Talking about likes in Brazilian Portuguese

Level A1

Talking about likes in Brazilian Portuguese

You are chatting with someone about tastes, rather than ordering a drink. Use gosto or gosta followed by de and a thing or an activity to say what someone enjoys. You will talk about coffee, tea and working, and ask the other person too.

Drinks and a familiar action

Café means coffee and chá means tea, the drink; both nouns are masculine: o café, o chá. Gostar means to like or enjoy; trabalhar means to work, to do a job. Eu is I, você is you for one person, and aqui is here.

Recall the forms trabalho (I work) and trabalha (you work with você): Trabalho aqui means I work here, and Você trabalha aqui means you work here. The dictionary form of both trabalho and trabalha is trabalhar. Listen to the words and these two short reminders before the conversation.

Getting to know someone's tastes

One person asks about coffee, then tea; the other likes coffee but does not like tea. Listen for gosta in the questions and gosto in the answers. Não gosto de chá means I don't like tea: não makes the answer negative.

The person comes before gosto or gosta

Eu gosto de café means I like coffee; Você gosta de café? means Do you like coffee? Use gosto for yourself and gosta with você. As in a familiar statement, the person comes before the verb; make this a question with your voice and a question mark, without adding an equivalent of do.

De is part of the construction gostar de: keep it before the thing you like, although English has no preposition here. In these examples café and chá name drinks in general, without o: gosto de café, gosto de chá. You can change the drink and keep the rest of the sentence. This describes a taste; liking coffee does not tell someone that you want a coffee right now.

eu / você gosto / gosta de café / chá

From trabalho and trabalha to trabalhar

The familiar trabalho and trabalha say who works; trabalhar is the infinitive, the form that names the action of working. After gosto de or gosta de, use trabalhar to say you enjoy that activity: Eu gosto de trabalhar means I like working.

Only the first verb changes here: eu gosto de trabalhar, você gosta de trabalhar. Do not put trabalho or trabalha after de in this construction. De remains before an activity, just as it does before café or chá. Portuguese uses the infinitive here, where English can use working or to work.

eu / você gosto / gosta de trabalhar

Put não before gosto

To say you do not like something, put não before gosto: Não gosto de chá means I don't like tea. Keep de before the thing or activity: Não gosto de trabalhar means I don't like working. Eu may be left out in these answers because gosto already identifies the speaker. This states a taste; by itself, it does not tell someone whether you want a drink right now.

Your turn, then a quick recap

Before listening to the answers, ask someone whether they like tea; answer as someone who likes tea; then say that you do not like working. All the words are above: café = coffee, chá = tea, trabalhar = to work, gosto = I like, gosta with você = you like, and não = not. Check the three examples in the same order and listen to them. For your own answer, keep or change the negative so it is true for you. Remember: gosto/gosta + de + drink or trabalhar expresses a general like, and não before gosto makes it negative.

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