Breakdown of Eu vou tomar um café depois do exame.
Questions & Answers about Eu vou tomar um café depois do exame.
In everyday European Portuguese, the most common way to talk about the future is:
ir + infinitive
→ (eu) vou tomar = I’m going to have / I will have
The form tomarei is grammatically correct, but:
- it sounds formal, written, or literary;
- it’s much less common in spoken Portuguese in Portugal.
So:
- Eu vou tomar um café – natural, standard spoken future
- Eu tomarei um café – possible, but sounds formal / stiff in normal conversation
You’ll use ir + infinitive all the time when speaking.
Both verbs are possible, but they’re used a bit differently.
tomar literally means to take but is very often used as to have (a drink / a medicine / a shower, etc.).
- tomar um café – have a coffee (very idiomatic and common)
- tomar um chá – have a tea
- tomar um comprimido – take a pill
- tomar banho – take a bath / shower
beber literally means to drink (the physical action of drinking).
- beber água – drink water
- beber vinho – drink wine
In this sentence:
- Eu vou tomar um café sounds like I’ll have a coffee / I’ll grab a coffee – this is what people normally say.
- Eu vou beber um café is understandable and not wrong, but it’s less idiomatic; it focuses more on the act of drinking than on the idea of “having a coffee” as a small event.
The article changes the meaning:
- um café = a coffee / one coffee (one serving, an unspecified coffee)
- Vou tomar um café. – I’ll have a (some) coffee (one cup).
- o café = the coffee (a specific one you have in mind)
- Vou tomar o café que ficou na máquina. – I’ll have the coffee that was left in the machine.
- (zero article) café is usually for general, abstract, or mass meaning:
- Gosto de café. – I like coffee (in general).
- Bebo café todos os dias. – I drink coffee every day.
Here, you mean one coffee now, so um café is the natural choice.
In European Portuguese, especially in Portugal, um café in a café/bar normally means:
- a small cup of strong coffee, basically an espresso.
Some related terms in Portugal:
- um café – an espresso (standard)
- um pingo / um pingado – espresso with a little milk
- um galão – coffee with a lot of milk in a tall glass (like a latte)
- uma meia de leite – half coffee, half milk in a cup
So if you go to a café in Portugal and say Quero um café, por favor, you’ll get an espresso.
You do not need to say Eu. Portuguese is a pro‑drop language: the subject pronoun is often omitted because the verb ending (or in this case vou) already shows the person.
- Vou tomar um café depois do exame. – perfectly natural
- Eu vou tomar um café depois do exame. – also correct; Eu adds a little emphasis, like:
- contrast: I (not someone else) will have a coffee
- clarity, in a longer context
In neutral, everyday speech, many people would say Vou tomar um café depois do exame.
do is a contraction:
- de + o = do
So:
- depois do exame = after the exam (a specific exam)
- depois (after) + de (of) + o exame (the exam) → depois do exame
In Portuguese, you normally use the definite article with specific events like this:
- depois do jantar – after dinner
- depois da reunião – after the meeting
- depois da aula – after the class
depois de exame sounds ungrammatical in this context. You need the article o → do exame.
They have different grammatical roles:
depois alone: adverb (often at the beginning or end of a clause)
- Depois ligo‑te. – I’ll call you later/afterwards.
- Falamos depois. – We’ll talk later/afterwards.
depois de: preposition (must be followed by a noun or an infinitive verb)
- depois do exame – after the exam
- depois de jantar – after (having) dinner
- depois de estudar – after studying
In your sentence, you need a preposition before o exame, so it has to be depois de → depois do exame.
Yes, you can say:
- Eu vou tomar um café após o exame.
após and depois de both mean after, but:
- depois de / depois do exame – more common, neutral, everyday.
- após o exame – a bit more formal or written; still perfectly correct in speech, just slightly more formal in tone.
Meaning‑wise, they’re the same here.
Yes. Both are correct:
- Eu vou tomar um café depois do exame.
- Depois do exame, vou tomar um café.
Putting Depois do exame at the beginning:
- gives a bit more emphasis to the time (the moment after the exam),
- is very natural in both spoken and written Portuguese.
You just add a comma when you place the time expression first in writing:
Depois do exame, vou tomar um café.
Brazilians will understand Eu vou tomar um café depois do exame perfectly.
Typical differences:
In Brazilian Portuguese, instead of exame, people very often say prova for school/university tests:
- Eu vou tomar um café depois da prova.
The use of tomar um café for have a coffee exists in Brazil too and is common.
So:
- PT‑PT (Portugal):
Eu vou tomar um café depois do exame. - PT‑BR (Brazil, very natural):
Vou tomar um café depois da prova.
Grammatically, the structure is the same.
Yes, you can say:
- Vou tomar café depois do exame.
The difference is subtle:
- Vou tomar um café – suggests one specific cup of coffee (a portion).
- Vou tomar café – more like I’ll drink coffee in general, not focusing on “one cup”.
In practice, in this situation, both can sound very similar. But if you want to sound like you’re going for a quick single coffee, um café is the usual and more idiomatic choice.
Tomar um café often implies more than just the physical act of drinking:
- Vamos tomar um café? – can mean:
- Shall we have a coffee? (literally)
- and also socially Shall we meet for a coffee / a quick chat?
So your sentence:
- Eu vou tomar um café depois do exame.
can mean:
- you will literally drink a coffee, and
- possibly also that you plan a short break or a quick social moment after the exam, depending on context.
Yes, some key points (Portugal pronunciation):
- Eu – often sounds close to “eh‑oo”, but in fast speech it can be quite reduced.
- vou – like “voh” (close to English “vo” in “vocal”).
- tomar – stress on the last syllable: to‑MAR.
- um – nasal vowel; something like “oong” but shorter.
- café – stress on fé: ca‑FÉ.
- depois – roughly “d’POISH”; the de‑ can be very reduced, almost “’poish”.
- do – like “doo”, often linked quickly to exame.
- exame – stress on XA: e‑XA‑me. The x here sounds like z: e‑ZA‑me.
Spoken quickly, the middle can link together:
- tomar um café → toma[rum] café (the r links and um is nasal and short)
- depois do exame → depóis du exame (smooth linking between words)