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Wherever you are in the world, collaborative scheduling is a fundamental social skill; everybody makes plans for the future, and these plans frequently involve other people, whether they’re friends, colleagues, or professionals. If you’re in a Portuguese-speaking country for any length of time, no matter what the purpose of your visit, you’ll almost certainly need some Portuguese phrases for making appointments. In this post, we’ll provide 40 vital pieces of vocabulary for appointment making. The best way to ensure you’re employing these Portuguese phrases correctly is to practice them with a tutor.
To arrange/to schedule
Marcar
Appointment
Compromisso
Consultation
Consulta
Consulta can refer to either a medical appointment or a professional consultation, for example, with an accountant or lawyer.
Date/meeting with a friend
Encontro
Meeting (e.g., business meeting)
Reunião
Available
Disponível
On time
Em ponto
Late
Atrasado(a)
Early
Adiantado(a)
Today
Hoje
Tomorrow
Amanhã
In the early morning (before dawn)
De madrugada
At dawn
Ao amanhecer
In the morning
De manhã
At midday/noon
Ao meio-dia
In the afternoon
À tarde
In the evening/at night
À noite
At dusk
Ao anoitecer
At midnight
À meia-noite
At one o’clock
À uma hora
At five o’clock
Às cinco horas
Note that when we say one o’clock we say à uma hora, whereas for all other times of the day we say às (x) horas. This is because we are literally saying the number of hours, so when the noun is plural (i.e., it’s more than one hour), the preposition also inflects for plurality.
This Friday
Esta sexta-feira
In Portuguese, the days of the week are not capitalized.
Next Friday
Próxima sexta-feira/sexta-feira que vem
This week
Esta semana
Next week
Próxima semana/semana que vem
This month
Este més
Next month
Próximo més/més que vem
This year
Este ano
Next year
Próximo ano/ano que vem
I’d like to make an appointment.
Eu gostaria de marcar uma consulta.
Are you available at five o’clock?
Estará disponível às cinco horas?
Whereas in English it is normal to phrase a sentence like this in the present tense, in Portuguese it is more correct to use the future, so estará is used here instead of está.
Sorry, I’m not available.
Desculpe, não estarei disponível.
What about six o’clock?
Que tal às seis horas?
Yes, I’m available.
Sim, estarei disponível.
When are you available?
Quando estará disponível?
I’m available at five o’clock.
Estarei disponível às cinco horas.
I’m available on Friday.
Estarei disponível na sexta-feira.
I’m available next week.
Estarei disponível na próxima semana.
The appointment is booked.
A consulta está marcada.
Great. We’ll see you soon. Goodbye for now.
Ótimo. Nós veremos em breve. Até mais.
To be able to use these Portuguese phrases in real-life situations, you’ll need to do more than just memorize them—you’ll also have to develop a degree of flexibility, both in terms of speaking (the ability to improvise) and listening (the ability to detect variations). The best way of developing these skills is to roleplay with a Portuguese speaker. If you work with our tutors, you’ll be able to make appointments in Portuguese faster than you think.