Basic Portuguese words for beginners: 25 European Portuguese words

🇵🇹 PortugueseA125 words

These are the words you will hear in your first days in Portugal: greetings, polite words, time words and a few everyday verbs. Every example is written the way people speak in Portugal, so you learn "percebo" and "pequeno" in real sentences from the start.

Where you will use it: First conversations, shops, cafés and everyday life in Portugal.

Basic Portuguese words — The word list

Meanings and translations are in English.

Portuguese	Meaning and example
olá	Hello.“Olá, tudo bem?”Hello, how are you?
obrigado / obrigada	Thank you (said by a man / by a woman).“Obrigada pela ajuda!”Thank you for the help!
por favor	Please.“Um café, por favor.”A coffee, please.
sim	Yes.“Sim, quero um bilhete.”Yes, I want a ticket.
não	No; not.“Não percebo a pergunta.”I don't understand the question.
desculpe	Sorry; excuse me (polite).“Desculpe, onde fica a estação?”Excuse me, where is the station?
bom dia	Good morning.“Bom dia! Está um dia lindo.”Good morning! It's a beautiful day.
boa noite	Good evening; good night.“Boa noite e até amanhã.”Good night and see you tomorrow.
água	Water.“Pode trazer um copo de água?”Could you bring a glass of water?
casa	House; home.“Vou para casa depois do trabalho.”I'm going home after work.
amigo / amiga	Friend (male / female).“O meu amigo mora no Porto.”My friend lives in Porto.
hoje	Today.“Hoje está muito calor.”It's very hot today.
amanhã	Tomorrow.“Amanhã tenho aula de português.”Tomorrow I have a Portuguese lesson.
ontem	Yesterday.“Ontem jantámos em casa.”Yesterday we had dinner at home.
aqui	Here.“Moro aqui há dois anos.”I have lived here for two years.
muito	Very; a lot.“Gosto muito de Lisboa.”I like Lisbon a lot.
pouco	Little; not much.“Falo pouco português.”I speak a little Portuguese.
grande	Big; large.“A casa é grande e tem jardim.”The house is big and has a garden.
pequeno	Small.“Quero um café pequeno.”I'd like a small coffee.
bom / boa	Good.“Este pão é muito bom.”This bread is very good.
trabalho	Work; job.“O meu trabalho começa às nove.”My work starts at nine.
dinheiro	Money.“Não tenho dinheiro trocado.”I don't have any change.
tempo	Time; weather.“Hoje não tenho tempo.”I don't have time today.
comer	To eat.“Vamos comer ao meio-dia.”Let's eat at noon.
falar	To speak.“Pode falar mais devagar?”Could you speak more slowly?

Tips for learning Portuguese words

Learn the article with the nounWrite o comboio or a paragem, not just the noun: the article tells you the gender, and adjectives agree with it.
Listen before you speakEuropean Portuguese swallows many unstressed vowels, so words sound shorter than they look. Play the audio and repeat each example aloud.
Type the accentsIn WordNest a missing accent counts as a mistake. Typing água, não and amanhã correctly from the start saves relearning them later.

European, not Brazilian Portuguese

Portugal and Brazil share one language but differ in everyday words, pronunciation and grammar: a train is a comboio in Portugal and a trem in Brazil, and "I am eating" is estou a comer rather than estou comendo. WordNest teaches the Portugal variety — example sentences, pronunciation and AI corrections all follow Portugal's norms.

Add five or six of these words a day rather than the whole list at once, keep the example sentence on the card, and review them when they come due. WordNest schedules each word across seven growing intervals — same day, then 1, 3, 7, 14, 30 and 60 days — so the list is still with you months later. Read how spaced repetition works if you want the reasoning behind those numbers.

European vs Brazilian Portuguese: 50 everyday words that differ →How to learn European Portuguese with WordNest →

Questions about this list

Is this European or Brazilian Portuguese?

European Portuguese, as spoken in Portugal. Where Brazil uses a different word, the list gives the Portugal one — for example comboio instead of trem.

How do I practise Basic Portuguese words?

Start with five words, listen and say each example aloud. Then recall the Portuguese word from its English meaning and review it over several days.

How many words are in this list?

This list contains 25 words and phrases with English meanings and example sentences. It is a starting set, not a complete course.

Study these words with spaced repetition

Create a free account, choose Portuguese as a study language and add these words to your own deck.