A vocabulary of Portuguese song

Table of contents

• Top 30 favourite Portuguese song words
• Notes on European Portuguese pronunciation
• Top 300 Portuguese song words
• Use Google's translation tool to switch the lists into other languages
• How this list was compiled
• Other useful Portuguese word lists

Top 30 favourite Portuguese song words

Words you're certain to hear

Portuguese	What you hear	What it means in English
ainda	eyeEENda	still, anyway, one day
alegria	aleGRREEa****	happiness, joy
amor	aMOR	love
barco	BARcoo	boat, small ship (the general word)
céu	SAYoo	sky, heaven,
cidade	seeDARD	city, town
coisa	COYza	thing, matter
comigo	coMEEgoo	with me
coração	coraSOWng**	heart
Deus	DAYoosh	God
esperar	espehRAR****	to wait (for), hope, expect
fado	FARDoo, FARD*****	fate, fado song
gente	JZHENT*	people, folks, we, us
lembrar	lengBRAR***	to remember
mar	MAR	sea
montanha	monTANya	mountain
mundo	MOONdoo	world
não	NOWng**	no, not
partir	parTEER	to leave, depart, break, be exhausted
perdido/a	perDEEDoo / perDEEDa	lost, desperately in love (adjective m/f)
quando	KWANdoo	when
quero	KAIRoo	I want (from verb querer)
saudade	sowDARD	longing, yearning, pining, resigned sadness
sempre	SENGpree***	always, forever
sonho	SONyoo	dream (noun), I dream (from verb sonhar)
sou	SO	I am (i.e. I am defined by being)
sozinho/a	soZEENyoo / soZEENya	alone (adjective m/f)
terra	TERrrrrra****	land, homeland
tristeza	trrreesTEZa****	sadness, sorrow
vida	VEEDa	life

For more words see below.

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Notes on Portuguese pronunciation

Key to symbols in What you hear column in table above

Portuguese j and soft g (before e) sounds like the s in English measure, indicated in IPA by the sign /ʒ/. Otherwise g is mostly hard, like English gift.

ão is a key sound. Get this right and lots of other sounds fall into place. Portuguese is nasal. This is how it works. In English "cow" and "now" finish with a whoosh of air out the lips. In Portuguese "cão" and "não", which sound superficially similar, don't. What the [ng] in the pronunciation guide [NOWng] is trying to say is hold back the whoosh at the end. Just stop, or divert the air upwards. Hold your hand in front of your mouth and say "now" without the puff of air at the end. This automatically becomes nasal. If you say an extended não and pinch your nose you'll find that's where the air was coming out.

m here is a very nasal n sound, not an m at all. So once again the sound is produced not with the lips as in English m but by diverting air to the nose.

r is rolled or trilled a lot in the Portuguese of Portugal, especially by singers. Double r is prolonged and sometimes spectacular (listen for example to Ana Moura). But r at the end of words may be omitted altogether, or it may just modify the preceding vowel like in English, usually lengthening it.

Fado is famous enough to have an English pronunciation - FARdough. But in Portugal it is said with an ooh sound, FARDoo. Or the end is dropped altogether, FARD, when the word is said or sung rapidly in an unstressed way.

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Portuguese as spoken around the world

In line with the focus of this site, the pronunciation given is for the language now used in Portugal itself. Over the years other Lusophone countries such as Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and Cabo Verde have developed their own distinctive speaking and singing styles.

Within Portugal itself pronunciation tends to be fairly uniform. It varies much less than the way German is spoken in Germany, Italian in Italy or English as actually used across the nations and regions of the UK. So some good news for learners of European Portuguese then, as you grapple with the more unfamiliar sounds or cope with the syllables often dropped in speech.

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Top 300 Portuguese song words

