Small talk scripts

Weighted toward what comes back at you. Producing a greeting is easy; understanding the reply, at speed, in a Brazilian accent, is the hard part. Each script below gives your line and the likely responses.

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Grammar

No new grammar. Two register notes:

1. Brazilian small talk is warmer and longer than most European equivalents. A shop transaction usually includes a greeting, an exchange about the day, and a farewell. Skipping straight to the request reads as cold, not efficient.

2. tudo bem? is a greeting, not a question. The expected answer is Tudo bem or Tudo, regardless of how you actually are. Answering literally is a conversation, not a greeting.

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Examples

Greetings

Boa noite does double duty — it is both good evening on arrival and good night on leaving.

The tudo bem exchange

This is the standard opening and it has a fixed shape.

Note Tudo bem? and Tudo bom? are both used and both answered with either. You can also just answer Tudo — extremely common and perfectly polite.

Farewells

Thanks and responses

Imagina (ee-mah-ZHEE-nah) is the most common Brazilian don't mention it. Literally "imagine" — a shortening of não imagina. It is warm, not dismissive.

Obrigado agrees with you, not with the person you're thanking. A man always says obrigado; a woman always says obrigada.

Script: where are you from?

Follow-up you'll get: Ah, que legal! (how nice), E o que você acha do Brasil? (what do you think of Brazil?), Está gostando? (are you enjoying it?).

Script: what do you do?

Trabalho pela internet and trabalho de casa are the clearest ways to explain remote work without vocabulary you don't have.

Script: how long are you staying?

Script: do you like it here?

Estou gostando muito is the safest all-purpose positive answer. É muito bonito and A comida é boa are the two compliments that always land.

Script: do you speak Portuguese?

Brazilians are generous about foreigners' Portuguese. Fala bem! is encouragement, not a factual assessment — the polite reply is deflection: Obrigado, mas é pouco.

Weather and the day

Filler and reaction words

These carry the conversation. Recognise all of them; produce three or four.

Pois é is worth special attention — it is the standard Brazilian agreement noise, roughly yeah, exactly or tell me about it. It fits almost any sympathetic response and buys you time.

A complete shop exchange

Nothing in that exchange goes beyond chapters 03–21.

A complete street exchange

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What to take from this chapter

1. Tudo bem? is a greeting. Answer Tudo bem and move on.
2. Obrigado if you're a man, obrigada if you're a woman — it agrees with the speaker.
3. Imagina is the standard you're welcome.
4. Pois é, né?, legal, nossa, beleza — the reaction words that keep a conversation alive.
5. Greet, transact, farewell. Skipping the first and last reads as cold.
6. Estou gostando muito answers almost every question about your visit.