A1 (Beginner)Lesson 6: Questions & Quantifiers
Portuguese forms questions primarily through intonation in spoken language, with optional verb-subject inversion in formal contexts, plus question words for specific information.
Yes/no questions are easy: keep the statement and use question intonation — Você fala português? An upward pitch movement (↗) is common, but the pattern varies.
No "do/does": Portuguese needs no special question auxiliary; other auxiliary verbs can still occur.
Tag questions: add né? or não é? to a statement — Você mora aqui, né? (You live here, right?)
Answering: sim (yes), não (no), talvez (maybe) — or, very Brazilian, just repeat the verb: Tem? → Tem.
Word order barely changes — the subject usually stays put.
The full question words (o que, onde, quando…) get their own lesson next — here you just say hi to them.
Yes/no question = statement + question intonation · Tag = statement + né? / não é? · Answer: sim / não — or just repeat the verb
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Questions are how you get everything done — a coffee, directions, someone's name. Good news for an English speaker: Brazilian questions are easier than English ones. There's no do/does to wrestle with and no word juggling — you take a sentence you can already say and use question intonation: Você fala inglês? ↗ Tack a friendly né? ("right?") onto a statement and you've asked a question without learning anything new. And when someone asks you something, you can answer like a local by echoing the verb — Tem? → Tem. — instead of a stiff sim.
A common Brazilian question is a statement said with question intonation, often with an upward pitch movement (↗). The pattern varies by region; you don't need to speak louder. Nothing moves, nothing is added:
Statement: Você fala português. (You speak Portuguese.)
Question: Você fala português? ↗ (Do you speak Portuguese?)
It works with every verb you already know:
Tem café? (Is there coffee?)
Você está bem? (Are you OK?)
Posso entrar? (Can I come in?)
Vocês querem comer? (Do you all want to eat?)
"Você fala inglês?" (Do you speak English?)
"Tem café?" (Is there coffee?)
"Você está bem?" (Are you OK?)
"Posso entrar?" (Can I come in?)
"A gente pode pagar aqui?" (Can we pay here?)
"Você mora aqui, né?" (You live here, right?)
"Ela é brasileira, não é?" (She's Brazilian, isn't she?)
"Vocês trabalham juntos, certo?" (You work together, right?)
Brazilians very often skip sim and just repeat the verb:
"Tem café?" — "Tem." (rather than "Sim, tem.")
"Você vai?" — "Vou."
"Você gosta?" — "Gosto."
This sounds warmer and more natural than a bare sim.
English speakers sometimes add "do/does", but Portuguese needs no equivalent question auxiliary:
❌ "Faz você querer café?"
✅ "Você quer café?"
Cadê você? That everyday Brazilian way to ask "where is…?" is a little linguistic fossil. Cadê comes from quede, a worn-down form of the old phrase "que é de…?" ("what has become of…?"), once used to ask where someone or something had got to. So every time you say cadê, you're quietly speaking centuries-old Portuguese.
Sources: Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa, Origem da Palavra
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