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Fica a Vontade Posted by on Aug 24, 2007 in Customs

Fica a vontade means make yourself at home. This is another very common, useful phrase, and is the centerpiece of Brazilian hospitality.


You can use this saying when receiving guests, or in other circumstances to mean do what you need to do, don’t worry about me.

This expression is comprised of two profoundly useful words in the Portuguese language: ficar and vontade. I plan on doing an entire post on ficar as it is a ubiquitous and many-splendored verb in Brazil. Vontade means will and is related to the idea of free will in filosofia, though the best word for free will in the academic sense would be livre-arbítrio.

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Comments:

  1. AprenderIngles (Joelso Dias):

    just a tip here…

    Note a slightly differente between “pode ficar” and “fique”

    Example:

    “Pode ficar” à vontade…
    (you can make yourself comfortable)

    “Podem ficar” à vontade…
    (you can make yourselves comfortable)

    * Directed to a person or people:

    Por favor, “fique” à vontade
    (please, make yourself comfortable)

    Por favor, “fiquem” à vontade
    (please, make yourselves comfortable)

    All of them have the same meaning but are different ways to say