Found frequently in popular music lyrics

Portuguese	What it means in English
a	the [used with feminine word]
acima	above, up (rio acima = up river)
acordo	agreement
adeus	goodbye [literally to God]
aflito/a	distressed
afoito/a	bold, daring
agora	now
ainda	still, anyway (ainda lembro = I still remember)
alegre	happy, cheerful
alegria	happiness, joy
Alentejo	region to south and east of Tejo river
alguém	someone
algum / alguma	one, some (alguma coisa = something)
alma	soul
amanhã	tomorrow
amar	to love
amigo/a	boyfriend / girlfriend [either can also just mean friend]
amor	love
andar	to walk
andorinha	swallow [as in type of bird]
anjo	angel
apaixonado/a	in love
aquele	that
aqui	here
arrependido/a	sorry, regretful
arriscar	to risk
arrufo	row, tiff
assim	so, in this way, like this (assim sou eu = this is me)
azul	blue
barca	cargo vessel
barco	boat, small ship [the general word]
basta!	enough, stop!
bastante	enough, sufficient, lots of
batalha	battle
bêbado/a	drunk
beber	to drink
bem	possession, good [versus evil], darling [noun]
bem	all right, OK, well, very [adverb]
bom/boa	good [versus bad, adjective]
bomba	bomb, pump, pumping, sex
bonito/a	pretty, lovely
braços	arms
brilhar	to shine, sparkle, flash
cabelo	hair [specifically hair on the head]
cada	each, every (cada dia = every day)
cama	bed
campo	field, countryside
canção	song
cansado/a	tired
cantar	to sing
cantiga	song
cantor/cantora	singer
cão	dog [not a cow - that's vaca, pronounced VAka]
cara	face [noun]
caro/a	dear, costly, darling
casa	house, home
certo/a	sure, certain
céu	sky, heaven
chatice	nuisance, a bore
chegado/a	near, close [geographically or emotionally]
cheirar	to smell (cheira bem = it smells good)
chuva	rain
cidade	city, town
cima	top (em cima de = on top of)
Coimbra	ancient university town in central Portugal
coisa	thing, matter (coisas pequenas = little things)
com	with
comboio	train (apito do comboio = train whistle)
comigo	with me
como	how, as, like
contente	happy
contigo	with you
coração	heart
corpo	body
creio	I believe [from verb crer]
culpado/a	guilty
culpar	to blame
da	of the, from [de + a, with feminine noun e.g. da Madeira]
dar	to give [irregular verb]
de	of, from [with indeterminate noun e.g. de Lisboa]
dentro	inside, within [adverb]
depois	after, afterwards
despedida	parting, farewell
destino	destiny, fate
Deus	God
dia	day (um dia = one day)
diz	he/she/it says, you say
dizer	to say
do	of the, from [de + o, with masculine noun e.g. do Alentejo]
doente	sick
dois	two [with male word e.g. dois cantores]
doloroso/a	painful, hurtful
dor	pain
dou	I give
duas	two [with female word e.g. duas cantoras]
dúvida	doubt (sem dúvida = without a doubt)
e	and (pronounced EE)
é	he/she/it is, you are [pronounced EH, from verb ser])
em	in, on, at
encantado/a	enchanted, delighted, smitten
enganado/a	deceived
errado/a	wrong
és	you are [familiar, from verb ser, the defining form of verb to be]
esperança	hope, expectation
esperar	to wait (for), hope, expect
esquecer	to forget
esquecido/a	forgotten
esse/essa	that [pronoun with masculine and femine forms]
está	he/she/it is, you are
este/esta	this [pronoun with masculine and femine forms]
estar	to be [used for transitory states, irregular verb]
estas	you are [familiar form of you, transitory sense of verb to be]
estava	I was, he/she/it was
estou	I am [in sense I am currently]
estranho/a	strange
estrela	star
estudante	student
eu	I [often omitted as verb endings give the subject. So eu quero = I want, quero also = I want ]
existe	he/she/it exists
fado	fate, Fado song
fadista	Fado singer [used for either sex]
falta	absence, shortage, fault
fazer	to make, to do, to create
feio/a	ugly, grim
feliz	happy, fortunate
fim	end
fogo	fire, ardour
folga	rest, break (dia de folga = day off)
fugir	to flee, escape
fui	I was, I went
gente	people, folks, we, us (toda a gente = everybody)
grande	big, great
gritar	to cry out, to shout
há	there is, there are
história	history, story
hoje	today (hoje à noite = tonight)
houver	there is, there are [used when uncertainty involved]
igreja	church
incerteza	uncertainty
inverno	winter
ir	to go [irregular verb]
já	already, yet, right away
janela	window
lado	side
ladrao	thief
laranja	orange
lembrança	memory
lembrar	to remember
ler	to read [irregular verb]
letra	words, lyrics
lindo/linda	lovely, very nice
Lisboa	Lisbon, port city and capital of Portugal
lisboeta	resident of Lisbon [of either sex]
livre	free
livro	book
longe	far, far away, distant
louco/a	crazy
loucura	madness
louro/a	blond, fair
lua	moon
lugar	place, position
luz	light
mãe	mother [mãe has a nasal vowel sound, pai doesn't]
