanadas fill up fast in good weather, so ask for one when you book.

🇵🇹 An esplanada is the outdoor seating area of a café or restaurant. In Portugal it's often the first offer when inside is full, even in cooler months.

💬 Literally "if it were possible". This past-looking form softens a request, like English "would". Tack it onto any wish: Uma mesa lá fora, se fosse possível "A table outside, if possible".

💬 An r at the start of a word is a throaty sound, close to an English h: (HEE-oo).

💬 A view is vista para, with para rather than de. Swap the ending: com vista para o mar "with a sea view".

🇵🇹 In Lisbon and Porto, river-view tables are the most requested, so book them well ahead.

💬 todas reservadas ends in -as because it refers to mesas "tables". About seats you'd hear todos reservados instead, matching lugares "seats".

💬 Hours take das (de + as) because horas "hours" is understood: por volta das nove "around nine".

💬 já usually means "already", but after a verb like this it means "right away" or "upfront".

💬 tarde stretches until it gets dark, so ao fim da tarde can mean around 6 to 8 pm in summer.

💬 Use costumar + another verb to say what usually happens: Costumo jantar cedo "I usually have dinner early".

💬 bastante usually means "quite a lot" rather than "enough".

🇵🇹 Atlantic wind often picks up in the evening on Portugal's terraces, so staff mean it as genuine advice.

💬 nesse is em + esse "that" merged. Likewise, nessa altura means "at that point".

💬 After talvez, é "is" changes to seja: talvez seja tarde "maybe it's late".

💬 ficarmos adds -mos to ficar to mean "us staying", and ficar is the everyday verb for where you sit. Same pattern: é melhor irmos "we'd better go".

💬 The h is silent, so há is just (ah).

💬 Obrigado changes with the speaker: a man says obrigado, a woman says obrigada. Muito just intensifies it: muito obrigado/a = thank you very much.

💬 Pela is a contraction of por + a. You'll see the same thing elsewhere: pelo = por + o.

💬 Pela is a contraction of por + a: obrigado pela ajuda, obrigado pela atenção. Also, obrigado matches the speaker, so women say obrigada.

🇵🇹 This is the natural reply when someone wishes you well, such as Bom jantar "Enjoy your dinner".

🇵🇹 Saying Até plus a day is the natural goodbye once a plan is set, as in Até amanhã "See you tomorrow".

💬 Put any day or time after até to say "see you then": até sexta "see you Friday", até amanhã "see you tomorrow". Days of the week are written in lowercase in Portuguese.