Greetings and the two 'to be' verbs
Portuguese has two verbs for 'to be' — ser and estar. ser is for who you are; estar is for how and where you are right now. Today you meet one form of each and conjugate them fully in lesson 3. The other goal: walk into a padaria in São Paulo and say hello like someone who lives there. That starts with oi and tudo bem.
Time-of-day greetings
bom dia = good morning — literally 'good day', and in Brazil it runs until lunch. boa tarde = good afternoon, from lunch until dark. boa noite = good evening and good night: you say it walking in and walking out. Notice the gender swap: dia is masculine, so it takes bom; tarde and noite are feminine, so they take boa. Listen to the Brazilian endings while you're here: dia is JEE-ah, tarde is TAR-jee, noite is NOY-chee.
Casual hellos and goodbyes
oi is the everyday Brazilian hello — one syllable, warm, and safe with anyone from your boss to a stranger on the street. olá is a step more formal, the one you write at the top of an email. To leave: tchau (borrowed from the Italian ciao) is what everybody says. até logo = see you later. até amanhã = see you tomorrow. Careful with adeus: in Brazil it lands like goodbye forever, so leave it to the movies.
How are you?
The Brazilian default is tudo bem? — literally 'all well?'. It works as the question and as the answer: — Tudo bem? — Tudo bem. You'll hear tudo bom? just as often, with no difference in meaning. The fuller version is Como você está? = how are you? To a group: Como vocês estão?. Replies: estou bem = I'm well, or simply bem, obrigado (man) / bem, obrigada (woman).
Ser vs estar — the headline
ser is for what you are: your name, where you're from, your profession, the qualities that define you. Eu sou brasileiro. = I'm Brazilian. estar is for how and where you are right now. Eu estou em casa. = I'm at home. Eu estou bem. = I'm doing fine. One English 'I am', two Portuguese verbs, and the choice is never optional. estar has a second job you'll use every day: with a gerund it builds the happening-now tense — estou falando = I'm speaking. (Portugal says 'estou a falar'. Brazil does not.) Full conjugations next lesson.
What's your name?
Qual é o seu nome? = what's your name? — the most common Brazilian phrasing. Como você se chama? is literally 'how do you call yourself?'. To answer: Meu nome é Ana. or Me chamo Ana. Watch that little me: in Brazil it goes before the verb, even when the verb starts the sentence. Me chamo Ana, never 'chamo-me Ana' — hanging the pronoun off the back of the verb is a European habit that in Brazil sounds like a nineteenth-century novel.
