Portuguese travel phrases for your trip to Brazil

You don't need the whole language before a trip — you need a working minimum for specific situations: passport control, checking into a hotel, ordering at a restaurant, taking a taxi, and what to say if something goes wrong. Below are 60 words and phrases for exactly that, each with pronunciation help where it helps and synthesized BR-PT audio. Tap the speaker and repeat it out loud — that's what makes a phrase come out on its own when you actually need it.

At the airport in Rio (Galeão) or São Paulo (Guarulhos), the process is completely standard — passport control, baggage, customs — usually without a word of Portuguese needed. A handful of terms just take the panic out of it if someone at the counter asks you something.

Brazilian hotels almost always have free wi-fi, and breakfast (café da manhã) is often included — not as a box-ticking gesture, but as a real spread with fresh fruit, tapioca and pastries. Check-in is usually early afternoon, not first thing in the morning — ask at the front desk (recepção) if your flight lands early.

In Rio and across Brazil, a huge share of places to eat are pay-by- weight buffets — you serve yourself and your plate gets weighed at the register. At a regular sit-down restaurant, the waiter comes to you, the bill never shows up unless you ask for it, and splitting it between a group is completely normal.

Uber is the default way to get around Brazilian cities for a visitor — cheaper and more predictable than flagging down a random taxi. Buses run often, but without some Portuguese the routes are hard to untangle — it's easier to just name the address or show it on your phone.

Prices in shops and malls are fixed — haggling isn't really a thing. At an open-air market (feira) or with a street vendor, though, it's fine to politely ask for a discount. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, but keep some cash — reais (real) and small change — for the beach or a small kiosk.

Brazil's official emergency numbers are 190 for police, 192 for the ambulance service (SAMU), and 193 for the fire department — all free to call from any phone, even without a SIM card. The phrases below are for explaining what happened while help is on the way.

Brazilians say "thank you" and "please" constantly and easily — it's not extra formality, it's the norm even in a five-second exchange with a shop clerk or a driver. These phrases cover what the core "please / thank you / sorry" set doesn't.

The cultural minimum before you go

The first thing you'll hear on the street in Rio isn't complicated grammar — it's the ritual tudo bem? ("how's it going?", see our greetings phrasebook): the reply is almost always one of two set answers, not an actual account of your day.

Tipping (gorjeta) at restaurants is most often already on the bill as a separate line — around 10%; if it isn't, leaving 10% in cash is polite but not strictly required. In bars, taxis and with Uber drivers, tipping isn't universal and is left to the guest's judgment.