mais	more, most
mal	bad
maldito/a	cursed
maluco/a	crazy, daft, madman, madwoman
mar	sea
mas	but [conjunction]
me	me [object pronoun, pronounced same as English me]
medo	fear (ter medo = to be afraid)
melhor	better
menina	girl
menino	boy, child
mesmo/a	same
meu	my [possessive pronoun, used with masculine word]
milagre	miracle
mim	me [form of me used with prepositions] (fado em mim = fado in me)
minha	my [possessive pronoun, used with feminine word]
Minho	river in far North of Portugal
Mondego	river in central Portugal on which Coimbra lies
montanha	mountain
morar	to live, reside
moreno/a	brunette, of dark complexion
moro	I live, reside
morrer	to die [opposite of viver = to be alive]
mudança	change [noun]
mudar	to change
muito/a	much, many, a lot of, very
mulher	woman
mundo	world
na	in, on, at the [em + a]
nada	nothing
namorada	girlfriend, lover
namorado	boyfriend, lover
não	no, not
navio	ship [bigger than barco]
negro/a	black (barco negro = black ship)
nem	nor, neither
no	in, on, at the [em + o, pronounced NOO]
noite	night
nós	we [pronoun, pronounced NOSH]
nos	us [pronoun, pronounced NOOSH]
nosso/a	our [possessive pronoun, pronounced NOSSoo]
nunca	never
o	the [pronounced OO, used with masculine word]
obrigada	thanks, thank you, obliged [said by woman]
obrigado	thanks, thank you, obliged [said by man]
olho	eye
onda, ondas	wave, waves [in sea]
onde	where
ontem	yesterday
ou	or, either [pronounced OH not OO]
ouro	gold [pronounced OHroo], (de ouro = of gold, golden)
outono	autumn, fall
outro/a	other, another
ouvido	ear, hearing
ouvir	to hear, to listen [irregular verb]
pai	father (pais = fathers, parents)
paixão	passion
para	to, for (para mim = for me) [preposition, often written p'ra]
partir	to leave, depart, break
pássaro	bird
paz	peace
peixe	fish
pena	penalty, suffering, shame (que pena! = what a pity!)
perder	to lose (irregular verb)
perdido/a	lost (perdido por = desperately in love with)
perguntar	to ask
por	by, through, for
Porto	historic city in North Portugal, Oporto in UK English
praia	beach, shore
preocupado/a	worried
preto/a	black (vestido preto = black dress)
primavera	spring, springtime
próximo	near [geographically or in time] (próximo ano = next year)
putos	rascals, bastards [as used by Lisbon singers]
quando	when
que	that, than, what, which [pronounced KEE]
quem	who, whom [pronounced KAYng] (Quem amo? = Who do I love?)
querer	to want [irregular verb]
quero	I want
quis	I wanted
rainha	queen
rapariga	girl
rapaz	boy
rei	king
rio	river
rosto	face
saudade	longing, yearning, pining, resigned sadness
se	oneself, himself, herself, itself, yourself, themselves [reflexive pronoun, pronounced SEE]
se	if, whether [conjunction, pronounced SEE]
segredo	secret
seguro/a	sure, self-assured
sem	without
sempre	always, forever
senhor	Mr, sir, you
Senhor	Sir, Lord
senhora	Mrs, madam, you
Senhora	Lady [sometimes means Virgin Mary]
sentido	sense, meaning, hurt [noun], heartfelt [adjective]
ser	to be [used for defining characteristics, irregular verb]
sério/a	serious, genuine
silêncio	silence
sim	yes
só	only [pronounced SOH]
sombra	shadow
sonho	dream [noun] or I dream [from the verb sohnar]
sorte	luck, chance, lot, fate
sou	I am [in sense: I am defined by being, pronounced like English SO]
sozinho/a	alone, lonely
suave	soft, smooth
súbito/a	sudden, unexpected
surpreendido/a	surprised [from verb surpreender]
talvez	maybe, perhaps
tambem	as well, too
tão	so, very
tarde	late [adverb]
Tejo	Tagus, river on which Lisbon lies
tempo	time, (the) weather
tenho	I have, I must [from verb ter; sometimes can mean I am]
ter	to have, to have to, to be (ter frio = to be cold) [irregular verb]
terra	land, homeland
teu/tua	your [possessive pronoun, familiar form]
tido	had [from verb ter]
todo	all, every (todo a noite = all night)
tonto/a	silly, daft
trabalhar	to work
tranquilo/a	quiet
três	three [used with either male or female words]
triste	sad
tristeza	sadness, sorrow
tu	you [personal and familiar version]
tudo	everything (tudo bem = everything's OK)
um	a [indefinite article], one [number] [Used with male words]
uma	a [indefinite article], one [number] [Used with female words]
vamos	we go, we are going; let's go! [from irregular verb ir]
vejo	I see
vem	he/she/it comes, you come; come to me! [imperative]
vento	wind
ver	to see [irregular verb]
verão	summer
verdade	truth
vez	time, occasion (duas vezes = twice)
vida	life
vinha	vinyard
vinho	wine
vir	to come [irregular verb]
viver	to live, to be alive
vocês	you [plural]
volta	return
voltar	to return, to go back
vou	I am going
voz	voice, singer
zangado/a	angry, bad-tempered
zonzo/a	dizzy, light-headed

