Hoje vou falar com o terapeuta depois do trabalho.

Today I am going to talk with the therapist after work.

Breakdown of Hoje vou falar com o terapeuta depois do trabalho.

• hoje: today
• ir: to go
• depois de: after
• com: with
• falar: to talk
• o trabalho: the work
• o terapeuta: the therapist

Questions & Answers about Hoje vou falar com o terapeuta depois do trabalho.

Why isn’t eu (I) written? Shouldn’t it be Eu vou falar…?

Portuguese usually drops subject pronouns when the subject is clear from the verb ending.

• vou can only be I go / I am going in this context, so eu is understood.
• Saying Eu vou falar… is not wrong; it can just sound a bit more emphatic, like stressing I in English: I am going to talk… (as opposed to someone else).

So both are correct:

• Hoje vou falar com o terapeuta… (most natural)
• Hoje eu vou falar com o terapeuta… (more emphasis on I)

What exactly does vou falar mean? Is it like “I’m going to talk” or “I will talk”?

Vou falar is literally I’m going to talk and is the most common spoken way to talk about the future. It usually implies a future plan or intention:

• Hoje vou falar… = Today I’m going to talk… / Today I will talk… (planned)

Portuguese also has a simple future falarei (I will talk), but in everyday speech in Portugal vou falar is much more frequent and sounds more natural in this context:

• Hoje falarei com o terapeuta – possible, but sounds more formal, written, or solemn.
• Hoje vou falar com o terapeuta – normal, everyday speech.

Why is it falar com o terapeuta? Could I use other verbs like dizer or conversar?

The most neutral way to say talk to / talk with someone is:

• falar com alguém – to talk with / to someone
  
  • Vou falar com o terapeuta.

Other options:

• conversar com alguém – to have a conversation with someone, a bit more like “chat / have a talk”:

  • Vou conversar com o terapeuta.

• dizer means to say / to tell (content-focused, not the act of conversing):

  • Vou dizer isto ao terapeuta. – I’m going to tell this to the therapist.

So for the sentence you gave, falar com or conversar com are the natural choices; dizer needs an object (what you will say).

Why is it falar com o terapeuta and not falar para o terapeuta or falar ao terapeuta?

In European Portuguese:

• falar com alguém = to talk with/to someone (conversation) – this is the default in your sentence.
• falar para alguém = to speak to someone in their direction, more about where the speech is going than about a two-way conversation (more common in Brazilian Portuguese).
  
  • e.g. Ele está a falar para a turma. – He is speaking to the class.
• falar a alguém is quite limited and sounds old‑fashioned or literary in most everyday contexts.

Because seeing your therapist is normally a two‑way conversation, falar com o terapeuta is what speakers in Portugal naturally say.

What does o terapeuta mean exactly? Is it “the therapist” or “my therapist”?

Literally, o terapeuta is the therapist (masculine).

In context, though, Portuguese often uses the definite article o / a to talk about “my X” when it’s obvious whose X it is:

• Vou falar com o terapeuta. – very often understood as I’m going to talk to my therapist (the one I normally see).
• If you want to be explicit, say:
  
  • Vou falar com o meu terapeuta.

So:

• o terapeuta – the (known, specific) therapist, usually the one relevant to you in the situation.
• o meu terapeuta – clearly my therapist.

How do I say “my therapist”, and what if the therapist is a woman?

The noun terapeuta has common gender: the article (and adjectives) show whether it’s male or female.

• o terapeuta – the male therapist
• a terapeuta – the female therapist

With my:

• o meu terapeuta – my (male) therapist
• a minha terapeuta – my (female) therapist

Examples:

• Hoje vou falar com o meu terapeuta. – Today I’m going to talk to my (male) therapist.
• Hoje vou falar com a minha terapeuta. – Today I’m going to talk to my (female) therapist.

Why is it depois do trabalho and not depois de trabalho?

