Restaurant reservations Part 2 (Advanced): Understanding cancellation policies and deadlines.

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

💬 marcar means to book or schedule, and des- undoes it, like "un-" in English. Same pattern: fazer "to do" and desfazer "to undo".

💬 After sem "without", Portuguese uses nada "nothing" where English uses "anything". Same with people: sem ninguém "without anyone".

💬 é que slipped after a question word adds no meaning, but it is very common in speech: Onde é que fica? "Where is it?". You can drop it and the question still works.

💬 The pattern is com + amount of time + de antecedência. Swap in any length of time: com uma semana de antecedência "a week in advance".

💬 acima de means "over". Its opposite is abaixo de "below": abaixo de seis pessoas "under six people".

💬 Weekdays are mostly numbered, and quinta is short for quinta-feira, literally "fifth day". Likewise segunda is Monday, terça Tuesday and sexta Friday.

💬 de + isso merges into disso "of that". Same with isto: depois disto "after this".

💬 sinal usually means "sign" or "signal". In bookings and purchases it means the deposit paid up front.

🇵🇹 Portuguese restaurants often ask for a deposit for large groups or busy dates like New Year's Eve, usually paid by bank transfer or MB Way.

💬 ao + a verb means "when" or "on" doing something. Swap in other verbs: ao chegar "on arriving", ao sair "when leaving".

🇵🇹 Lamento is the polite way staff express regret, a bit more formal than desculpe "sorry/excuse me", which is more for apologising.

💬 In Portugal, perceber is the everyday verb for "understand", not "perceive". Não percebo means "I don't understand".

💬 After em vez de, the verb stays in its basic dictionary form. For example: em vez de pagar "instead of paying".

💬 perder "to lose" changes shape with "I": it becomes perco, not perdo. Other forms stay regular, like perdes and perde.

💬 basta + a verb means "all you need to do is". Swap in other actions: basta ligar "just call".

💬 em + a merges into na. conta also means the bill at a restaurant, so A conta, por favor is how you ask for it.

💬 descansado matches the speaker. A woman says fico mais descansada.

💬 The ending matches the speaker, not the listener: men say obrigado, women say obrigada. A woman thanking a male waiter still says obrigada.

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

💬 por + a merges into pela, and por + o merges into pelo. For example: obrigado pelo jantar "thanks for the dinner".

💬 obrigado matches the speaker, not the listener. A woman says muito obrigada.

💬 Literally "any thing", but on its own qualquer coisa works as shorthand for "if anything comes up". You'll often hear it at the end of a call or message with nothing else attached.

💬 In Portugal the small word for "us" or "me" goes after the verb with a hyphen: ligue-nos, diga-me "tell me". Brazilians would usually put it in front, so this order is a handy marker of European Portuguese.

🇵🇹 Restaurant staff often end a booking call this way. If your plans change, take them up on it and ring ahead to cancel, because not showing up is frowned upon, especially at small family-run places.

🇵🇹 A standard friendly sign-off at the end of phone calls and shop visits in Portugal. After about lunchtime many people switch to bom resto de tarde "have a nice rest of the afternoon".

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

🇵🇹 This is the standard reply when someone wishes you well, like a waiter saying bom jantar "enjoy your dinner" or bom fim de semana "have a good weekend". It's polite and neutral, fine with anyone.

💬 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.