Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): O chefe quer falar connosco amanhã sobre o novo projeto. - The boss wants to talk with us tomorrow about the new project.

If you leave out the article (Chefe quer falar connosco), it sounds odd as a normal statement. The only common case where you drop the article is in direct address:

Chefe, podemos falar?
→ Boss, can we talk? (you’re speaking directly to the boss)

So for normal sentences about someone, keep the article: O chefe, A diretora, O professor, etc.

Does chefe mean “boss” or “chef”? Can it be used for a woman?

In European Portuguese:

chefe mainly means boss / manager / person in charge, not “cook”.
The word is gender‑neutral in form; the article shows the gender:
- o chefe = male boss
- a chefe = female boss

Portuguese does have:

cozinheiro / cozinheira = cook
In some contexts (e.g. restaurants), chef (borrowed from French/English) is also used, but that’s separate from chefe in this sentence.

So here O chefe clearly means the (male) boss.

Why is quer (present tense) used if the meeting is tomorrow? Shouldn’t it be a future tense?

Portuguese often uses the present tense to talk about the near future, especially when a time expression is present.

O chefe quer falar connosco amanhã.
Literally: The boss wants to talk with us tomorrow.
→ This is perfectly natural, just like English “wants to talk” with tomorrow.

If you really want a future form, you could say:

O chefe vai falar connosco amanhã. (is going to talk)
O chefe falará connosco amanhã. (will talk – more formal/written)

But O chefe quer falar… is normal and idiomatic; it focuses on his desire/intention.

Why is it quer falar and not something like quer que nós falemos?

Portuguese often uses quer + infinitive to express what someone wants to do:

quer falar = wants to talk
quer ir = wants to go
quer saber = wants to know

Quer que nós falemos is grammatically correct, but slightly different:

O chefe quer falar connosco.
→ The boss wants to talk to us.
O chefe quer que nós falemos.
→ The boss wants us to speak (in general, or in some context).

So:

Use quer + infinitive when the subject of both verbs is the same:
O chefe quer falar.
Use quer que + subjunctive when the subject changes:
O chefe quer que nós falemos.

What does connosco mean exactly, and why not com nós like “with us”?

Connosco means “with us”. It’s a special combined form of com + nós.

Portuguese has a set of fused forms with com:

com + mim → comigo (with me)
com + ti → contigo (with you, singular informal)
com + ele/ela/você → consigo (with him/her/you [formal])
com + nós → connosco (with us)
com + vós → convosco (with you, plural, old‑fashioned in speech)

So:

✅ falar connosco = talk with us
❌ falar com nós – not used; sounds wrong to native ears

What’s the difference between connosco and conosco?

They mean the same thing: “with us”.

In European Portuguese, you’ll see both:
- connosco (traditional EP spelling, still very common)
- conosco (newer, unified spelling after the orthographic agreement)
In Brazilian Portuguese, it’s almost always conosco.

Since you’re learning Portuguese from Portugal, you will frequently see connosco, especially in Portugal-based texts, though conosco is also officially accepted.

Where can amanhã go in the sentence? Is O chefe quer falar connosco amanhã the only correct order?

Amanhã (tomorrow) is an adverb of time, and it’s quite flexible in position. All of these are correct:

O chefe quer falar connosco amanhã. (very common)
Amanhã, o chefe quer falar connosco.
O chefe, amanhã, quer falar connosco. (more marked/emphatic)

Putting amanhã at the very end is the most neutral and common in everyday speech. Moving it to the beginning can add emphasis to the time (“Tomorrow, the boss wants to talk to us”).

Why is it falar connosco and not something like falar de nós or falar sobre nós?

These combinations mean different things:

falar connosco
→ talk with us (we are part of the conversation)
falar de nós
→ talk about us (we might not be present)
falar sobre nós
→ also talk about us, usually a bit more explicit/emphatic than de nós

So in the sentence:

O chefe quer falar connosco amanhã
→ He wants to have a conversation with us.

If you said:

O chefe quer falar sobre nós amanhã.
→ He wants to talk (to someone) about us tomorrow.
(We’re the topic rather than the interlocutors.)

Why is sobre o novo projeto used? Could you also say do novo projeto?

Both are possible, with a slight nuance:

falar sobre o novo projeto
→ talk about the new project (very clear, neutral)
falar do novo projeto (de + o = do)
→ also “talk about the new project”, often a bit shorter/more colloquial

In many contexts they’re interchangeable:

O chefe quer falar sobre o novo projeto.
O chefe quer falar do novo projeto.

Both sound natural in European Portuguese. Sobre can feel a bit more explicit/neutral; de/do is a bit lighter.

Why is it novo projeto and not projeto novo? Does the position of novo change the meaning?

Adjectives in Portuguese can go before or after the noun, sometimes with a nuance.

With novo:

novo projeto (adjective before noun)
→ typically “new, additional, another project” (brand-new to us)
projeto novo (adjective after noun)
→ can sound more like “a project which is new/recent”, slightly more descriptive

In practice, with projeto, both novo projeto and projeto novo are possible, and the difference is often small. The version you see most in this fixed expression is o novo projeto (“the new project” in the company, the new one we’re starting).

How do you pronounce chefe quer falar connosco amanhã in European Portuguese?

Approximate guidance (EP):

chefe → ˈʃɛ.fɨ
- ch like English “sh”
- final e is a very short, almost muted “uh”
quer → kɛɾ
- like “kehrr” with a short e, and a tapped/flapped r (like Spanish pero)
falar → fɐ.ˈlaɾ
- fa- with a very reduced vowel, something like “fuh-LAR”
connosco → commonly sounds like koˈnoʃku
- written nn but spoken with a single n
- final co like “koo”
amanhã → ɐ.mɐ.ˈɲɐ̃
- nh like “ny” in “canyon”
- final ã is a nasal “uh” sound; don’t add an extra vowel after it

Said quickly, the whole thing runs together a lot:
O chefe quer falar connosco amanhã.

Is there a more formal or more informal way to say this in European Portuguese?

The original sentence is neutral in register; it works in most everyday and workplace contexts.

You could adjust formality slightly:

Slightly more formal:
- O diretor quer reunir-se connosco amanhã sobre o novo projeto.
  (use diretor, reunir-se “to meet”, a bit more formal vocabulary)
Slightly more informal:
- O chefe quer ter uma conversa connosco amanhã sobre o novo projeto.
  (adds “have a chat/conversation”, still polite but more relaxed)

Grammatically, though, O chefe quer falar connosco amanhã sobre o novo projeto is already perfectly appropriate for a typical office setting in Portugal.