Daily routines in Brazilian Portuguese

Level A2

Daily routines in Brazilian Portuguese

Learn to describe your morning and household tasks in order. Connect familiar present-tense verbs with words for first, then, before, and after. You will also explain what you do differently on weekends or during a particular week.

Getting ready: everyday actions

Household chores and the word for then

Waking up and getting out of bed

Acordar means to wake up, while levantar-se means to get up or get out of bed. In “Primeiro, acordo às sete.”, the speaker wakes up; “Me levanto às sete e dez.” describes getting up ten minutes later. Unlike English, Portuguese can leave out the subject pronoun because the verb form and context identify the speaker.

The me in me levanto refers back to the speaker; do not add it to acordo in this example. Starting a sentence with me is natural in everyday Brazilian Portuguese, though it is less common in formal writing. Use às before these clock times, where English uses at.

Saying what happens next with depois

Depois, atividade seguinte.

Connecting your morning activities

Use primeiro for first and depois for then to put activities in order. Before and after a named meal become antes de and depois de, with de joining the following article: “Tomo banho antes do café da manhã.” and “Depois do café da manhã, escovo os dentes.”

Where English says my teeth, Portuguese normally uses os dentes here because the person brushing is already clear. Tomar banho means to bathe or take a shower, so banho does not necessarily mean a bath in a tub. In “Depois, me visto e vou trabalhar.”, me visto means I get dressed, and e links this action to going to work. Vou trabalhar means go to work in this sequence, although ir followed by an infinitive can also express a future plan in other contexts.

Regular chores and this week's plans

Learn lavar a louça and lavar roupa as whole expressions: English wash dishes and do laundry do not use the same verb, but Portuguese uses lavar for both. In “Depois do jantar, lavo a louça e depois leio um pouco.”, depois do jantar means after dinner, while depois on its own means then.

Aos sábados and aos domingos describe repeated weekly routines, as in “Meu marido lava a louça aos sábados.” Add de manhã to say in the morning. In “Esta semana, vou lavar roupa na sexta em vez de domingo.”, vou lavar expresses a future plan for this week. Em vez de means instead of, making the change from Sunday to Friday explicit.

Later starts, extra habits, and changed plans

Put the day first to show when your routine changes: “Aos domingos, acordo às nove.” In “Aos domingos, só me levanto às dez.”, só means only, but the natural English meaning is I don't get up until ten. Do not copy the English negative into this Portuguese sentence.

Use à noite for in the evening or at night, as in “Aos sábados, tomo banho à noite.” In “Também escovo os dentes antes de dormir.”, também adds another occasion for the habit, and antes de dormir means before going to sleep. Use depois do café da manhã to move an activity until after breakfast, and esta semana with em vez de to describe a change just for the current week.

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