How to Say "Thank You" in Brazilian Portuguese

Learn the most common ways of saying "Thank you" and "You're Welcome" in Brazilian Portuguese.

In this post you will learn the two main ways of saying thank you in Brazilian Portuguese, with pronunciation tips that will make you sound like a native speaker.

The most common way of saying thank you in Brazilian Portuguese, in both both formal and informal situations is:

Obrigado! if you're a man, regardless of the gender of the person you're talking to.

and

Obrigada! if you're a woman, regardless of the gender of the person you're talking to.

Sometimes you might not hear the o at the beginning - it's quite common for Brazilians to shorten the word by dropping that initial o.

But don't worry too much about this because as you start getting fluent and speaking a bit faster you will naturally start softening this o.

Two things to look out for in terms of pronunciation:

the R in the syllable bri - what you're aiming for is a soft trill (number #3 in the post).
Another important tip regarding obrigado is the pronunciation of the last o - it's not a hard o sound, but a soft oohsound - as it's the case for most Brazilian Portuguese words ending in o. It's important to note here, that this is just for everyday conversation, when writing do not omit the o. If you're a woman you don't have to worry about this, because as I mentioned earlier, women always say obrigada.

If you want to say thank you *very much*, all you need to do is to add the word muito before obrigado/obrigada:

Muito obrigado!
Muito obrigada!

Make sure you join the o in muito and the first o in obrigado, merging them into just one sound.

->Another way of 'intensify' the thank you is to add the augmentative -ão: obrigadão, which would be something like 'a big thank you'. It sounds a bit too informal in my opinion, my recommendation would be to stick to muito obrigado(a), if you want to say the equivalent of thank you very much.

If you want to say thank you to someone for something the other person did , you need to use the preposition por.

Obrigado por me ajudar. / Thank you for helping me.

If you want to say thank you to the other person for 'something' you need to remember that:

The preposition por will change according to the gender of the 'thing' you're grateful for:

Obrigado pelo presente. / Thank you for the present.

presente is a masculine word 'o presente', so por + o = pelo.

Obrigado pela ajuda. / Thank you for the help.

ajuda is a feminine word, so it takes the feminine definite article a (a ajuda / the help), so por + a = pela.

Another way of saying thank you in Brazilian Portuguese is:

Valeu! which is the past tense of the verb valer, which means 'to value', 'to be worth'.

So in a sense it's like you're saying ' I'm grateful for what you did because it had value'. However, this is quite informal, best used only with friends and family, in everyday conversation. In more formal situations or when speaking to an older gentleman or an older lady, stick to obrigado / obrigada.

There are two other ways of saying thank you in Brazilian Portuguese. However these are more formal, so it's unlikely that you will hear them often:

Grato!
Grata!

tthis comes from the word gratidão, which means 'gratitude'. So, it would be like saying "I'm grateful. / I'm obliged - also quite formal in English.

Agradecido!
Agradecida!

from the verb agradecer (to thank), so it's like saying "I'm thankful".

Some phrases that are also used to express gratitude:

É muita gentileza sua.
É muito gentil da sua parte.

Both mean “It’s very kind of you”.

What to say in return when someone says obrigado/obrigada to you.

The most common way of saying 'You're welcome' is:

De nada.
Por nada.

Both phrases above literally mean 'for nothing', but it's really like saying 'It was nothing, don't worry about it'.

Não há de quê. Literally, it means something like 'there is nothing to thank me for', but again, it's just another way of saying you're welcome!

Now you know know the different ways of saying thank you in Brazilian Portuguese like a native speaker, as well as some key phrases to say when someone says obrigado and obrigado to you.

That's it for me now! Obrigado por ler esse post!