Top 50 phrases to get by Portugal (Advanced): Getting around and shopping

🇵🇹 Use it to squeeze past someone on a crowded tram or to enter someone's office. To get a waiter's attention, a simple Se faz favor! "please!" is more usual.

🇵🇹 Use desculpe for an apology, but also to get someone's attention politely, like "excuse me." For squeezing past someone, com licença is often the more natural choice.

🇵🇹 English is widely spoken in tourist areas, but opening with fala inglês? is appreciated and usually gets a warmer response than starting in English.

💬 fica literally means "stays", and it's the usual way to ask where a fixed place is. Swap in anything: Onde fica o metro? "Where is the metro?"

💬 The ão ending is nasal, said through the nose like a swallowed "own". An es at the start of a word sounds like "sh": (shtuh-SOWN).

💬 autocarro is the word in Portugal. The Brazilian ônibus will be understood, but it marks you as having learned Brazilian Portuguese.

💬 Portuguese joins two nouns with de and puts the main thing first, so this is literally "stop of bus". Same pattern: bilhete de comboio "train ticket".

🇵🇹 In Lisbon and Porto, trams are normal public transport as well as a tourist attraction. Buying a ticket on board costs noticeably more than using a prepaid transport card.

💬 Literally "the house of bath". It's the standard term in Portugal, while Brazilians say banheiro.

💬 casa de banho is literally "house of bath", but it's the everyday word for a toilet in any café or shop. Signs often just say WC.

💬 à is a "to" merged with a "the", so this means "to the left". The same merge happens in à direita and à estação "to the station".

💬 There's no word for "it": é alone does the job. A rising voice turns É longe "It's far" into a question.

💬 um goes with masculine words and uma with feminine ones: um bilhete, but uma água "a water".

💬 Literally "going and return". For a one-way ticket, ask for só ida "one way".

💬 horas is plural even though you're asking about one time, literally "at what hours". Answers follow suit: às três "at three".

💬 In questions, the verb usually comes before the thing doing it: parte o comboio is literally "leaves the train". Swap in another vehicle: A que horas parte o autocarro? "What time does the bus leave?"

🇵🇹 Taxi and ride-app drivers are used to being shown an address on a phone. Saying this while holding up your screen is perfectly normal.

💬 Add a verb to make it a full question: Quanto custa? "How much does it cost?" or Quanto é? "How much is it?" when paying.

🇵🇹 This is the polite, standard way to order in Portugal: Queria um café "I'd like an espresso". Quero "I want" sounds pushy from a customer.

💬 queria is technically "I wanted", but it's the standard polite way to ask for something. It sounds softer than quero "I want".

💬 In Portugal, estar a plus a verb gives the English -ing form: estou a ver "I'm looking". Same pattern: estou a pensar "I'm thinking".

💬 Tem with no "you" in front is the polite way to ask a shop assistant "do you have". Swap the end: Tem um tamanho menor? "Do you have a smaller size?"

💬 posso plus any action asks permission: Posso entrar? "Can I come in?", Posso sentar-me? "Can I sit down?"

💬 Portuguese uses com "with" for paying by card, where English says "by". For cash, say em dinheiro.

🇵🇹 Worth asking in small cafés and family shops, some of which are cash-only or have a minimum for cards. Locals often pay by Multibanco card or the MB WAY app.

🇵🇹 Cards are widely accepted, but small cafés and shops sometimes set a minimum for card payments. The local card and cash-machine network is called Multibanco.

🇵🇹 In Portugal you normally ask for a conta at the end; the bill is not usually brought unless you request it.

🇵🇹 Shops charge a few cents for a bag, so cashiers ask before giving you one. Many locals bring their own bag.

🇵🇹 Adeus can sound more final than English "goodbye." For everyday parting, people often prefer até logo or tchau.

🇵🇹 Até logo is very common even if you may not literally see the person later that day; it often just means a friendly casual goodbye.