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3 ways to say You are welcome in Portuguese

3 ways to say You are welcome in Portuguese

posted on December 21, 2008

 

Portuguese lesson about the most common way to say you are welcome in Portuguese

Let me show you 3 ways to say you are welcome in Portuguese in Brazil in reply to thank you. I will also explain why this is what we say. Knowing the meaning behind the words will help you remember it.

Imagine that you are walking down the street and you drop your wallet without realizing so. A stranger stops you and returns your wallet. You feel genuinely grateful and you express your feelings with a heartfelt “Thank you so much!”, to which the stranger replies: For nothing.

What would you think? Well, I have seen puzzled looks in response to “For nothing”. That is what happens when Brazilians translate literally from Portuguese to English. If you have ever wondered what those crazy Brazilians mean by that, here is the answer. 

“For nothing” is the literal translation of “De nada” or “Por nada”, which is what we say in response to “thank you” in Brazil.

 Still puzzled? It means something like: It wasn’t a problem at all. That is not the literal translation, to be clear. It is the meaning behind the words.
 
What happens is that in Portuguese thank you = obrigada/o, which means obliged. It comes from “I feel obliged”. So, it makes sense that the reply is something that means there is no reason (nothing) to feel obliged.
 
By the way, a literal translation from English to Portuguese will not work as well. You are welcome translates as seja bem-vindo/a, which in Brazil only works when someone is welcoming you somewhere.
 
So now you know: When you are in Brazil and someone thanks you, you can say:
  • De nada.
or
  • Por nada.
or
  • Não há de quê.
I have a different lesson with 12 ways to say you are welcome in Portuguese in response to thank you. It includes colloquial answers. You should check it out.

And of course I have a lesson on how to say thank you in Portuguese. Check that one out too.

The video below is old; it is one of the first videos that I created for YouTube over a decade ago. But you get to hear the pronunciation of the expressions above 🙂

Related Posts:

  • Tô na correria - One-Word Portuguese lesson
  • 12 Ways to Say You are Welcome in Brazil - Portuguese lesson
  • My Favorite Online Dictionaries to Learn Portuguese

About Luciana Lage

I’m Luciana, founder of Street Smart Brazil. I am so happy to be able to help you in your Portuguese speaking journey! Teaching Portuguese as a foreign language was one of the best things that could have happened in my life. I’ve had the privilege of teaching Portuguese at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of San Francisco. Now I am fully dedicated to the Street Smart Brazil community.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. forhever

    October 2, 2009 at 7:25 am

    Oi Lucia…Thank you for explaining…this is a phrase i am getting use to hearing…If i had to relate it to english I would say it is like using the word "hey" as in "hey!..how's it going?" or "hey, check that guy/girl out over there"..

    Don't you think? Let me know if you agree/disagree

    -Matue

    Reply

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