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

💬 Quão does mean "how", but in Portugal people more often ask distance with Fica longe? or É longe?. So learn this one, but expect to hear those more often.

🇵🇹 This is natural in markets and small shops, but in fixed-price places it can sound blunt if you say it with no softener. A gentler option is É um bocado caro.

🇵🇹 Best as part of bargaining or comparing options, especially in markets. In ordinary shops with fixed prices, asking Tem mais barato? often sounds more natural than just saying Mais barato.

💬 Compro is present tense, but here it often works like English "I'll take it / I'll buy it." Portuguese uses the present like this a lot for immediate decisions.

🇵🇹 Very useful in Portugal because some small cafés, kiosks, and older shops still prefer cash or have a minimum for cards. It's normal to ask before ordering or before they ring it up.

🇵🇹 In Portugal, dinheiro can mean money in general, but in payment situations people often use it specifically to mean cash. So if someone asks Em dinheiro?, they usually mean "in cash?".

🇵🇹 In Portugal, you'll also often hear fatura instead of recibo, especially in shops and restaurants. Recibo is still understood, but fatura may be what staff actually ask about.

💬 Um changes with the noun: um café, but uma água. That's a very common pattern with numbers and articles in Portuguese.

💬 The accent in Três marks both the stress and that the vowel stays open and clear. The final s is usually pronounced like sh in Portugal before a pause: (trehsh).

💬 In Portugal, Seis is often said close to (saysh), especially before a pause. That final written s often sounds like sh in European Portuguese.

💬 In Portugal, Sete is often pronounced with a very weak last vowel, roughly (SET). Unstressed vowels often shrink a lot in European Portuguese.

💬 Oi in Oito is pronounced like (oy), so Oito sounds roughly like (OY-too). That first sound is not a plain o.