Maybe it's because you nailed your pronunciation and your simple 'bom dia' (good morning) sounds really native. If that's the case, parabéns!

We often focus on conversation starters, but how to end one in a more authentic way? Here's some options that might come in handy:

1. 'tEH jAH' means 'see you in a bit' and is something you might not understand. Because we spell it 'até já', but we don't always pronounce the first 'a'. Now you will be better prepared to hear this was the end of the conversation.

2. 'Continuação de um bom dia', a rather formal way of wishing you a good day, is something you might hear when leaving a shop

3. 'Tchau' is the Portuguese spelling of the Italian 'ciao', which we only use for saying goodbye; note that it's informal. The more Portuguese farewell is 'adeus' [adeush]

4. Between friends, you might want to wish they 'stay well': 'fica bem' [feeka bemmmm]. Note the 'm' at the end of a word is only indicating the preceding vowel should be nasalized; here it's similar to the 'en' in 'Bengali'.

5. 'Adorei falar contigo', 'I loved chatting with you' is a great option to end a good conversation, and a great reminder that 'gostar de' (to like) needs the 'de', whilst 'adorar' (to adore/love) does not!

6. A deep breath, followed by 'right/ok' indicates you've had it. In Portuguese, that's 'então vá...' [(en)tão vah] (the 'en' is often dropped).


If you have enjoyed this quick lesson and would like to learn more Portuguese outside of the box, then please contact Catarina from The Language Unschool - catarina@thelanguageunschool.com