Depois de means after. What follows can be a verb or a noun:

1. Before a verb (infinitive) you use de:

   • depois de trabalhar – after working
   • depois de comer – after eating

2. Before a specific noun, you normally use de + definite article:

   • depois do trabalho = depois de + o trabalho = after the work / after work
   • depois da aula = depois de + a aula = after the class

Depois de trabalho (without article) would sound wrong in this context. You almost always want depois do trabalho for after work (meaning after your workday).

So what’s the difference between depois do trabalho and depois de trabalhar?

Both are possible but not exactly the same:

• depois do trabalho

  • Literally: after the work / after work (the workday).
  • Refers to the time period / event of work finishing.
  • Very natural for after work (as in “after I finish work for the day”).

• depois de trabalhar

  • Literally: after working.
  • Focuses on the activity of working, more like “after (I) work”.
  • Also possible, but depois do trabalho is more idiomatic in this sentence.

In your line, depois do trabalho is the most natural choice for “after work” in European Portuguese.

What does do stand for in depois do trabalho?

do is a contraction of:

• de + o = do

So:

• depois do trabalho = depois de o trabalho

Portuguese regularly contracts prepositions with definite articles:

• de + o = do (do trabalho)
• de + a = da (da aula)
• em + o = no (no trabalho)
• em + a = na (na escola)

Could I move hoje or depois do trabalho around in the sentence? Are there other natural word orders?

Yes, there’s some flexibility. All of these can be natural in European Portuguese (with small changes in emphasis):

• Hoje vou falar com o terapeuta depois do trabalho.
• Hoje, depois do trabalho, vou falar com o terapeuta.
• Depois do trabalho, hoje, vou falar com o terapeuta. (more marked, but possible)
• Vou falar hoje com o terapeuta depois do trabalho. (emphasis on today)

What you generally don’t do is break vou falar awkwardly apart from its complements in a way that makes it hard to parse, but most adverbials like hoje, depois do trabalho, mais tarde can move around pretty freely.

Can depois stand alone like “afterwards / later” in this context?

Yes, depois by itself often means afterwards / later (on):

• Hoje vou falar com o terapeuta depois. – Today I’m going to talk to the therapist later (on).

However, this is less specific than depois do trabalho:

• depois do trabalho – clearly after work is finished.
• depois – just later on / afterwards (no specific reference point given in the sentence).

In your original sentence, depois do trabalho is better because it clearly says after work.

How is this sentence pronounced in European Portuguese?

Approximate breakdown for Portugal (using a rough English-friendly guide):

• Hoje – “OJ‑zh(uh)” (short o like o in boss; final e is very reduced, like a faint uh or almost nothing)
• vou – “voh”
• falar – “fuh‑LAR” (first a very reduced, final r quite soft, not a strong English r)
• com o – usually flows together like “kõu”; com has a nasal vowel (like co in con but nasalised)
• terapeuta – roughly “t(uh)-ruh-POW-t(uh)”; unstressed e / a get reduced, stress on peu (POW)
• depois – “d(uh)-POYSH” (stress on pois)
• do – “du”
• trabalho – “truh-BA-lyu” (lh is a ly sound, like the middle of English million)

Said at natural speed, it all runs together something like:

“OJ‑zh(uh) voh fuh‑LAR kõu t(uh)-ruh‑POW‑t(uh) d(uh)-POYSH du truh‑BA‑lyu.”

Is this sentence the same in Brazilian Portuguese, or would Brazilians say it differently?

Grammatically, the sentence Hoje vou falar com o terapeuta depois do trabalho. is also correct in Brazilian Portuguese.

Main differences would be:

• Pronunciation – vowels are less reduced, and r / lh etc. sound different.
• Brazilians also normally say falar com o terapeuta, depois do trabalho, and use vou falar for the future.

So you can safely use this sentence in both varieties; it’s particularly European mainly in how it’s pronounced, not in the words or structure.