Greetings In Portuguese

Portuguese is the 3rd most spoken romance language (deriving from Latin), and is widely spoken throughout the world, like its sister languages Spanish and French. Being able to speak a language starts with some greetings to greet someone, so here are some basic greetings you'll hear everyday.

Hi/Hello - Ola: Same as Spanish "Hola," some speculate it derives from French "Holà" ("Hey!/Stop!")

Good Morning - Bom Dia: Literally "Good Day," yet is the default way to greet someone in the morning. The standalone word for Morning is "Manhã."

Good Afternoon - Boa Tarde: Used for both 'Afternoon' and 'Evening'

Good Evening/Night: Boa Noite: Earlier the word for Good was "Bom," but here it's "Boa." These are because the nouns have different genders. Bom is used for masculine nouns, and Boa for feminine nouns.

How are you? - Como está(s)?: Depending on the person you're speaking with, formality matters in conjugating verbs, in this case "Estar" (To Be [Temporarily]) If you know the person, you'd say "Como estás?" But if you don't know them or they're older than you, the form "Como está?" is used.

I'm Fine - Estou Bem: Here we have the 1st person singular form of "Estar" + the adverb Bem ("Well"). Get used to conjugating verbs for person and number, Portuguese and almost 1/3 of the world's languages change the verb to agree with number.

Thank You - Obrigado: Coming from Latin "Obligatus," some say it's related to Japanese "ありがとう" with the same meaning as the Portuguese word, and some say it's a Portuguese loanword.

You're Welcome - De Nada: Same as Spanish "De Nada," literally "of nothing."

Because romance languages are similar to each other and have similarities in vocabulary, here are a few examples of Portuguese greetings compared to 3 other sister languages; Italian, Catalan and Asturian.

If you want to know more about Portuguese, check out the video about the Portuguese language.