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Use Google's translation tool to switch the lists into other languages

This leaves the first column with Portuguese in it alone. It won't touch the English-based pronunciation guide in the second column of the Top 30 list either. But Google will translate the "What it means in English" column in both lists into whatever language you specify, along with any other English it finds on the page. So verdade will go into veritat in Catalan and vérité in French if you use the Select Language box to switch away from English.

Note that the "What it means" column here is being translated via my English translation, so if you specify Icelandic it goes Portuguese, English, Icelandic. So the results may be different (better or worse) than the results you'd get going from Portuguese to Icelandic directly with Google translate.

Google uses a massive-database approach to translation. It is getting pretty accurate with language pairs that have a large database of existing high-quality human translated examples to work with. It is less good with rarer language combinations. And when translating songs, it helps if it has plenty of examples from other song lyrics, fiction or speech (such as media interviews or TV captions).

For some rarer languages its corpus may over-reliant on official documents, which tend to lack openly-expressed emotions such as regret, disappointment and lust.

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How this list was compiled

Scientifically up to a point, then subjectively. So this ends up being My Top 300 Portuguese song words, and yours might be different. But it is not an entirely subjective list. I started by submitting lots of Portuguese lyrics into word frequency counting tools. This is the correct approach if you want to be scientific about it.

However there's obviously a bias in whose songs you chose, and there's also a bigger bias in which artists have lyrics readily available to be fed into a counting algorithm. I started with Zeca Afonso and Madredeus, but then got less systematic, resorting to Musixmatch, LyricsTranslate and the useful Brazilian site Letras.com.br to hunt down specific artists and songs.

The Top 30 favourites was even more subjective, because the massive sample bias means I had little confidence in the rank order I was getting. That's why both lists are alphabetic rather than attempting to give a precise order. With the Top 30 favourites I also had another purpose, selecting words from the larger list that exemplified different aspects of Portuguese pronunciation. So it's not a purely frequency-based selection.

But I am very confident that Amor, Barco and Coração belong in the Top 30 on a strict frequency basis, and are probably in the Top 10, with O Mar - the sea, running them close.

But other words in top 30 are a bit haphazard - words from the Top 300 that I recognise being used a lot in the songs I'm most familiar with. Since many of these can be found elsewhere on this site this selection at least has the merit that you can hear these words in context.

Using frequency counters does bring home to you how many common everyday words also occur in songs. These include the basic (and often irregular) verbs that form the structure of the language, fundamental concepts like today, tomorrow and always, and grammatical glue words like if, that, but and because. So I've included some of these, but not too many. This leaves space for the more lyrical words demanding inclusion - the many adjectives and adverbs of feeling that often take a central role in the language of song.

A limitation of the frequency approach is the tendency of songwriters and poets to go for obscure words when they want to express themselves with precision. These infrequent but sometimes striking words won't show up in a popularity list like this. But the usual suspects do - Amor is still a winner, because people keep singing about it.

See the introduction to the Routledge Frequency Dictionary of Portuguese (or any other dictionary in this series) for the basic approach if you want to do things scientifically. It's really all about assembling an appropriate corpus of text to search and count. So to do the job properly here I would need to compile a very large and representative selection of Portuguese song lyrics from the last 50 years.

Note that because all the songs I've included are from Portugal the vocabulary list reflects the popularity of words in the songs of Portugal, as opposed to those in the songs of Brazil. Though the languages themselves are close, song themes differ - reflecting differences in cultural concerns and attitudes in the two major Lusophone civilisations.

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Other useful Portuguese word lists

The Routledge frequency dictionaries aim to achieve a balance between spoken, literary and business/government/academic usage. They are beautifully organised and include translated examples, but they are expensive. However, for songs lyrics free word lists based on analysing openly available film and TV captions may be just as accurate in finding the right words.

This kind of scripted but spoken language is likely to be closer to song than older literary works or reports from business, government or academic institutions.

There's a useful free Portuguese frequency list at the volunteer Wiktionary project. This list is based on European Portuguese subtitles. Here's the same Portuguese word list cleaned up a bit and broken up into 100 word chunks.

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See also:

Why Portuguese stress patterns sound natural to English speakers