Breakdown of Hoje tenho preguiça de cozinhar, por isso vou pedir comida.
Questions & Answers about Hoje tenho preguiça de cozinhar, por isso vou pedir comida.
Literally, tenho preguiça de cozinhar is “I have laziness to cook”.
However, that sounds very unnatural in English. Depending on context, good natural translations are:
- “I’m too lazy to cook today.”
- “I can’t be bothered to cook today.”
- “I don’t feel like cooking today.” (slightly softer / more neutral)
In Portuguese from Portugal, ter preguiça de + verb is a very common way to say you’re feeling lazy about doing that specific thing.
In this structure, ter preguiça de + infinitive is fixed:
- ter preguiça de cozinhar – to be lazy about cooking
- ter preguiça de estudar – to be lazy about studying
The preposition de introduces the action you’re lazy about.
Using para here (preguiça para cozinhar) is not idiomatic in Portuguese.
Compare with other common patterns:
- vontade de + infinitive:
- Tenho vontade de sair. – I feel like going out.
- medo de + infinitive:
- Tenho medo de voar. – I’m afraid of flying.
So the pattern is: ter + [feeling] + de + infinitive.
Yes, you can say:
- Hoje tenho preguiça de cozinhar.
- Hoje estou com preguiça de cozinhar.
Both are natural in European Portuguese and mean essentially the same thing in this context.
Nuances (very subtle):
- tenho preguiça – slightly more neutral and common with this idiom
- estou com preguiça – emphasizes a temporary state (“I’m feeling lazy right now”)
In everyday speech, people use both. There’s no real risk of sounding wrong with either.
Tenho preguiça de cozinhar – “I’m lazy about cooking (today / in this situation).”
- It’s temporary and specific to that activity.
Sou preguiçoso (if you’re male) / Sou preguiçosa (if you’re female) – “I’m a lazy person.”
- It describes your general character, not just how you feel today.
So:
- Saying tenho preguiça de cozinhar doesn’t mean you are always lazy.
- Saying sou preguiçoso / preguiçosa is stronger: you’re calling yourself a lazy person in general.
Yes, very common in Portugal:
- Hoje não me apetece cozinhar. – “I don’t feel like cooking today.”
Difference in nuance:
- tenho preguiça de cozinhar – highlights laziness / can’t be bothered.
- não me apetece cozinhar – highlights lack of desire / mood. You just don’t feel like it, not necessarily because you’re lazy.
Both work fine in this situation; it depends on whether you want to blame laziness or just lack of desire.
They are related but used differently.
- porque = because (introduces the REASON)
- por isso = so / therefore (introduces the RESULT / CONSEQUENCE)
In your sentence:
- Hoje tenho preguiça de cozinhar, por isso vou pedir comida.
- “Today I’m too lazy to cook, so I’m going to order food.”
If you use porque, the order flips:
- Vou pedir comida porque hoje tenho preguiça de cozinhar.
- “I’m going to order food because I’m too lazy to cook today.”
So:
- porque explains the cause of something.
- por isso presents what happens as a logical consequence.
Yes. Both are correct:
- Hoje tenho preguiça de cozinhar.
- Tenho preguiça de cozinhar hoje.
The difference is just focus:
- Hoje tenho… – puts a bit more emphasis on today (as opposed to other days).
- Tenho… hoje. – more neutral; the time information simply comes at the end.
European Portuguese allows this kind of flexibility with adverbs like hoje, amanhã, agora, etc.
Vou pedir comida is “I’m going to order food” or “I’ll order food”.
Grammatically, it’s ir (present) + infinitive:
- ir = to go
- vou = I go / I am going
- vou pedir = I’m going to ask/order
This construction is the most common way to talk about the future in everyday Portuguese:
- Vou estudar amanhã. – I’m going to study tomorrow.
- Vamos sair mais tarde. – We’re going to go out later.
The simple future pedirei does exist, but in European Portuguese it sounds formal/literary or very emphatic in speech.
Because comida here is used as an uncountable / general noun:
- vou pedir comida – I’m going to order (some) food.
You’re not specifying which food or how much; it’s just “food” in general. In Portuguese, like in English, you normally don’t use an article in that case.
Compare:
- Vou pedir comida. – I’m going to order food.
- Vou pedir uma sopa. – I’m going to order a soup.
- Vou pedir a comida que gostas. – I’m going to order the food you like.
Use uma / um / a / o when you specify a particular dish or some defined type of food.
Pedir basically means to ask for / to request. Context decides the exact nuance.
In a restaurant or ordering in:
- Vou pedir comida. – I’ll order food.
- Já pediste a comida? – Have you ordered the food yet?
In other contexts it could be literally asking for food (e.g. someone in need):
- Ele foi à porta pedir comida. – He went to the door to ask for food.
But in a normal everyday context like your sentence, people will understand vou pedir comida as “I’m going to order food (instead of cooking).”
In Portugal, for delivery specifically, you might also hear:
- Vou encomendar comida. – I’m going to order food (more clearly “place an order”).
In casual European Portuguese, this might sound roughly like:
- Hoje tenho preguiça de cozinhar, por isso vou pedir comida.
- /oʒ ˈtẽɲu pɾɨˈɣisɐ dɨ kuziˈɲaɾ puˈɾisu vo pɨˈdiɾ kuˈmiðɐ/
A few tips:
- Hoje – often sounds almost like “oj” (very light final vowel).
- tenho – nasal en and a soft nh [ɲ], like Spanish ñ: te-nyu.
- preguiça – stress on -gui-: pre-GUI-ça.
- de before a consonant is usually very reduced, almost like “d(ɨ)”.
- cozinhar – stress on the last syllable: co-zi-NHAR.
- por isso – the r in por is often very soft or almost gone in fast speech: poɾ isso or po isso.
- pedir – stress on -dir: pe-DIR.
- comida – stress on -mi-: co-MI-da.
You don’t need to sound exactly like this, but aiming for reduced de, soft r in por, and clear nh [ɲ] will make you sound more European Portuguese.