Portuguese Questions
Learning the Portuguese Questions is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you practice the subject, the closer you get to mastering the Portuguese language. But first we need to know what the role of Questions is in the structure of the grammar in Portuguese.
Portuguese questions may be either a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or else the request itself made by such an expression. Usually it starts with why, how, where, when ...
Grammar Tips:
In Portuguese
there are 4 ways of asking a question to get a yes or no answer, and they are the
following:
-Verb + pronoun:
Unlike English, the auxiliaries do and does are not used. Tem ela tempo livre?(Does she have free time?)
-Pronoun + verb: Only the intonation makes the sentence interrogative: Ela
tem tempo livre? (Does she have free time?)
-Verb +...+ pronoun. The pronoun goes last
¿Tiene tiempo libre ella? (Does she have free time?)
-Finally you
can also make a question by adding a tag question to the end of a statement. Ela tem tempo livre? Não?
Ela tem tempo livre? Certo? (She has free time, doesn’t
she)
Here are some examples:
| English Questions | Portuguese Questions |
| Questions | Perguntas |
| how? | Como? |
| what? | O quê? |
| who? | Quem? |
| why? | Por quê? |
| where? | Onde? |
As you can see from the example above, the structure of the Questions in Portuguese has a logical pattern. Locate the Questions above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in Portuguese.
List of Questions in Portuguese
Below is a list of the Questions and interrogative expressions in Portuguese placed in a table. Memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your Portuguese vocabulary.
| English Questions | Portuguese Questions |
| where is he? | Onde ele está? |
| what is this? | O que é isso? |
| why are you sad? | Por que você está triste? |
| how do you want to pay? | Como você quer pagar? |
| |
| can I come? | Posso entrar? |
| is he sleeping? | Ele está dormindo? |
| do you know me? | Você me conhece? |
| do you have my book? | Você está com o meu livro? |
| how big is it? | Qual o tamanho disso? |
| can I help you? | Posso ajudá-lo? |
| can you help me? | Você pode me ajudar? |
| do you speak English? | Você fala Inglês? |
| how far is this? | Qual a distância? |
| what time is it? | Que horas são? |
| how much is this? | Quanto custa? |
| what is your name? | Qual é o seu nome? |
| where do you live? | Onde você mora? |
Questions and interrogative expressions have a very important role in Portuguese, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with Portuguese Questions, you might want to check the rest of our Portuguese lessons here: Learn Portuguese. Don't forget to bookmark this page.