Giving instructions in Brazilian Portuguese

Level A2

Giving instructions in Brazilian Portuguese

This lesson teaches everyday ways to ask someone to open, close, put, or wait. Brazilian Portuguese uses familiar command forms such as “Abre o livro” and polite requests such as “O senhor poderia fechar o livro, por favor?” English does not change its command verb for these registers, so pay attention to the verb form and the way you address the listener.

Everyday actions: open, close, put, and wait

The action words are abrir (to open), fechar (to close), colocar (to put), and esperar (to wait). These infinitives are dictionary forms: abrir ends in -ir, while the other three end in -ar. In instructions, you will hear forms such as “Abre” and “Espera.”

Direct instructions: familiar and polite forms

In familiar conversation, you may hear “Abre o livro”, “Coloca o livro na mesa” and “Espera aqui.” These forms match affirmative tu commands in standard grammar and are also used with você in many parts of Brazil. Usage varies by region and speaker. English does not change its command verb to mark the relationship. For respectful address, use o senhor for a man and a senhora for a woman; both take third-person singular verbs, so pode stays the same. You can ask “O senhor pode abrir seu livro, por favor?” Here, pode is followed by the infinitive abrir. The respectful examples “Por favor, coloque seu livro aqui, senhor” and “Por favor, espere aqui, senhor” use command forms matching the present subjunctive. Coloque and espere are also standard commands with você and are not restricted to formal situations.

Informal: verbo no imperativo informal complemento. / Formal: O senhor pode verbo no infinitivo objeto, por favor? / Por favor, verbo no subjuntivo objeto.

Softened requests: ask if someone can do it

A question can soften an instruction. With someone you address as você, say “Você pode colocar isso aqui, por favor?” or use the shorter familiar “Abre, por favor?” With a polite address, “O senhor poderia fechar o livro, por favor?” sounds more deferential. English uses “can” and “could” too, but Portuguese changes the verb form and may name the listener as você or o senhor.

Informal: verbo no imperativo informal complemento opcional, por favor? / Você pode verbo no infinitivo complemento, por favor? / Formal: O senhor poderia verbo no infinitivo complemento, por favor?

Negative instructions: tell someone not to do it

In familiar speech, you may hear “Não fecha o livro”: não comes before the verb, without an auxiliary like English don't. This colloquial command form varies by region and speaker. Standard negative commands with você or o senhor use the present-subjunctive form feche, as in the respectful example “Por favor, não feche seu livro, senhor.” Não feche also occurs in everyday speech and is not restricted to formal address.

Informal: Não verbo no imperativo informal objeto. / Formal: Por favor, não verbo no subjuntivo objeto, senhor.

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