To form a yes-no question in Brazilian Portuguese, all you need to do is change the intonation in your voice. For example:
Você mora aqui?
Do you live here?
lit. You live here?
A content question will begin with a question word like quando(when) or como(how), just like a wh-question in English. However, there are some differences. For example, a that goes with a question word must always appear before that question word, not at the end of a sentence, as in:
De onde você é?
Where are you from?
lit. From where you are?
Just like English, the structure of Brazilian Portuguese questions also depends on whether you are asking a direct questions (a classic question like, “Where am I?”) or using an indirect question (a statement about a question, as in, “She asked where she was.”).
In this post, we’ll cover everything you need to know about asking questions in Brazilian Portuguese: how to form yes/no questions, how to form content questions, and the differences between direct and indirect questions. Just keep reading this post!
Direct questions in Brazilian Portuguese are “classic” questions, which directly request an answer. As in English, they always end with a question mark. For example:
Você gosta de sorvete?
Do you like ice cream?
There are two main types of direct questions: yes/no questions (a.k.a. “closed questions”) and content questions (a.k.a. “open questions” or “wh- questions”). Let’s go through each type.
In Brazilian Portuguese, yes/no questions (questions that offer only “yes” or “no” as possible answers) are very similar in structure to sentences. Compare:
Você é brasileiro.
You are Brazilian.
Você é brasileiro?
Are you Brazilian?
lit. lit. You are Brazilian?
The only two differences between an affirmative sentence and a yes/no question are:
the question mark in written questions
rising intonation in spoken questions
Notice this important difference between Brazilian Portuguese and English: While English inverts the position of the subject (“you”) and verb (“are”) the position of the verb and the subject is not altered in Brazilian Portuguese:
Eles já chegaram de viagem?
Have they arrived from the trip yet?
lit. They already arrived from the trip?
The basic structure of a Brazilian Portuguese yes/no question is quite simple!
However, Brazilians can also create yes/no questions by using tag questions. Let’s now take a look at some tag questions in Brazilian Portuguese and talk about their meanings.
Yes/no questions are often created by using tag questions. Tag questions are short questions that can help you indicate that you expect someone to confirm what you are saying, like the English “...right?” in “They’re here, right?”
Just as in English, in Brazilian Portuguese you can ask a yes/no question by making a statement and ending that statement with a tag question. Here are some of the most common tag questions in Brazilian Portuguese:
… não é? / né?
The most common tag in Brazilian Portuguese is não é?, which can be shortened to né? in spoken language. It can be translated into English as “didn’t you?”, “don’t you?”, “haven’t you?”, or “aren’t you?”, depending on the tense of the sentence that precedes the tag.
Você já esteve no Brasil, não é?
Você já esteve no Brasil, né?
You have already been to Brazil, haven't you?
An alternative to the tag above is to repeat the verb from the question in the negative form, similarly to how you would in English. However, this form is not used as often as adding a tag question.
Você já esteve no Brasil, não esteve?
You have already been to Brazil, haven't you?
… tá? / tá bom? / tá bem?
The tag tá is often used in spoken language to request agreement. It can be translated into “right?”, “okay?”, or “alright?” in English.
Passe no supermercado antes de vir para casa, tá?
Stop by the supermarket before you come home, all right?
The tags tá bom? and tá bem? can also be used in this situation, with the same meaning.
Passe no supermercado antes de vir para casa, tá bom?
Stop by the supermarket before you come home, all right?
In the tags mentioned above, the word tá? is a shortening of the verb estar(to be):
Tá bom? = está bom?
Tá bem? = está bem?
You can use the full forms está bom? and está bem? as tags, using “alright” and “okay.”
Passe no supermercado antes de vir para casa, está bom?
Stop by the supermarket before you come home, all right?
However, you cannot use está? as a tag, alone. You can only use the short form tá? as a tag question. So, we cannot say:
❌ Passe no supermercado antes de vir para casa, está?
lit. Stop by the supermarket before you come home, is it?
In this case, you can use: tá?, tá bom?, tá bem?, or está bom? and está bem?.
Some states and regions of Brazil, such as São Paulo and Minas Gerais, have their own regional tag questions, such as beleza?(beauty?) or joinha?(jewel?). These have a similar meaning to tá? when used as tag questions.
Não esqueça de me ligar, beleza?
Don’t forget to call me, alright?
Both these words can also mean “how are you doing?”, “how is it going?”, or simply “is everything ok?”, and sometimes they can be accompanied by tudo(everything), as in tudo beleza? or tudo joinha?. They are often used in informal everyday language.
E aí, Maurício, tudo joinha?
So, what’s up Maurício, how are you doing?
... hein?
Hein[ein], is another tag in Brazilian Portuguese, and it can be translated into “what?” or “what did you say?”. It can be used to confirm an answer, to show you didn’t understand what was said, or to emphasize the question.
O que você falou, hein?
What did you say, huh?
… viu?
The tag viu? is shortened from ouviu(listened, heard) and used to reinforce commands or warnings.
Não abra a porta para estranhos, viu?
Don't open the door to strangers, y'hear?
Viu? is used to mean, “have you acknowledged what I just said?”, “have you understood it?”, or “have you heard it?”.
And that is how to form yes/no questions! Let’s next have a look at how you can form content questions.
We use , such as quem(who), o que(what), and onde(where), to make open questions (questions that require more than a yes/no answer). These come at the beginning of the sentence, as in:
Onde você mora?
Where do you live?
Brazilian Portuguese has the following interrogative words:
que/o que(what, which)
quem(who, whom)
quando(when)
como(how)
onde(where)
por que(why)
qual, quais(which)
quanto, quantos, quanta, quantas(how much, how many)
O que counts as an interrogative pronoun. However, it is formal and used to give more emphasis to the que question. In informal language, the o can be omitted:
O que aconteceu com o carro? → Que aconteceu com o carro?
