Where you live and work in Portuguese

Start with yourself: moro and trabalho

Eu means “I”, você addresses one person, and a gente means “we”, a group including the speaker. Aqui means “here”, the place where you are speaking; you have already used location words to place objects. Now listen: Moro aqui. means “I live here”; Trabalho aqui. means “I work here”, as a job or regular activity, rather than a report that work is happening this instant.

You can also say Eu moro aqui. and Eu trabalho aqui. In these sentences, eu can be left out without changing who speaks. With these two verbs, use moro and trabalho for eu, and mora and trabalha for você or a gente. Do not add sou or estou before them.

• Moro aqui.🔊

  I live here.

• Trabalho aqui.🔊

  I work here.

You and our group: mora and trabalha

Imagine you and a colleague live in the same building and work in the same place. Você mora aqui. is a statement about the person you are speaking to; A gente mora aqui. includes you in the group. The next pair says where you and your colleague work. Listen and compare the endings: eu moro / você mora / a gente mora; eu trabalho / você trabalha / a gente trabalha.

English keeps live and work with I, you and we; Portuguese changes the final -o to -a in these pairs. A gente means more than one person, but takes the same verb form as você here. Keep a gente together: it does not mean “people in general” in these examples. We are practising these three subjects, not a full set of endings.

você / a gente mora / trabalha aqui

• Você mora aqui.🔊

  You live here.

• A gente mora aqui.🔊

  We live here.

• Você trabalha aqui.🔊

  You work here.

• A gente trabalha aqui.🔊

  We work here.

A place to work: em casa

Casa means “home” here. Em casa means “at home”: Trabalho em casa. says where you work. Unlike aqui, it can refer to your home while you are somewhere else. In this expression there is no article between em and casa; do not turn it into na casa just because you have seen em + a = na in other locations.

Listen to the example, then put eu back: Eu trabalho em casa. Change the person next: Você trabalha em casa. or A gente trabalha em casa. Keep the place phrase and change trabalho to trabalha.

trabalho / trabalha em casa

• Trabalho em casa.🔊

  I work at home.

Your turn: change the person, then the place

First try without reading the examples: say that you live here; tell a colleague that they work here; include yourself and another person and say that you live here; finally say that you work at home. All the words have appeared above. The four examples below give the answers in that order; listen and compare.

Now transfer the pattern to a new situation: imagine that you and a colleague both work at home and say it with a gente. Check with A gente trabalha em casa. You need no new verb or profession name.

• Moro aqui.🔊

  I live here.

• Você trabalha aqui.🔊

  You work here.

• A gente mora aqui.🔊

  We live here.

• Trabalho em casa.🔊

  I work at home.

Keep these three person pairs

For eu, use moro and trabalho; for você and a gente, use mora and trabalha. Add aqui for the place where you are speaking, or em casa for home. Moro aqui. and Eu moro aqui. both talk about the speaker. This table is a written reminder, without audio; return to the sentence examples to hear the forms.