Breakdown of Eu não gosto de falar de política em público.
Questions & Answers about Eu não gosto de falar de política em público.
In Portuguese, the verb gostar almost always comes with de before its complement.
- gostar de + noun:
- Eu gosto de café. – I like coffee.
- gostar de + infinitive (verb):
- Eu gosto de falar. – I like to talk / I like talking.
So de is required after gosto.
gosto falar (without de) is considered incorrect in standard Portuguese.
The two de come from two different verbs:
- gostar de = to like
- falar de = to talk about
So in Eu não gosto de falar de política em público:
- gosto de → links gosto to falar
- falar de → links falar to política
Literally: I don’t like of talking of politics in public (word by word),
which becomes I don’t like talking about politics in public in natural English.
Both de are grammatically needed, because they belong to two different verb patterns.
No. In standard Portuguese you must include the de after gosto:
- ✅ Eu não gosto de falar de política.
- ❌ Eu não gosto falar de política.
Leaving out that de is a typical learner mistake and sounds wrong to native speakers.
falar is the infinitive form (to talk / to speak).
After gostar de, Portuguese uses the infinitive to express likes and dislikes about activities:
- Eu gosto de correr. – I like running / I like to run.
- Eu não gosto de cozinhar. – I don’t like cooking / to cook.
Portuguese does not normally use a gerund form here:
- ❌ Eu gosto falando de política. (incorrect)
- ✅ Eu gosto de falar de política.
So gostar de + infinitivo matches both English like doing and like to do.
You can drop Eu:
- ✅ Eu não gosto de falar de política em público.
- ✅ Não gosto de falar de política em público.
In Portuguese (especially in European Portuguese), the subject pronoun is often omitted because the verb ending (-o in gosto) already shows that the subject is eu (I).
Keeping Eu can add a bit of emphasis on I (as opposed to other people), depending on context, but both versions are perfectly natural.
gosto is the present indicative (presente do indicativo), first person singular.
Here it expresses a general, habitual preference:
- Eu não gosto de falar de política em público.
→ In general, as a rule, I don’t like talking about politics in public.
It’s similar to the English simple present in I don’t like talking about politics in public, which also usually describes a general tendency, not just one specific situation.
em público is a fixed and very common expression meaning in public, in front of other people.
- em = in
- público = public / people present
So:
- ✅ em público = in public (as a general situation)
If you said em o público, it would contract to no público, but that would sound strange here and would mean something like in the public (as if you were physically inside the audience), which is not the intended meaning.
So the natural phrase is:
- falar em público – to speak in public, to speak in front of others.
Yes, but some positions sound more natural than others.
Most neutral:
- Eu não gosto de falar de política em público.
Also possible, with a slight change in rhythm or emphasis:
- Eu, em público, não gosto de falar de política. (emphasizing in public)
- Em público, eu não gosto de falar de política. (topic: in public situations)
Less natural:
- Eu não gosto, em público, de falar de política. (more marked / literary)
For everyday speech, the original order (…de política em público) is the most common and natural.
Here política is an abstract, general concept – politics in general.
In Portuguese, when you talk about things in a general, non-specific way (especially abstract ideas), you often omit the article:
- Gosto de música. – I like music (in general).
- Não falo de religião. – I don’t talk about religion.
- Não gosto de falar de política. – I don’t like talking about politics.
If you say da política (de a política → contracted to da), it usually refers to:
- a more specific field (e.g. the world of politics), or
- politics in a particular context that is already known.
For example:
- Não gosto da política deste país.
– I don’t like the politics of this country.
In your sentence, the idea is general, so de política (no article) is natural and idiomatic.
Both are correct and often interchangeable.
- falar de política – very common; literally talk of politics; often slightly more informal / neutral.
- falar sobre política – talk about politics; can sound a bit more explicit or slightly more formal in some contexts.
In everyday speech in Portugal, falar de política is probably more frequent, but falar sobre política does not sound wrong at all.
Your sentence is completely natural as it is.
Yes, política is a feminine noun.
Adjectives referring to it must agree in gender and number:
- a política portuguesa – Portuguese politics
- a política internacional – international politics
- discussões políticas – political discussions (plural feminine)
In falar de política, we don’t see the article or an adjective, but the word itself is feminine.
Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation (informal, connected speech):
- Eu → [ˈew] (often very short, almost like êu)
- não → [nɐ̃w̃] (nasal vowel; the ão is similar to French an
- a closing w sound)
- gosto → [ˈɡɔʃtu] (the s between vowels sounds like sh)
- de → often reduced to [dɨ] or just [d] before the next word
- falar → [fɐˈlaɾ] (final r is a light, quick tap or may be very weak)
- de → again [dɨ] / [d]
- política → [puˈlitikɐ] (stress on lí)
- em → [ɐ̃j̃] or [ẽj̃] (nasal, gliding to a y sound)
- público → [ˈpublikʊ] (stress on pú, final o is more closed, like a short u).
Spoken smoothly, it might sound like:
- [ew nɐ̃w̃ ˈɡɔʃtu dɨ fɐˈlaɾ dɨ puˈlitikɐ ẽj̃ ˈpublikʊ]
Yes.
Eu não gosto de falar de política em público is perfectly natural in both European and Brazilian Portuguese.
Possible minor differences:
- In both varieties, people often drop Eu and just say:
- Não gosto de falar de política em público.
- Pronunciation and intonation differ between European and Brazilian Portuguese, but the grammar and wording here are standard and shared.
So you can safely use this sentence in Portugal.