How many ways can you say "hello" in Portuguese? After this free lesson you’ll know more than just a simple bom dia! Listen to the audio and follow the Portuguese pronunciation. And don't be shy - go ahead and practice each Portuguese word aloud!
Greetings like “good morning” or “good afternoon” are incredibly important in Portuguese. As the Portuguese culture is more formal, going through the ritual of greeting another person is an important way of showing respect. The Portuguese shake hands while saying “bom dia” or “boa noite” depending on the time of the day.
You are expected to greet every person individually, even if they’re in a group. That means that if you’re walking along the road and pass a group of five people, you’ll have to say, “bom dia” and shake hands five times! Once you know them, you may kiss the women on the cheeks. It is usually one kiss on both cheeks.
Resources for further reading:
As you have learned before, there are two ways of addressing someone in Portuguese: it will depend on which region in Brazil that you are. In some areas, people use “Tu” and its conjugation forms (Portugal and other Portuguese speaking countries also use “tu”), or you can use “você”, which is very common all over Brazil. The same concept applies to greetings. Listen to the audio below to hear formal Portuguese greetings…
Rocket Record lets you perfect your Portuguese pronunciation. Just listen to the native speaker audio and then use the microphone icon to record yourself. Once you’re done, you’ll get a score out of 100 on your pronunciation and can listen to your own audio playback. (Use a headset mic for best results.) Problems? Click here!
Alô
Hello (on the telephone)
Oi!
Hi
Como vai?
How are you?
Tudo bem?
How are you? / Everything well? (formal)
As you can see there is no distinction in Portuguese between 'good evening' and 'good night.' Portuguese speakers use the same “boa noite” for when they arrive at a place, or meet someone in the evening, and also “boa noite” when they are saying “good bye.” Nowadays it is quite common to use English greetings, like “hi” and “bye bye,” but these are considered to be casual. Listen to the audio below to hear some informal Portuguese greetings…
Bom dia !
Good morning!
Boa tarde!
Good afternoon!
Boa noite!
Good evening! / Good night!
That’s it for today’s lesson. Using different greetings will make you sound more fluent, so try to remember as many as you can.
If you want more lessons on Portuguese salutations then I recommend that you check out the following:
Até mais!
Tereza Pereira: Rocket Portuguese