Ability and needs in Portuguese

Level A1

Ability and needs in Portuguese

You arrive at a shared work space and need to get started. Learn to distinguish what you can do from what you need, and ask for help when you miss a sentence. You can study this page without having read the earlier lessons.

Start with two familiar sentences

Trabalho aqui means “I work here”: trabalho is “I work” and aqui is “here”. Eu means “I” and você addresses one person; in Trabalho aqui, the verb already identifies the speaker, so eu is left out. Pode repetir? means “Could you repeat that?”; por favor means “please” and softens the request. Earlier, quero água meant “I want water”; now we distinguish wanting water from needing it.

Words for this work space

Poder means “can / be able to”; precisar means “need”, and repetir means “say again”, not “answer”. Trabalhar is “to work”, água is “water”, and aqui is “here”. The card shows each verb’s dictionary form; in the models below, posso means “I can”, pode goes with você, and preciso means “I need”. You only need these forms here, not every form that a verb card may show.

What is possible, and asking for help

Posso trabalhar aqui means “I can work here”; Você pode trabalhar aqui means “You can work here”. After posso or pode, use the unchanged dictionary form trabalhar or repetir: unlike the English label “to work”, Portuguese trabalhar needs no separate word for “to”. Posso trabalhar aqui? has the same word order as the statement; question intonation and the question mark show that you are asking, here whether it is possible to work in this spot. In Pode repetir?, the understood subject is você and the question functions as a request, “Could you repeat that?”. Posso repetir means “I can say that again”; repeating the same words can help a listener understand. These everyday examples introduce possibility and a request; rules about institutional permission and obligation come later.

posso / pode trabalhar / repetir

Something you need, or an action you need to do

In the same work space, compare Posso trabalhar aqui (“I can work here”) with Preciso trabalhar (“I need to work”): possibility is different from necessity. Preciso is the speaker’s form of precisar, and eu can be left out here too. For the thing in this model, say Preciso de água: de links the need to água, so keep it in this phrase. For the action, say Preciso trabalhar, joining preciso directly to the dictionary form trabalhar. English uses “to” in “need to work”, but this Portuguese model has no word between the two verbs; this is a model for these sentences, not a claim about every use of de.

Preciso trabalhar / de água

Ask for the information again

A needs to work; B points out that working here is possible. A misses B’s sentence and asks for it again; B repeats the same information, and A confirms that working here is possible before stating a need for water. Listen for the difference between posso, pode and preciso, then take either role. Asking for repetition is a useful repair when you understand only part of a conversation.

Your turn: say what you mean

At the same work space, ask whether you can work here; then say that you need to work, that you need water, and finally ask for repetition politely. Use only the words already shown, and try before checking the four answers below. Listen and repeat each answer if you want speaking practice. Remember: posso/pode + an action expresses possibility or makes a request; preciso + an action states a need, and our model with a thing is preciso de água.

Practise this lesson

Next lessons