European Portuguese vocabulary: the everyday words, room by room

European Portuguese vocabulary is mostly the same as Brazilian, but not where you spend your day. The differences cluster in exactly the places a new resident goes first: the bathroom, the café counter, the car, the phone, the school gate and the tax office. Get these wrong and you are still understood. Get them right and you sound like someone who lives here.

This guide goes by domain, with about 65 words. It does not repeat the 19 pairs in our European vs Brazilian Portuguese guide (autocarro, pequeno-almoço, telemóvel and the rest), so start there if you have not. Every Brazilian contrast below is marked as regional in the Priberam dictionary, which labels senses [Portugal] or [Brasil]. A dash in the Brazil column means we are not claiming a difference: the word may be shared, or Brazil may simply have other habits.

At home

The esquentador deserves a word: it is the appliance that heats running water on demand, by gas or electricity, so when there is no hot water it is the first thing anyone will ask about. In a Portuguese kitchen, pia is also fine for the sink; it is in the bathroom that Brazil uses it and Portugal says lavatório.

At the café and the pastelaria

Coffee vocabulary is where Portugal is most itself, and where a Brazilian-based course leaves you guessing at the counter.

If in doubt, ask for um café: Ciberdúvidas notes that bica is a Lisbon word and that the north simply says café. The same north-south split runs through beer, where Lisbon’s imperial is Porto’s fino. Watch presunto: in Portugal it is cured ham, the kind sliced thin from a leg, and the sandwich ham is fiambre. Order uma sandes de presunto expecting a Brazilian ham sandwich and you will get something saltier.

Getting around

Dás-me boleia?(“Can you give me a ride?”) is one of the most useful sentences a parent without a car can learn.

Phone, computer and apps

In tech, Brazilian Portuguese often borrowed from English (mouse, deletar) where Portugal did not. Set your phone to Portuguese (Portugal) and these will be on screen daily.

Shops and services

Multibanco is more than a cash machine. Priberam defines it as the interbank system, the machine and the card, which is why so many payments, including some parish council fees, are made with a referência Multibanco. Tirar uma senha (take a ticket) is the first thing you do at a Loja de Cidadão if you arrive without an appointment.

At school

The last two are official roles in the Portuguese student statute, Lei n.º 51/2012. The encarregado de educaçãojustifies a child’s absences in writing and receives the grade reports. In grades 1 to 4 the class teacher (professor titular de turma) is your contact; from 5th grade on, it is the diretor de turma. Enrolling a child? See school enrollment for expat children.

Which words do you need for paperwork in Portugal?

These have no Brazilian pair because they name Portuguese institutions. You will meet them in your first week, often before you can say much else.

As a foreign resident you will not normally hold a Cartão de Cidadão; it is for Portuguese citizens, and optional for Brazilians with equal-rights status under the Porto Seguro treaty. But forms ask for its numbers, and Portuguese people will assume you know what it is.

How do you actually learn these words?

• Learn them where you use them. Take this list to the café and the pastelaria, and order in Portuguese every time.
• Keep a swap list. Every time someone in Portugal uses a word you learned differently, write both down.
• Learn the article with the noun. O ecrã, a sanita, o talão: gender is part of the word.
• Pair words with grammar. The right noun in a Brazilian sentence still sounds Brazilian; our guide to European Portuguese grammar covers the rest.

For a household learning together, Portuguese for expat familieshas ideas for making these words part of the week. In PoisPois, you can type a situation such as “registering at the centro de saúde” and get a lesson, game or story built around it, with every lesson checked for Brazilianisms.