The Greetings That Split the Day
Portuguese does not have one all-purpose hello the way Swedish has hej. It divides the day into three, and you pick the one that fits the hour:
| formula | when |
|---|---|
| bom dia | from waking until about midday |
| boa tarde | from midday until dusk |
| boa noite | after dark — arriving AND leaving |
Learn them as frozen units. The pieces (bom, dia, tarde, noite) behave like ordinary words elsewhere, but here they are welded together, and boa tarde and boa noite take the feminine boa because tarde and noite are feminine nouns.
boa noite does double duty: it is both good evening on the way in and good night on the way out. Unlike English, you may greet someone with it.
| Good afternoon, teacher! | Boa tarde, professor! |
Leaving
adeus is the plain goodbye. até logo is see you later — same day — and até amanhã is see you tomorrow. The até in both is the ordinary preposition until, so the pattern extends: até sábado, até segunda.
| See you tomorrow, at school! | Até amanhã, na escola! |
Please, Thank You, and the Reply
obrigado is thank you — and it is an ADJECTIVE, not an interjection. It agrees with the person SPEAKING, never with the person being thanked:
| speaker | form |
|---|---|
| a man | obrigado |
| a woman | obrigada |
So a woman thanking a man still says obrigada. Strengthen it with muito: muito obrigado.
por favor is please. The reply to thanks is de nada — literally of nothing.
| A coffee, please. | Um café, por favor. |
Meeting Someone, and Small Talk
muito prazer is what you say on being introduced. tudo bem? is the everyday how's it going — and, answered flat, it is also the reassurance it's fine. bem-vindo welcomes someone; it agrees like an ordinary adjective (bem-vinda to a woman) and keeps its hyphen.
