Last week, Adir explained the many ways to say “I love you” in Portuguese, and this week we’re going to learn some more vocabulary about love.

If you’re casually dating someone, you can use the term sair (to go out with).

Estou saindo com um homem mais velho. I’m dating an older man.

A couple is a casal. But a casal doesn’t necessarily have to be two people who are dating; it could just be two people (it also means a pair – like a pair of birds, for example).

If you’re dating someone, you can use the term namorar (to date) or estar namorando (to be dating).

Namoramos por dois anos. We dated for two years.

Estamos namorando faz seis meses. We’ve been dating for six months.

A girlfriend is a namorada, and a boyfriend is a namorado.

Meanwhile, if you decide to get serious, to marry is to casar-se.

Nos casamos com vinte anos de idade. Éramos jovens. We got married when we were 20. We were young.

Ela não quer se casar agora, porque não tem muito dinheiro. She doesn’t want to get married now, since she doesn’t have a lot of money.

A husband is a marido or esposo, and a wife is a esposa or mulher.

If things don’t work out, you just put an ex in front of the noun like you would in English: ex-namorado, ex-esposa, etc. A divorced person is divorciado or divorciada.

If you’re not dating anyone, you’re single – solteiro or solteira. However, this can also be the same as legal marital status to mean you’re not married, even if you’re dating, just like in English.

Now let’s practice. What’s your situation? Namorando? Casado? Divorciado?