A yes/no question (pergunta de resposta fechada) asks whether something is or isn't the case. The expected answer is sim (yes), não (no), or — very commonly in European Portuguese — an echo-verb answer that repeats the main verb of the question. What might surprise English speakers is that Portuguese does not invert the subject and verb to form a question. The word order is identical to a statement; only the intonation — and in writing, the question mark — signals that you're asking.
The basic rule: no inversion
In English you flip the subject and auxiliary: "You want coffee" becomes "Do you want coffee?" German and the Nordic languages work similarly. Portuguese doesn't do this. A yes/no question has the same word order as a statement — the sentence rises in pitch at the end instead of falling, and in writing you close it with ?.
Tu queres café.
You want coffee. (statement — falling intonation)
Tu queres café?
Do you want coffee? (question — rising intonation)
Eles já chegaram.
They've already arrived.
Eles já chegaram?
Have they arrived yet?
O filme começa às nove.
The film starts at nine.
O filme começa às nove?
Does the film start at nine?
This is one of the single biggest structural differences between English and Portuguese. Internalise it early: no do-support, no inversion. If you know how to say the statement, you know how to ask the question — just raise your voice at the end.
The é que frame: the native reflex
Although plain intonation is enough, European Portuguese speakers very often add é que after the first element of the sentence. This is not translated in the English version — it's a grammatical scaffolding that sounds natural and slightly more emphatic. Think of it as the conversational default.
Tu é que queres café?
Is it you who wants coffee? (focused)
O comboio é que está atrasado?
Is the train the one that's late?
The é que frame is more commonly used in wh-questions (Onde é que vais?), but it appears in yes/no questions too when you want to pinpoint a particular element. For a plain, unfocused yes/no question, intonation alone is preferred.
The confirmation frame: não é? at the end
A yes/no question can also take the form of a statement with a tag tacked on the end. The most frequent tags are não é? (meaning "isn't it / right?"), não?, pois não? (after a negative statement), and é?.
Tu és o João, não é?
You're João, right?
Eles vêm amanhã, não?
They're coming tomorrow, aren't they?
Ela não gosta de peixe, pois não?
She doesn't like fish, does she?
Tens fome, é?
You're hungry, are you?
These tag questions are softer than a direct yes/no question — they invite confirmation rather than requesting information out of the blue. A full treatment lives on the dedicated tag-questions page.
Front-position será que: the tentative frame
To soften a yes/no question further, or to wonder aloud, Portuguese uses será que. This literally means "would it be that...," but it functions as a pragmatic softener meaning "I wonder if..." or "do you think maybe...".
Será que vai chover?
Do you think it'll rain?
Será que ele se lembrou?
I wonder if he remembered.
Será que ainda está aberto?
Do you suppose it's still open?
This is the right register for polite hypothesising in a restaurant, at a shop, or with strangers. It is neither formal nor casual — it's courteous and tentative.
Answering yes/no questions
This is where European Portuguese diverges most sharply from English. Portuguese has three standard ways to answer a yes/no question, and the most idiomatic is often not sim or não, but the echo-verb answer.
1. The echo-verb answer (the EP default)
In European Portuguese, the natural way to affirm something is to repeat the verb of the question in the appropriate form. Sim alone sounds a bit abrupt or formal — fine, but not the reflex answer.
— Queres café? — Quero.
Do you want coffee? — Yes (literally: I want).
— Vais à festa? — Vou.
Are you going to the party? — Yes.
— Já comeste? — Já.
Have you eaten? — Yes (I have).
— Ele sabe? — Sabe.
Does he know? — Yes (he does).
This echo-verb pattern mirrors English more than it looks: English says "Yes, I do" / "Yes, I have" with the echoed auxiliary. Portuguese simply uses the echoed main verb without sim. To a native listener, Quero is warmer and more engaged than a bare Sim.
2. Sim for emphasis or contrast
Sim is used when you want to reinforce the affirmation, contrast it with a previous no, or answer formally.
— Queres mesmo? — Sim, quero.
You really want it? — Yes, I do.
— O senhor vem amanhã? — Sim.
Are you coming tomorrow, sir? — Yes. (formal)
— Não o viste? — Vi, sim.
You didn't see him? — Yes, I did. (contradicting)
Doubling sim, sim or prefixing pois sim turns the answer emphatic or slightly impatient. Pois sim can even carry a sarcastic edge — "yeah, right" — depending on tone.
3. Negative answers: não, echo-verb, or both
To answer "no" you either use não alone, or não followed by the echoed verb with a clitic pronoun repositioned.
— Queres café? — Não.
Do you want coffee? — No.
— Queres café? — Não quero, obrigado.
Do you want coffee? — No, thanks.
— Viste o Pedro hoje? — Não, não vi.
Did you see Pedro today? — No, I didn't.
— Conheces o Tiago? — Não o conheço.
Do you know Tiago? — No, I don't know him.
Notice the clitic position in não o conheço: não triggers proclisis, so the object pronoun o sits before the verb. This is a rigid rule of EP.
Negative yes/no questions
You can also pose a yes/no question in the negative — typically when you expect a yes answer or want to express surprise that something might not be the case.
Não queres vir connosco?
