Falar com uma amiga de confiança ajuda muito a nossa saúde mental.

Talking with a trusted friend helps our mental health a lot.

Breakdown of Falar com uma amiga de confiança ajuda muito a nossa saúde mental.

• a amiga: the friend
• com: with
• falar: to talk
• uma: a
• muito: a lot
• ajudar: to help
• nossa: our
• a saúde: the health
• mental: mental
• de confiança: trustworthy

Questions & Answers about Falar com uma amiga de confiança ajuda muito a nossa saúde mental.

Why is falar in the infinitive here and not falo, falamos, etc.?

In Portuguese, the infinitive can work as a noun, much like the -ing form in English:

• Falar com uma amiga de confiança ajuda muito…
  = Talking to a trusted (female) friend helps a lot…

So falar here is the subject of the verb ajuda (what helps? → falar com uma amiga de confiança).

If you used a conjugated form like falo or falamos, you would need a subject before it:

• Eu falo com uma amiga de confiança, isso ajuda muito a nossa saúde mental.
  I talk to a trusted friend, that helps our mental health a lot.

In the original sentence, the idea is general, so the infinitive is the natural choice.

Does uma amiga mean that the speaker is female?

No. Uma amiga only tells you that the friend is female, not the speaker.

• uma amiga = a female friend
• um amigo = a male friend
• amigos (plural masculine or mixed) / amigas (plural all female)

Any speaker (male or female) can say:

• Falar com uma amiga de confiança ajuda muito a nossa saúde mental.
  Talking to a trusted female friend helps our mental health a lot.

If you wanted it to be neutral about the friend’s gender, you could say:

• Falar com um(a) amigo(a) de confiança… (sometimes written like this)
• or use the plural: Falar com amigos de confiança…

What exactly does de confiança mean? Is it like “reliable”, “trustworthy”, or “confidant”?

De confiança literally means “of trust”, and it’s used very commonly to mean trustworthy / someone you trust / reliable.

In this context, uma amiga de confiança is:

• a friend you can trust,
• someone you feel safe opening up to,
• someone discreet and reliable.

You also hear it with many other nouns:

• um médico de confiança – a doctor you trust
• um mecânico de confiança – a reliable mechanic
• um produto de confiança – a trusted product / brand

In most cases, you can translate de confiança as trusted / trustworthy / reliable, depending on context.

Could I say amiga confiável or amiga fiável instead of amiga de confiança?

You can, but the nuance and naturalness change:

• amiga de confiança – most natural and common in European Portuguese for a friend you trust.
• amiga fiável – grammatically fine, but sounds a bit unusual for a person; fiável is more common with things or services:
  
  • um carro fiável, um serviço fiável.
• amiga confiável – this is much more Brazilian Portuguese. In Portugal, confiável is understood but much less used, and amiga de confiança would sound more idiomatic.

So in Portugal, uma amiga de confiança is the best and most natural option.

Why is it ajuda (3rd person singular) and not ajudam?

The subject of ajuda is the whole phrase falar com uma amiga de confiança. That entire action is treated as one thing, so the verb is singular:

• Falar com uma amiga de confiança → singular idea → ajuda.

It’s like English:

• Talking to a trusted friend *helps our mental health a lot.
  (not *help)

What is the function of muito here, and could it appear in a different place?

Muito is an adverb meaning a lot / greatly. It modifies the verb ajuda:

• ajuda muito = helps a lot / helps greatly

Most natural positions here are:

• Falar com uma amiga de confiança ajuda muito a nossa saúde mental.
• Falar com uma amiga de confiança ajuda a nossa saúde mental muito. (possible but less natural in Portuguese; it sounds slightly marked/emphatic)

Putting muito right after ajuda is the most idiomatic:

• ajuda muito → safest default word order.

Why is it a nossa saúde mental and not à nossa saúde mental with a grave accent?

Here a is a definite article, not the preposition a.

• a nossa saúde mental = our mental health
  a (the) + nossa (our) + saúde mental (mental health)

The verb ajudar in this meaning is directly transitive: it takes a direct object without a preposition:

• ajudar alguém / algo
  
  • Isto ajuda a nossa saúde mental.
  • This helps our mental health.

There is no preposition before nossa saúde mental, so there is no contraction à (preposition a + article a) and therefore no grave accent.

Compare:

• É bom à saúde. – here there is a preposition a, so you get à.
• Ajuda a saúde. – here a saúde is a simple direct object; a is just the article.

Could I drop nossa and just say ajuda muito a saúde mental?

Yes, you can, but the meaning shifts slightly:

• ajuda muito a nossa saúde mental – clearly “our” mental health (us in general, or the group that includes speaker and listener).
• ajuda muito a saúde mental – more general: helps mental health a lot (mental health as a concept, in people overall).

In many contexts they overlap, but adding nossa ties it more explicitly to our mental health rather than mental health in general.

In European Portuguese, is it more natural to say a nossa saúde mental or just nossa saúde mental?

In European Portuguese, it is very common and natural to use the definite article before possessive adjectives:

• a nossa saúde mental
• o meu carro
• a tua casa

So a nossa saúde mental sounds completely natural and is probably more idiomatic than nossa saúde mental on its own.

Dropping the article (nossa saúde mental) is not wrong, but in Portugal it often sounds a bit more formal or marked. In Brazil, on the other hand, omitting the article is more common in some regions.

Why is the preposition com used with falar here? Could we say falar a uma amiga?

With the verb falar meaning to talk / to speak, you normally use:

• falar com alguém – to talk with someone (a conversation)
• falar a alguém – to speak to someone (more one-directional, more formal or literary, and much less common in everyday speech)

In everyday European Portuguese, when you mean having a conversation, you almost always say:

• falar com uma amiga – talk with a (female) friend

So falar a uma amiga would sound strange in this casual, psychological context.

Is there any nuance difference between falar and conversar here?

Both would work, but there’s a small nuance:

• Falar com uma amiga de confiança… – slightly broader; can mean simply talking, speaking, chatting.
• Conversar com uma amiga de confiança… – emphasizes having a conversation, often with more of a two‑way, calmer exchange.

In practice, in this sentence both are natural in Portugal:

• Falar com uma amiga de confiança ajuda muito a nossa saúde mental.
• Conversar com uma amiga de confiança ajuda muito a nossa saúde mental.

Falar is a bit more common and neutral; conversar can sound a little more “sit down and talk” style, but the difference is subtle.

Could I rephrase the sentence and keep the same meaning?

Yes. Here are some natural alternatives in European Portuguese, with essentially the same idea:

• Falar com uma amiga de confiança faz muito bem à nossa saúde mental.
  (does us a lot of good – here you use faz bem a → faz bem à saúde)
• Conversar com uma amiga em quem confiamos ajuda muito a nossa saúde mental.
• Desabafar com uma amiga de confiança ajuda muito a nossa saúde mental.
  (desabafar = to vent / to get things off your chest)

The original, however, is already simple and very natural.