Na recepção, fala-se português e inglês.

Because na is the normal contraction of em + a.

Portuguese very often combines prepositions with articles:

• em + a = na
• em + o = no
• em + as = nas
• em + os = nos

Since recepção is a feminine noun, the article is a, so em a recepção becomes na recepção.

Here, recepção means the reception area / front desk / reception office, not a social event like a wedding reception.

In places like hotels, clinics, offices, and schools, a recepção often refers to the place where guests or visitors are received.

No. This se is not reflexive, so it does not mean speaks itself.

In this sentence, se is used to make the sentence impersonal or passive-like. A natural English equivalent is:

• people speak...
• ...is spoken

This is very common in notices, signs, and formal written Portuguese:

• Fala-se inglês.
• Vende-se casa.
• Precisa-se de ajuda.

So fala-se is a standard way to say that a language is spoken in a place, without naming who speaks it.

Because in standard written Portuguese, when se comes after the verb, it is attached with a hyphen.

This is called enclisis:

• fala-se
• vende-se
• chama-se

You will see this a lot in signs and formal writing. In other sentence types, pronouns can also appear before the verb, but fala-se is the normal written form in a sentence like this.

This is a very common learner question.

In real Brazilian Portuguese, fala-se português e inglês sounds natural and is very common, especially on signs and notices. The idea is impersonal: people speak Portuguese and English here.

If you study very formal grammar, you may learn that some se constructions can behave like passives and sometimes show agreement. But in everyday Brazilian usage, especially with this kind of public-information sentence, singular fala-se is extremely common.

So for a learner, the safest takeaway is:

• fala-se português
• fala-se português e inglês

Both are normal in Brazil.

Because after falar, language names are usually used without articles.

So you normally say:

• Ela fala inglês.
• Nós falamos português.
• Aqui se fala espanhol.

You would use an article when talking about the language more as a subject or when it has extra description:

• O português do Brasil
• O inglês britânico
• O português é uma língua românica.

Because Portuguese usually does not capitalize names of languages, nationalities, days of the week, or months.

So Portuguese writes:

• português
• inglês
• brasileiro
• segunda-feira
• janeiro

This is different from English, where Portuguese and English are capitalized.

The comma separates the location phrase from the rest of the sentence.

Na recepção is being placed first to set the scene: as for the reception area / at the reception desk...

Without the comma, the sentence would still be understandable:

• Na recepção fala-se português e inglês.

You could also put the location later:

• Fala-se português e inglês na recepção.

The version with the comma sounds very natural for a sign or notice.

A few useful points:

• ç in recepção sounds like s
• ão is a nasal ending, very common in Portuguese
• ê in português and inglês marks a stressed vowel

Very rough pronunciation guides:

• recepção ≈ heh-sep-SOWN
• português ≈ por-too-GES
• inglês ≈ een-GLES

These are only approximations, but they help with the main stress:

• recepção
• português
• inglês