What happened to the car?
You can learn more about the rules for using each of these words from our post on interrogative words in Brazilian Portuguese.
We will now talk about some particularities in structure related to how Brazilian Portuguese uses the interrogative words mentioned above to make questions.
In Brazilian Portuguese content questions, interrogative words are most often placed at the beginning of the question. For example:
Quem fez essa pintura?
Who made this painting?
When an interrogative word is used with a preposition, the preposition will always come before the interrogative word.
However, when the main verb is ser / estar(to be) or ficar(to stay, to be located), it is also common to place the verb before the subject: interrogative word + verb + subject.
Onde você mora?
Where do you live?
When an interrogative sentence contains a main verb and a subject, the word order is: interrogative word + subject + verb.
Como a Marina está?
How is Marina?
Como está a Marina?
How is Marina?
So, as you can see in the examples above, the placement of the main verb and subject of a question is usually exactly the same as the word order in a statement, except when the verb is ser/estar(to be) or ficar(to stay, to be located).
The interrogative word or phrase can sometimes come at the end of a question as well, as in:
Você mora onde?
Where do you live?
lit. You live where?
Há no estado de São Paulo quantas cidades?
How many cities are there in the state of São Paulo?
lit. There are in the state of São Paulo how many cities?
Você trabalha para quem?
Whom do you work for?
lit. You work for whom?
Você está pensando no que?
What are you thinking about?
lit. You are thinking about what?
This type of inversion is very common in informal and everyday language, particularly spoken language, where the sentence starts as a statement, then the intonation rises on the interrogative words to highlight the question.
In Brazilian Portuguese, a preposition that works with a question word will always come before the interrogative word. The two cannot be separated as they can be in English.
Para quem você trabalha?
Whom do you work for?
Take a look at this chart to see the most common preposition + interrogative word combinations in Brazilian Portuguese.
Sometimes, Brazilians use a combination of a preposition + the o before the interrogative word que(what, which), as in the examples below:
No que você está pensando?
What are you thinking about?
Do que você precisa?
What do you need?
Why do we use the masculine article? It’s because the person asking the question doesn’t know the gender of the thing that que represents. So, in this case, o is a neutral article.
You can review combined forms like no and do in our post on definite articles in Brazilian Portuguese.
The meaning of the interrogative words mentioned above can be intensified in everyday spoken language by adding the phrases é que or que é que after the interrogative to create redundancy.
Como que é que está a Marina?
Como é que está a Marina?
How is Marina?
Para quem que é que você trabalha?
Para quem é que você trabalha?
For whom do you work?
Between é que and que é que, the former is more commonly used in Brazilian Portuguese.
Literally, an indirect question is a statement about a question. An example in English might be, “I wonder what this is.” In practice, we can use indirect questions either to simply report that a question was asked/considered or as a way to subtly or discreetly ask for information.
Indirect questions are found in sentences with two parts:
a main clause, which contains an expression of doubt or of inquiry
a subordinate clause, which represents the question itself
Because this is literally a statement about a question, the sentence does not end with a question mark and does not use rising question intonation. For example:
Eu gostaria de saber qual é o seu nome.
I would like to know what your name is.
The precise structure you use will depend on whether the question you’re making a statement about is a yes/no question or a content question:
Indirect yes/no questions
When the question you’re making a statement about is a yes/no question, the subordinate clause is often introduced by the word se(if, whether). The word order here is:
main clause
se
subject
verb
Eu não sei se ela está vindo ou não.
I don't know if she is coming or not.
Indirect content questions
When the question you’re making a statement about is a content question, the word order is:
main clause
interrogative word
subject
verb
Eu preciso saber onde você trabalha.
I need to know where you work.
We saw that in direct questions, ser/estar(to be) and ficar(to stay, to be located) often switch places with the subject. The same can happen in an indirect question:
Você deve saber de onde o Carlos é.
Você deve saber de onde é o Carlos.
You must know where Carlos is from.
In this post, we talked about how to form direct and indirect questions in Brazilian Portuguese. We saw that there are two types of direct questions:
Yes/no questions → Você mora aqui?(Do you live here?)
We also saw tag words, such as né? and tá?, which can be added at the end of yes/no questions.
Questions with interrogative words → Como você se chama?(How do you call yourself?)
We also talked about the particularities of this form of direct questions in respect to placement of interrogatives, word order, prepositions used with the interrogatives, and redundancy:
Placement | interrogative words are often placed at the beginning of a sentence | Quem ganhou o jogo? Who won the game? |
|---|---|---|
Word order | interrogative word + subject + verb | Por que você veio aqui? Why did you come here? |
With verbs ser and estar(to be) you have two structures: interrogative word + subject + verb | Onde o convite está? Where is the invitation? | |
Preposition + interrogative words | prepositions are placed before interrogative words | De onde você é? Where are you from? |
Redundancy | que é que and é que can be placed after interrogative words in informal spoken language | De onde é que você é? Where are you from? |
With regard to indirect questions, we mentioned that they are more subtle, because they do not use a question mark or rising intonation. They are often made with a main clause that contains an expression of doubt and a subordinate clause introduced by se(if, whether) or an interrogative word. Like direct questions, there are two forms of indirect questions:
Indirect yes/no questions → Eu estou na dúvida se vai chover. (I am in dout if it will rain.)
Indirect content questions → Eu não sei por que você comprou esse produto. (I don't know the reason you bought this product.)
Now how about some practice forming questions in Brazilian Portuguese with our activity?
