Small talk with coworkers: Chatting about the weekend on Monday morning

🇵🇹 Portuguese people use namorado even for a long-term partner they live with. It doesn't sound teenage the way "boyfriend" can.

💬 giro is a very Portuguese way to say "nice" or "cute". Use it for places, ideas, clothes and babies: que vestido giro "what a cute dress".

💬 tempo means both "weather" and "time". Não tenho tempo is "I don't have time".

💬 Past weather is described with estava plus the condition. You can swap in other words: estava frio "it was cold", estava a chover "it was raining".

💬 Asking "you" about the past, the verb often ends in -este or -aste: fizeste "you did", viste "you saw", jantaste "you had dinner".

💬 de plus o becomes do: o jogo do Benfica. It becomes da before a feminine word: a casa da Rita.

💬 em plus um fuses into num. It becomes numa before a feminine word: numa esplanada "at an outdoor café terrace".

🇵🇹 Watching football at the neighbourhood café is a classic Portuguese weekend ritual. Benfica, Porto and Sporting are safe, lively topics at work.

💬 não foi? works as an all-purpose "right?" tagged onto something that happened in the past. You don't need to match it to the verb the way English does.

💬 Portuguese often says yes by repeating the verb from the question. Asked Ganhou?, you reply Ganhou, often with sim added.

💬 buscar means "go and get" or "fetch", not "search". Vou buscar as crianças is "I'm going to pick up the kids".

🇵🇹 um café means a small espresso by default. Announcing a coffee run is a polite, natural way to wrap up the chat.

🇵🇹 Até já is for when you'll see the person again within minutes, like a colleague you'll be back beside shortly. For later in the day, people say até logo.