The Ultimate List of Portuguese Daily Routine Vocabulary
In the depths of the high school language classroom learning routine vocabulary in Portuguese may have seemed a waste of time. Once you mature, you realize how much day-to-day duties consume your day. Alas, you needed Portuguese daily routine vocabulary all along.
Furthermore, there can be a fair amount of ambiguity in Portuguese daily routine vocabulary. For instance tomar café is the abbreviated phrase for having breakfast, where tomar um café is just gulping a coffee. You’d be highly distressed if you turned up for breakfast and were shooed away with a measly coffee.
Vamos para a labuta is an idiom for let’s go to work.
Contents
Getting Up and Going to Bed in Portuguese
Acordar
to wake up
Despertar-se
to wake up (o despertador = alarm clock)
Levantar-se
to get up
Colocar roupa / vestir-se
to get dressed
Escovar os dentes
to brush your teeth
Pentear o cabelo
to brush or comb your hair (BTW:cabelo is hair on your head, whereas pelo is hair everywhere else!)
Tomar (um) banho
to take a shower (BTW: “vai tomar banho” can be an insult for telling someone ‘to get lost’)
Ir ao banheiro
to go to the bathroom
Lavar o rosto
to wash your face
Fazer a barba
to shave (barba is beard, this phrase translates literally as ‘to do the beard‘)
Ir para cama
to go to bed
dormir
to sleep (dormi bem = I slept well)
deitar-se
to lie down
Tirar a roupa
to take off your clothes / to undress
Secar o cabelo
dry your hair
Alisar o cabelo
to straighten your hair
Encaracolar os cabelos
to curl your hair (caracóis are curls, cabelos encaracolados is curly hair)
Pintar o cabelo
to dye your hair
Pintar as unhas
to paint your nails
Depilar or fazer depilação
to shave (not beard, elsewhere)
Botar maquiagem
to do your makeup
Fazer quitanda is an old fashioned way to say buy the groceries.
Daily Routine in Portuguese Around the Kitchen
Almoçar
to have lunch
Jantar
to have dinner
Cozinhar
to cook
Assar
to bake or roast
Ferver
to boil
Refogar
to simmer
Grelhar
to grill
Cortar or Picar
to cut up or chop
Misturar
to mix
Mexer
to stir
Household Chores for Daily Routine in Portuguese
Lavar roupa
to wash clothes or do the washing (máquina de lavar is washing machine)
Passar roupa
to iron
Fazer a faxina
to clean the house (general all over clean is faxina and a cleaner who works just for a day is called faxineira)