Describe places and talk about what you like in Portuguese

When you return from a new place that you went to visit, the first thing your friends and family ask is: “did you liked there?” or “how it was there?”. Let’s answer these questions in Portuguese.

Verb “to like”

First of all, let’s meet the verb “gostar” (like). It is a regular verb, ending in -ar, so we should conjugate it like the other ones that we learn in the previous lessons (“chamar-se”, “falar”, “morar”, etc.)

This verb demands the preposition “de” after it:
Eu gosto de animais. (I like animals)
Eu gosto de café. (I like coffee)
Eu gosto de desporto. (I like sports)

And when you talk about something specific or people, you need to join the preposition “de” with the articles (a, o, as, os) according to the word next:
Eu gosto do teu telemóvel. (I like your phone)
Eu gosto da Mafalda. (I like Mafalda)
Eu gosto da minha cidade. (I like my city)

Also, when you want to answer a question in a very simple way you don’t have to use the preposition “de”. Check the examples:

A: Olá João. Gostas da cidade? (Do you like the city?)
B: Olá Pedro. Gosto muito! (I like it a lot)

A: Rita, gostas de bacalhau? (Do you like codfish?)
B: Não gosto nada. (I don’t like it at all)

Some adjectives

So, you already know how to answer if you like or if you do not like something or someone. Now, let’s explain why.
When we talk to someone about new people, new places or new experiences, it’s easy to give our opinion in a very simple way. Daily, we can listen things like: “It is nice, beautiful, cheap, expensive, etc.”
Below, you have the most common adjectives, that you can use to describe many different things:

In Portuguese, the adjective should agree with the noun. So, if the noun is masculine and singular, for example, the adjective has to be masculine and singular as well. Check our rules to change the adjective:

Adjectives ending in -o:
Bonito / Bonita / Bonitos / Bonitas
Feio / Feia / Feios / Feias
Pequeno / Pequena / Pequenos / Pequenas

Adjectives ending in -or:
Falador/ Faladora / Faladores / Faladoras

Adjectives ending in -e (it doesn’t change according to the gender):
Pobre / Pobres
Grande / grandes

Adjectives “bom” and “mau” (irregular):
Bom / Boa / Bons / Boas
Mau / Má / Maus / Más

Making questions and answering

Now, in Portuguese we use “Como é…” to ask “how is” something or someone. Check the exemples:

A: Como é o teu hotel? (how is your hotel)?
B: É bonito e barato. Muito agradável! (It’s beautiful and cheap. Very pleasant.)

A: Gostas da nossa cidade? (Do you like our city?)
B: Sim, é grande e bastante moderna! (yes, it’s big and quite modern!)

A: Como são os restaurantes? (How are the restaurants?)
B: São caros e um pouco feios, mas a comida é boa! (They are expensive and a little ugly, but the food is good!)

A: Como são as pessoas aí? (How are the people there?)
B: São simpáticas e muito faladoras. (They are nice and very talkative)

A: Gostas do país? (Do you like the country?)
B: É um país pobre, mas muito agradável e barato. (It’s a poor country, but very pleasant and cheap!)

Another important thing you have to know about a place is not just to describe it, but to explain where it is! So, about location you have four important words. Let’s check them:

A: Onde moras? (Where do you live?)
B: Em Coimbra, no centro da cidade. (In Coimbra, in the center of the city)

A: A minha casa é longe da casa do Paulo. (My house is far from Paulo’s house)
B: Sim, mas é perto da casa do Rui. (Yes, but is close to Pedro’s house)

A: Onde fica a praia mais próxima? (Where is the closest beach?)
B: Fica fora da cidade. (It is out of the city)

Contractions

As you can see, we always use the preposition “de” after these words and after the verb “gostar”, do you remember?
So, to make it easier for us to speak, sometimes we join the preposition “de” with the word next. Let’s start with the articles, that you already know. Please check the table.

Now, do you remember the words isto, isso and aquilo? And the words “aqui, aí and ali“? It is possible to join them too because they start with a vowel. Please, check the next table and the examples.

A: Gostas disto? (Do you like this?)
B: Sim, gosto muito! (Yes, I like it very much.)

A: Onde moras? (where do you live?)
B: Muito longe daqui. (Very far from here)
Besides the preposition “de” we can also put together some of those words with the preposition “em” as you can see below.

Conclusion

Do you want to learn more and put your all knowledge in practice? Do you want to speak Portuguese with Portuguese people? It is simple: join us!
Remember, we are in different cities of Portugal and online!
See you soon.