Learn how to ask where you can buy something
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Have you ever been in a city you didn’t know at all, desperately searching for something you couldn’t find? I certainly have! I wandered around without knowing where to find a bus ticket, a phone, or even a restroom! But don’t worry—with our Survival Phrases, you’ll always be able to get the information or help in Portugal. |
| In this lesson, we’ll introduce you to phrases that will help you track down whatever you need. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| “Where do I find (blank) ?” in Portuguese is |
| onde encontro (blank)? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) on-de en-con-tro (blank)? |
| One more time: |
| onde encontro (blank)? |
| The first word, onde, means “where.” |
| (slow) on-de. |
| onde. |
| Next we have encontro, a form of the verb translated in English as “to find” or “to encounter”. |
| (slow) en-con-tro. |
| encontro. |
| Then you add the item or place you are looking for. |
| Altogether, that’s |
| (slow) on-de en-con-tro (blank)? |
| Once more: |
| onde encontro (blank)? |
| ・ |
| Let’s look for some things you might need to find when traveling abroad. Imagine you’re walking around in Lisbon and you need a bus ticket. In this case, all you have to do is to add the item you’re searching for after onde encontro. |
| “Where can I find bus tickets?” in Portuguese is |
| Onde encontro bilhetes de autocarro? |
| (slow) Onde encontro bilhetes de autocarro? |
| Onde encontro bilhetes de autocarro? |
| ・ |
| What if you are in a supermarket and you can not find water. In that case, ask: |
| Onde encontro água? “Where do I find the water?” |
| (slow) on-de en-con-tro á-gua? |
| Onde encontro água? |
| With this structure, you find anything you are looking for. |
| ・ |
| Another phrase that will be helpful for you is: |
| Onde fica...? This translates to "where stays" but it means “Where is?” Use this phrase when asking how to find a location. Let’s imagine you’re looking for the subway station. “Where is the subway station?” would be Onde fica a estação do metro? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) On-de fica a es-ta-ção do metro? |
| Again at natural speed: |
| Onde fica a estação do metro? |
| The first word is onde,“where”. |
| The next word, fica, is a form of the verb which means “to be”. |
| Next we have a estação, meaning “the station”. |
| (slow) a es-ta-ção. |
| a estação. |
| At the end there is do metro, which translated means “of subway”. |
| (slow) Do me-tro. |
| Do metro. |
| The whole phrase is literally translated as |
| “Where is the subway station?” |
| Onde fica a estação do metro? |
| ・ |
| To ask about another thing, just replace estação do metro with the item you are looking for, and people will understand you perfectly. For example let’s ask |
| “Where is the movie theater?” |
| Onde fica o cinema? |
| (slow) On-de fi-ca o ci-ne-ma? |
| Onde fica o cinema? |
| O cinema means “the movie theater”. |
| (slow) o ci-ne-ma. |
| o cinema |
| Replace o cinema with any other location and the little question will definitely help you to find what you what. |
| Lastly, remember that you can add the phrase for “excuse me”, com licença, before the question to make it more polite: |
| “Excuse me, where is the cinema?” |
| Com licença, onde fica o cinema? |
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