Greeting People and General Things

Greeting basic

As with all languages there are several ways of greeting people. Some are more friendly than others.

To greet someone you never met you can say:

Olá, o meu nome é Pedro. Prazer em conhecer-te! - Hi, my name is Pedro. Nice to meet you!

You could respond this way:

É um prazer conhecer-te também! Eu sou o John. - It's nice to meet you too! I'm John.

Another common thing to ask is:

O que fazes na vida? - What do you do for a living?

You could respond like this:

Trabalho num restaurante. - I work at a restaurant.

Trabalho num banco. - I work at a bank.

Trabalho numa empresa de software. - I work at a software company.

Sou dentista. - I'm a dentist.

If you want to ask their name you can say:

Como te chamas? - this is the informal way and means What's your name?

Como se chama? - this is the formal way for What's your name?

If you don't understand you can say this:

Como é mesmo? - How is it again?

Desculpa? - Excuse me?

Pardon me? - Perdão?

Greeting someone

Olá! - Hello! or Hi!

Oi! - Hi! (it's more used by Brazilians than us)

Bom dia! - Good morning!

Boa tarde! - Good afternoon!

Boa noite! - Good evening! or Good night!

 

Tudo bem? - we use this a lot and it means How are you? but literally it means All good?

Como estás? - it's informal and used a lot. It means How are you?

Como está? - it's more formal and means the same

Como vai isso? - used between friends and meaning How's it going?

When we want to say goodbye we can use:

Adeus! - Goodbye!

Até amanhã! - See you tomorrow!