Self-Introduction (A1)

João is introducing himself at a work mixer in Lisbon. What follows is the kind of short self-introduction you'll produce dozens of times in your first months of learning Portuguese — at a language exchange, when meeting a classmate, when introducing yourself to a colleague. The grammar is simple, the structures are high-frequency, and every construction here reappears constantly in everyday conversation.

The text

Olá! Chamo-me João. Sou de Coimbra, mas moro em Lisboa. Tenho 28 anos. Sou engenheiro e trabalho numa empresa de tecnologia perto do rio. Gosto de cinema, de correr à beira-mar e de cozinhar aos fins de semana. Tenho um irmão mais velho que vive em Braga com a mulher e um filho pequeno. Falo português, inglês e um pouco de francês. Muito prazer!

Line-by-line annotations

Sentence 1: Olá! Chamo-me João.

• Olá is the all-purpose Portuguese greeting — neither formal nor informal, appropriate in almost any situation.
• Chamo-me is the first-person singular of the reflexive verb chamar-se ("to be called / to call oneself"). Literally: "I call myself João." Portuguese uses this structure where English uses "My name is."
• The clitic -me attaches to the verb with a hyphen. This is enclisis, the EP default for simple affirmative declaratives. In Brazilian Portuguese, you'd far more often hear Me chamo João, with proclisis; in EP, Chamo-me João is the standard. See Enclisis by Default.

Sentence 2: Sou de Coimbra, mas moro em Lisboa.

• Sou is the first-person singular of ser, used here for origin — a permanent, defining trait. To say where you're from, Portuguese uses ser de
  • place. See Ser for Origin.
• Moro em Lisboa uses the verb morar ("to live, to reside") with the preposition em for location. In Portuguese, em is the default preposition for "in / at / on" with cities and countries.
• Mas ("but") is the standard contrastive connector, placed between two clauses.

The combination is worth noticing: ser de for origin (where you're from, which doesn't change), morar em for residence (where you live right now). These two constructions cover almost every introduction you'll ever make.

Sentence 3: Tenho 28 anos.

• To say your age in Portuguese, you use ter ("to have") — never ser. Literally: "I have 28 years." This is the opposite of what English speakers want to say — sou 28 anos sounds broken to a Portuguese ear in the same way I have 28 years old sounds broken to an English ear. See Ter for Age.
• Anos stays plural when the number is greater than one; the word for "year" is ano.

Sentence 4: Sou engenheiro e trabalho numa empresa de tecnologia perto do rio.

• Sou engenheiro — ser for profession. Portuguese uses ser (not estar) for a person's profession because it's treated as a defining identity, not a temporary state. Note also that the indefinite article is not used: sou engenheiro, not sou um engenheiro. Inserting um would shift the meaning toward "I'm one particular engineer." See Ser for Profession.
• Numa is the contraction of em + uma ("in a"). Portuguese contracts prepositions with articles routinely: em + o = no, em + a = na, em + um = num, em + uma = numa.
• Do rio is the contraction de + o = do ("of the river").

Sentence 5: Gosto de cinema, de correr à beira-mar e de cozinhar aos fins de semana.

• Gostar is one of the most important A1 verbs, and it has one feature learners have to drill: gostar always takes the preposition de. Never gosto cinema — always gosto de cinema. Every complement of gostar — noun or infinitive — is introduced by de.
• Note how de repeats across the three items in the list: de cinema, de correr, de cozinhar. Portuguese usually repeats the preposition with each coordinated element, where English can rely on a single of. See Gostar de + Infinitive.
• Correr à beira-mar — the preposition a contracts with a (feminine definite article) to form à (with a grave accent). This is the crase.
• Aos fins de semana — a + os = aos, "on weekends," a standard time expression.

Sentence 6: Tenho um irmão mais velho que vive em Braga com a mulher e um filho pequeno.

• Tenho um irmão uses ter for family relations — the same ter that does age and hunger. Portuguese says tenho dois irmãos (I have two brothers) where English says I have two brothers; the construction aligns here.
• Um irmão — note the indefinite article. Unlike profession (sou engenheiro, no article), family relations take the indefinite article when counting: tenho um irmão, tenho dois filhos.
• Mais velho is the comparative of velho ("old"). Portuguese comparatives follow the pattern mais + adjective + que: mais alto que tu (taller than you), mais rápido que um comboio (faster than a train). Velho/novo is one of the few comparatives that doesn't have an irregular form — mais velho is perfectly fine (though mais idoso exists for a more formal register). See Comparatives of Inequality.
• Que vive — a relative clause, with que as the relative pronoun meaning "who." Portuguese uses que for both people and things in restrictive relatives.
• Com a mulher — mulher here means "wife." Portuguese uses mulher to mean "woman" in general and "wife" in context; the determiner usually signals which is meant (a mulher do João = João's wife).

Sentence 7: Falo português, inglês e um pouco de francês.

• Falo is the first-person singular of falar ("to speak"). Standard regular -ar conjugation.
• Languages in Portuguese are not capitalised (português, inglês, francês) — unlike English, which capitalises them. They use the masculine form of the adjective turned into a noun.
• Um pouco de ("a little") is a standard quantifier, always followed by de before the noun.

Sentence 8: Muito prazer!

• A fixed phrase used when meeting someone for the first time — roughly "pleased to meet you." Literally: "much pleasure." No verb is needed; it stands on its own.

Things to notice

Reread the passage one more time, watching for these patterns:

1. The clitic -me only appears once (chamo-me). Every other verb is a plain declarative with no pronoun attached. Reflexive verbs are a small but important subset of Portuguese verbs.
2. Ser, estar, ter — but mostly ser and ter. A1 introductions rely heavily on these three verbs. Estar doesn't appear in this particular passage because there are no temporary states being described. Watch for it when we talk about feelings, weather, or locations in later texts.
3. No capitalised nationalities or languages. Português, inglês, francês all lower-case. Only names of people, places, and the first word of a sentence take capitals.
4. Every gostar is followed by de. Even when the complement is an infinitive, de is obligatory. Drill this until it's automatic.
5. Pro-drop throughout. You won't find a single eu in the whole passage. The verb endings carry the "I" — chamo, sou, moro, tenho, trabalho, gosto, falo — and explicit eu is only needed for emphasis or contrast.

Common mistakes

In European Portuguese, the clitic attaches after the verb by default. Me chamo João sounds Brazilian; chamo-me João is the EP standard. See Enclisis by Default.

Age in Portuguese is something you have, not something you are. This is one of the most persistent English-speaker errors — keep a mental flag on ter for age, hunger, thirst, heat, and cold.

With professions, Portuguese drops the indefinite article that English requires. Sou professor, sou médica, sou estudante — no um/uma. The article only appears when the profession is modified (sou um engenheiro experiente) or specified.

Gostar is an obligatory-preposition verb. Omitting de is the single most common A1 mistake with this verb. No exceptions.

Most Portuguese cities — Lisboa, Coimbra, Braga, Évora, Faro — take no article. But some do: o Porto is the classic example (vivo no Porto, not vivo em Porto). When in doubt with a city you haven't met before, check — articleless is the safer default.

Key grammar points