Don't you want to come with us?
Não te disse isso ontem?
Didn't I tell you that yesterday?
Não achas que está frio?
Don't you think it's cold?
To answer these, speakers often use sim to mean "actually yes" (contradicting the implied negative) and não to confirm it. The echo-verb answer is still common:
— Não queres vir? — Quero, sim.
Don't you want to come? — Yes, I do.
— Não queres vir? — Não quero.
Don't you want to come? — No, I don't.
Questions with já and ainda
Two short adverbs — já (already) and ainda (still / yet) — reshape the presupposition of a yes/no question and deserve a mention because English uses them differently.
Já comeste?
Have you eaten (already)?
Ainda não comeste?
Haven't you eaten yet?
Ainda moras em Lisboa?
Do you still live in Lisbon?
The short answers match: — Já comeste? — Já. / — Ainda? — Ainda. This is classic echo-verb-plus-adverb answering.
Short conversational fragments
Portuguese yes/no questions can be as short as a single word plus rising intonation. These are common in restaurants, shops, and among friends.
Açúcar?
Sugar?
Pronto?
Ready?
Tudo bem?
Everything OK?
Mais alguma coisa?
Anything else?
These one- or two-word questions are sentences by virtue of their intonation. In context, they're perfectly natural — a waiter asking Café? needs no verb.
Register notes
- Informal / casual: plain intonation-only questions (Vens?), echo-verb answers, and tag questions with não é? dominate. This is the everyday register.
- Polite / service: será que softeners, more explicit subjects (O senhor quer...?), and fuller questions (Pode dizer-me se...?) are appropriate for strangers and formal contexts.
- Written formal: avoid é que frames; prefer full, unembellished yes/no questions (Está a proposta aprovada?).
Common Mistakes
❌ Queres tu café?
Incorrect — no subject-verb inversion in Portuguese.
✅ Tu queres café? / Queres café?
Do you want coffee?
English speakers instinctively flip the subject and verb. Portuguese does not. The subject stays before the verb; if you drop the subject pronoun entirely (as is common), the verb simply stands alone.
❌ Fazes tu gosto de peixe?
Incorrect — no do-support, no inversion.
✅ Gostas de peixe?
Do you like fish?
There is no Portuguese equivalent of English do/does. The verb you ask about becomes the verb of the question.
❌ — Queres vir? — Yes, eu quero.
Mixed-language — avoid.
✅ — Queres vir? — Quero.
Do you want to come? — Yes.
The echo-verb answer sounds far more native than sim plus pronoun. Practise this pattern until it becomes automatic.
❌ Conhece-lo? — Conhece-lo.
Incorrect — the echoed verb must shift to the speaker's person (I know him = conheço-o), not repeat the question's second-person form.
✅ Conhece-lo? — Conheço.
Do you know him? — Yes (I do).
When you echo the verb, conjugate it for your own perspective: a tu question (conhece-lo) gets a first-person reply (conheço). In practice, the clitic usually drops in the echo — a bare Conheço is the natural answer. If you do want to keep the pronoun, it re-attaches by the normal placement rules: Conheço-o.
❌ O filme é que começa às nove?
Grammatical, but narrower meaning than English expects.
✅ O filme começa às nove?
Does the film start at nine?
The é que version specifically focuses o filme ("is the film the thing that starts at nine?"). For a plain yes/no question, drop é que.
❌ — Gostas de café? — Sim.
Technically fine, but feels abrupt in EP.
✅ — Gostas de café? — Gosto.
Do you like coffee? — Yes.
Sim is not wrong; it just lacks the warmth of the echo-verb answer. In everyday conversation, aim for Gosto / Quero / Vou / Tenho.
Key Takeaways
- Portuguese yes/no questions have the same word order as statements — no inversion, no do.
- Intonation (rising) or a question mark in writing is all you need to signal a question.
- The é que frame is a native habit that focuses a specific element.
- The echo-verb answer (Quero, Vou, Sei) is the European Portuguese default — not sim.
- Negation uses não before the verb, and não triggers proclisis for any object pronoun.
Related Topics
- Declarative SentencesA1 — The default sentence type used to make statements — affirmative or negative — with standard SVO word order.
- Wh-Questions (Quem, Que, Onde, Quando...)A1 — Forming information questions with quem, que, qual, onde, como, quando, quanto, and porque — with or without the é que frame.
- Tag Questions (Não é?, Pois não?)A2 — Forming confirmation questions at the end of sentences — não é?, pois não?, não achas?, and why Portuguese tags are invariable unlike English ones.
- Yes/No Questions with IntonationA1 — How European Portuguese turns a statement into a yes/no question with rising pitch alone — the intonation contour, examples in every person, the absence of do-support, politeness softeners, and the conversational rhythms of question and answer.
- Yes/No Questions with Não é?A1 — How European Portuguese forms tag questions and confirmation seekers — não é?, pois, pois não?, está bem?, percebes?, sim? — including the almost-universal invariable tag não é? (reduced in speech to /nɛ/) and the pragmatic work these tags do beyond grammar.
- Negative SentencesA1 — How to make sentences negative in Portuguese — using não, double negation with words like ninguém and nunca, and clitic effects on pronoun placement.