Knowing When to Leave
When a late-night event gets tiring and you are fed up, you might decide it is time to leave. In Portuguese, the most common way to say "to go away" or "to leave" is the highly frequent verb ir-se embora.
| to go away | ir-se embora |
This is a pronominal verb, meaning it requires a reflexive pronoun. To use it, conjugate the verb ir (to go), attach a pronoun that matches the subject using a hyphen, and add the word embora:
- (Eu) vou-me embora
- (Tu) vais-te embora
- (Ele/ela/você) vai-se embora
- (Eles/elas/vocês) vão-se embora
| Since I am fed up with the nightclub, I am going away. | Como estou farto da discoteca, vou-me embora. |
| Even though the nightclub is lively, they are fed up and are going away. | Apesar de a discoteca estar animada, eles estão fartos e vão-se embora. |
Sneaking Out
If the party is exhausting and you are starting to yawn, you might want to grab your coat and slip out discreetly while everyone else is distracted.
| It is early morning. The party is exhausting and I am yawning. | É madrugada. A festa é exaustiva e estou a bocejar. |
| The host is going away discreetly. | O anfitrião vai-se embora discretamente. |
Questions, Commands, and Infinitives
You can use these same conjugated forms to ask if a friend is heading out, or as an imperative to tell someone to leave.
| It is already early morning and the garden is silent. Are you going away? | Já é madrugada e o jardim está silencioso. Vais-te embora? |
| Go away from here! | Vai-te embora daqui! |
Finally, when "going away" acts as a secondary verb in a sentence, it remains in its infinitive form. The pronoun still needs to match the person who is leaving, even when attached to the infinitive (for example, ir-me embora or ir-se embora).
| She usually goes away in the early morning. | Ela costuma ir-se embora de madrugada. |