Breakdown of Eu não gosto de falar em público.
Questions & Answers about Eu não gosto de falar em público.
In Portuguese, the verb gostar almost always needs the preposition de before whatever you like or dislike.
With a verb (infinitive):
- Eu gosto de falar. – I like to speak / I like speaking.
- Eu não gosto de falar em público. – I don’t like speaking in public.
With a noun:
- Eu gosto de chocolate. – I like chocolate.
- Eu não gosto de café. – I don’t like coffee.
So the structure is: gostar de + [thing], where the “thing” can be a noun or an infinitive verb.
*gosto falar is ungrammatical in standard Portuguese.
Yes. Portuguese usually drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the subject.
- Eu não gosto de falar em público.
- Não gosto de falar em público.
Both mean the same thing: I don’t like speaking in public.
Using Eu adds a bit of emphasis, like “I don’t like speaking in public (maybe others do, but I don’t).” In neutral conversation, Não gosto de falar em público is perfectly natural and very common.
In standard Portuguese, the basic way to negate a verb is:
não + verb
So:
- Eu gosto de falar em público. – I like speaking in public.
- Eu não gosto de falar em público. – I don’t like speaking in public.
Putting não after the verb (gosto não) is not correct in this neutral statement. You might see não after a verb in very specific emphatic or colloquial structures (and more in Brazilian Portuguese), but not as the normal way to negate a sentence like this.
For what your sentence means, you must use não before gosto.
After gostar de, when you use a verb, it stays in the infinitive:
- gostar de + infinitive → gostar de falar, gostar de ler, gostar de dançar
You do not use the gerund (falando) here:
- *Eu não gosto de falando em público. – incorrect
This is different from English, where you say “I like speaking” or “I like to speak”. In Portuguese, both ideas map to gostar de + infinitive:
- Eu gosto de falar. – I like speaking / I like to speak.
- Eu não gosto de falar em público. – I don’t like speaking in public.
Literally, em público means “in public”.
It’s also a fairly fixed expression meaning in front of other people, where others can see or hear you. In this sentence, falar em público is best translated as “to speak in public / public speaking.”
You’ll see it in many common phrases:
- Falar em público – to speak in public
- Agir em público – to act in public
- Pedir desculpa em público – to apologize in public
Em público uses público in a general/abstract sense, not referring to a specific group of people or a specific audience. That’s why there is no article.
- em público – in public (in general, in front of people)
If you say no público, that is em + o público, literally “in the public” or “in the audience,” and it would usually mean something like:
- being inside a group of people who are the audience, or
- referring to a specific public (e.g. a target audience).
For the standard idea “in public” (= not in private), the set expression is em público, without an article.
The preposition de after gostar doesn’t have a strong, separate meaning in this context; it’s simply required by the verb gostar.
You can think of it as part of the pattern:
- gostar de + noun → gosto de chocolate (I like chocolate)
- gostar de + infinitive → não gosto de falar (I don’t like to speak / speaking)
In English, you skip any preposition and say “I like to speak” or “I like speaking”. In Portuguese, you must keep de, but it usually isn’t translated:
- Eu não gosto de falar em público.
Literally: I not like of speak in public.
Natural English: I don’t like speaking in public.
Yes. Portuguese allows some flexibility in word order for emphasis or style. Both of these are correct:
- Eu não gosto de falar em público.
- Em público, eu não gosto de falar.
The meaning is the same. Putting Em público at the beginning emphasizes the context:
- Em público, eu não gosto de falar.
→ In public, I don’t like to speak (but maybe in private I’m fine).
The original word order is more neutral and more common in everyday speech.
Yes. In Portuguese, the infinitive falar can function like a noun, so falar em público can mean “public speaking”:
- Tenho medo de falar em público. – I’m afraid of public speaking.
- O curso é sobre falar em público. – The course is about public speaking.
There are also noun-based terms like a oratória or a arte de falar em público, but falar em público is very common and natural.
In writing, yes: the sentence is exactly the same in European (Portugal) and Brazilian Portuguese.
The differences are in pronunciation and sometimes in how people tend to express the idea:
European Portuguese (Portugal):
- More vowel reduction, e.g. gosto might sound closer to “gós-t’’.
- falar em can sound almost like falárẽ (with em nasalized and reduced).
Brazilian Portuguese:
- Clearer vowels in gosto and falar.
- em often pronounced like ẽj (nasal + glide), depending on region.
But grammatically and lexically, Eu não gosto de falar em público works for both varieties.
The ~ (tilde) over ã indicates a nasal vowel.
- não is roughly pronounced like “nowng” (with the vowel nasalized, not a full -ng).
- Start with something like English “now”,
- then let air also go through your nose, and don’t pronounce a clear final n.
In European Portuguese, não is often quite short and nasal; in Brazilian Portuguese it may sound slightly more like “nawng” (varies by region).
Público has three syllables: PÚ-bli-co.
- The stress is on the first syllable (PÚ), marked by the acute accent (ú).
- Approximate pronunciation in European Portuguese: “POO-bli-ku”, but with the final -o often reduced towards a very short -u sound.
Syllable breakdown:
- pú- → stressed, like “poo” (but shorter)
- -bli- → like “blee” (short)
- -co → like “koo”, often reduced in European Portuguese
So: PÚ-bli-co.