Unraveling the Portuguese “what” ➜ COMO in Portuguese

como-in-portuguese

The first word that really tripped my up was, what.

COMO in Portuguese

A learner's goal is to get people -on the street, in a store, wherever and whenever -- to repeat themselves. The more the better! The more you hear something spoken IN-CONTEXT (about something, some moment you are IN), the faster you'll be speaking it yourself.

Too bad, right? It's only the_most important word. The fact that there are a few different contexts to the word what seemed just too difficult to comprehend. The options being,

What did you say ☞ Como... Oi? ... O quê?

Como? ☞ How? As in, How did you say that?
What? Use_this_one
Oi?
What?
O quê?
What?

Really though any of those will work just fine!

"COMO" is part of a class of words called Interrogative Pronouns (question words). Other like this include: como, onde, quando, por que, quanto, & o que {who, what where, when why etc...}.

What in Portuguese

This headline is just here for Google to like. We all know this post is just going to show you a few useful and useable ways to prompt someone to repeat what they just said.

Use

repetir ➜ to repeat

COMO in Portuguese
repetir
to repeat
eurepito
você, ele, elarepete
nósrepetimos
vocês, eles, elasrepetem

Complete conjugation.


Can you repeat that (please)? ➜ Você pode repetir (por favor)?
Repeat that! ➜ Repete!

*Pronounced: heh-pet-chee.
**This isn't rude. Always attach a por favor at the end to be extra courteous.

Say that again. ➜ Fala de novo, por favor.
One more time? ➜ Mais uma vez?

Using FALAR or DIZER to prompt people

A bit more literal, more direct - these are always great to use:

What did you say? ➜ O que você falou?
What did you say? ➜ O que você disse?
I didn't get that. ➜ Eu não entendi.

Or,

I didn't get that. ➜ Não entendi.
I didn't get what she said. ➜ Não entendi o que ela falou.

🧐 Did you know? ☞ quem and qual are part of a group of words called Interrogative Pronouns (question words). These are all words that INTERROGATE! Others include: como, onde, quando, por que, quanto, & o que {who, what where, when why etc...}.

Grammar: the interrogative pronouns

quem > Quem é você? (Who are you?)

quanto > Quanto custa? (How much is it?)

quando > Quando nós vamos sair? (When are we going out?)

o que > O que você quer? (What do you want?)

onde > Onde fica sua casa? (Where is your house?)

por que > Por que o céu é azul? (Why is the sky blue?)

como > Como se chama? (What's your name?)

qual > Qual é seu nome? (What's your name?)

* Also known as interrogative pronouns.