Question Words in Portuguese

Intrepid language learners often start trying to interact in Portuguese from day one. I love their attitude and hope you are one of them.

Now, being able to ask questions at this early stage is key to keeping conversations flowing. That’s why learning Portuguese question words and understanding how interrogative sentences work is so important.

We’ll begin with open-ended questions—the ones that use a question word—before moving on to yes-or-no questions. Let’s dive in.

Open-ended questions

Open-ended questions typically start with question words like how, why, or what. Let’s take a closer look at the most common ones in Portuguese.

Question Words in Portuguese

Here’s a handy list pairing Portuguese question words with their English equivalents. This is a simplified comparison—each language has idiomatic ways of asking things, so a direct one-to-one translation won’t always work.

Question Word	Usage Example
O que What	O que fizeste hoje? What did you do today?
*Que* (before a noun) What	Que dia é hoje? What day is it today?
*O quê?* (Standalone/at the end) What?	*O quê?* What? Disseste o quê? You said what?
Como How	Como te correu o dia? How was your day?
Quando When	Quando voltas do Brasil? When are you coming back from Brazil?
Onde Where	Onde estás? Where are you?
Aonde To where	Aonde vais? Where are you going?
Quem Who	Quem ganhou o jogo? Who won the match?
Porque Why	Porque não casas comigo? Why don’t you marry me?
Porquê? (Standalone/at the end) Why?	Porquê? Why? Não casas comigo porquê? Why don’t you marry me?
Quanto How much	Quanto é? How much is it?
Quantos/Quantas How many	Quantos pães comeste? (masculine) How many bread rolls did you eat? Quantas maçãs compraste ontem? (feminine) How many apples did you buy yesterday?
Qual/Quais Which	Qual preferes? (singular) Which one do you prefer? Quais preferes? (plural) Which ones do you prefer?

Reversed Word Order

Usually, question words come first. But reversed structures also occur in informal Portuguese:

Voltas do Brasil quando? vs Quando voltas do Brasil?
When are you coming back from Brazil?

Estás onde? vs Onde estás?
Where are you?

No auxiliary

Unlike English, Portuguese questions don’t require auxiliary verbs:

Onde puseste as chaves?
Where did you put the keys?

As you see in the example above, only one verb is used: puseste (you put).

The redundant “é que”

Portuguese questions can be asked with or without the redundant little phrase é que:

Como é que te chamas? vs Como te chamas?
What’s your name?

Onde é que vais? vs Onde vais?
Where are you going?

Qual é que é o teu prato favorito? vs Qual é o teu prato favorito?
What’s your favorite dish?

While meaning doesn’t change, é que makes the question sound more conversational.

Yes-or-No Questions in Portuguese

These questions don’t use question words and can look exactly like statement sentences. What signals the question is intonation—typically a rising pitch at the end:

Statement
Tu estás no Porto.
You are in Porto.

Question
Tu estás no Porto?
Are you in Porto?

As in open-ended questions, there’s no need for auxiliary verbs:

O carro tem gasolina suficiente?
Does the car have enough gas?

Ele já chegou de Inglaterra?
Did he already arrive from England?

Answering Yes-or-No Questions

Instead of a bare sim or não, answers usually echo the verb from the question:

– Estás na Suécia?
– Sim, estou. / Não, não estou.
– Are you in Sweden?
– Yes, I am. / No, I am not.

– Já viste este filme?
– Sim, já vi. / Não, ainda não vi.
– Have you seen this movie?
– Yes, I have. / No, I haven’t.

Question Tags in Portuguese

Affirmative sentences

Portuguese uses tag questions similar to English, often repeating the verb with não:

Ele gosta de ver filmes, não gosta?
He likes watching movies, doesn’t he?

Tu dormes muito, não dormes?
You sleep a lot, don’t you?

Otherwise, you can always use the “universal” tag: não é? By using the latter, you won’t even need to mind the verb in the main sentence:

Ele gosta de cinema, não é?
He likes cinema, doesn’t he?

Tu dormes muito, não é?
You sleep a lot, don’t you?

Negative Sentences

With negative sentences, we use pois não? as the standard tag:

Ele não gosta de pintar, pois não?
He doesn’t enjoy painting, does he?

Tu não fumas muito, pois não?
You don’t smoke that much, do you?

As you can see above, concerning negative sentences, the question tags always look the same – pois não? – regardless of the verb in the main sentence.