How to use the word ‘que’ in Portuguese Posted by carol on Mar 14, 2018 in Brazilian Profile, Culture, Customs, Grammar, Learning, Spelling, Vocabulary
Como usar a palavra ‘que’ in Português
[Como usar a palavra ‘que’ em Português]
Bom dia a todos, como estão? Good morning to all, how are you doing? Que dia lindo! What a beautiful day!
The word que in Portuguese has many different meanings and functions.
It can work as an interrogative pronoun:
- O que vamos fazer hoje à noite? (What are we doing tonight?)
It may be a conjunction to connect two sentences:
- Nova Iorque é maior que São Paulo (New York is bigger than São Paulo)
It also appears as a relative pronoun:
- O vestido que você estava usando ontem era lindo (The dress you were wearing yesterday was gorgeous)
But today we are going to see que as an adverb in exclamation sentences, a very common collocation in Portuguese language. For example, the phrase “Que bom!” (That’s great!) acts as an interjection, that is, it is a remark that expresses a spontaneous reaction or feeling. We say it to be very emphatic in both positive and negative situations when trying to convey satisfaction, surprise or discontent. In this case, que is usually followed by an adjective or a noun. Its equivalent in English would be something like “that’s + word” or “how + word”, as you will see in the examples. As a part of our daily use, these are some very useful expressions for those who want to learn Portuguese. The possibilities are endless, so here is a list of the most frequently used:
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Que lindo(a)! / Que bonito(a) – That’s beautiful!
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Que legal! – That’s great!
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Que bacana! – That’s nice!
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Que maravilha! – That’s wonderful!
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Que chique! – How fancy!
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Que bom! – That’s good!
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Que incrível! – That’s amazing!
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Que amor! – That’s lovely!
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Que fofo! – That’s cute!
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Que beleza! – How nice!
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Que delícia! / Que gostoso!- That’s delicious!
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Que engraçado! – That’s funny!
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Que interessante! – That’s interesting!
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Que alívio! – What a relief
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Que frio! – It’s cold!
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Que calor! – It’s hot!
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Que loucura! – That’s crazy
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Que bagunça! – What a mess!
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Que tristeza! – That’s sad
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Que cansaço! – I’m so tired!
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Que desperdício! – What a waste!
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Que pena! – What a pity!
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Que vergonha! – What a shame!
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Que dó! – Poor thing!
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Que estranho! – That’s weird!
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Que chato! – How bad!
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Que ruim! – That’s bad!
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Que ridículo! – That’s ridiculous!
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Que decepção! – How disappointing
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Que absurdo! – How absurd!
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Que horror! – That’s awful!
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Que dor! – I’m in pain
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Que nojo! – That’s gross
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Que saco! / Que droga! – That sucks!
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Que medo! – I’m afraid
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Que susto! – That scared me!
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Que raiva! – I’m angry!
Did you know all of these expressions? Can you think of any other collocation using ‘que’? Let us know!
Até mais! See you later!
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Comments:
Frederick Graham:
Que coisa!