Learn how to answer the first question you are asked at a Portuguese restaurant
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Portugal is famous for its tasty food and wine. There is a wide variety of Portuguese dishes, and your job as a visitor is to try as many different meals as possible! However, before you start eating, you have to get to the table! In this lesson, we'll cover getting to the table in a restaurant. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| When entering a Portuguese restaurant, you will be greeted with Seja bem-vindo, which is translated as “welcome” |
| (slow) Se-ja bem-vin-do! |
| Seja bem-vindo! |
| The first word seja means “be”. |
| (slow) Se-ja. |
| Seja. |
| Next we have “bem-vindo” which means “welcome”. |
| (slow) Bem-vin-do. |
| Bem-vindo. |
| ・ |
| When you go into a restaurant, a waiter or waitress will come and greet you, and often ask you |
| the question “How many people are you?” In Portuguese this is |
| Quantas pessoas são? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Quan-tas pes-so-as são? |
| Once more: |
| Quantas pessoas são? |
| The first word, quantas, means “how many?” |
| (slow) Quan-tas? |
| Quantas? |
| After this comes pessoas, which means “persons” or “people”. |
| (slow) Pes-so-as. |
| Pessoas. |
| Last we have são which means "are". |
| (slow) São. |
| São. |
| Altogether, it's Quantas pessoas são? |
| (slow) Quan-tas pes-so-as são? |
| Quantas pessoas são? |
| ・ |
| Now let’s learn to answer. |
| You might tell the waiter or waitress |
| Somos dois which in English means “We’re two." |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Somos dois. |
| Once again: |
| Somos dois |
| The first word, somos, means "we are". The pronoun here is omitted. |
| (slow) so-mos |
| somos |
| After this comes dois, the number “two”. |
| (slow) Do-is. |
| dois. |
| Let’s take a look at some of the numbers you might need here, from “two” to “five”: |
| 2 dois |
| (slow) dois |
| 3 três |
| (slow) três |
| 4 quatro |
| (slow) quatro |
| 5 cinco |
| (slow) cinco |
| If you are just one person, say Só eu. Because in Portuguese the subject is always necessary in the sentence, the literal translation is “only me” or “just me”. |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Só eu. |
| Once more: |
| Só eu. |
| The first word, só, means "only" or "alone”. |
| (slow) Só. |
| Só. |
| After this we have eu which is translated "I" or "me.” |
Comments
HideHi everyone! If you're a group of people, the sentence Seja bem-vindo will change. Can you guess how it is in the plural form?
Hi Susan,
Thanks for the thumbs-up!
Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Cristiane
Team PortuguesePod101.com
👍
Olá Carole!
That's right. And although "vós" is more correct in European Portuguese, "sejam bem vindos" is the most common way to say the plural form.
If you want to be very formal, the most used form is "o(s) senhor(es)" or "a(s) senhora(s)".
I hope it helps!
Paloma
Team PortuguesePod101.com
That was actually a typo. I meant to say vocês is more polite than vós (right? since você is more polite than tu, it'd make sense for vocês to be more polite than vós....so that's why I figured Sejam would be better than Sejais)
Oi Carole,
Isso mesmo! Sejam bem-vindos!
Just a small correction, in European Portuguese, "você" is more polite than "tu", not "nós". :wink:
Parabéns!
Paloma
Team PortuguesePod101.com
Hmm.. I wanted to say: Sejais bem-vindos
But then I figured this would be a polite sentence and vocês is more polite than nós (in Portugal)
So probably it'd be Sejam bem-vindos