Obrigado and Obrigada - Thank You

It is very easy to say thank you in Portuguese:

• Men say Obrigado
• Women say Obrigada

Why is that?

The first thing to have in mind is that in Portuguese adjectives vary in gender to agree with the noun they are modifying. For example:

• casa nova (new house)
• carro novo (new car)

Obrigado comes from "I feel obliged". That is, when someone does me a favor, I feel grateful and obliged to that person. So the word Obrigado will vary in gender to agree with who is feeling so.

This is a simple and easy rule to memorize. Guys always say Obrigado. Girls always say Obrigada. This is also one of those rules that people don't know about or forget. I can assure you that you will hear Brazilian women saying "Obrigado". They should not. And now you know why :)

One more note: In spoken Portuguese, we tend to drop the first "o". So you might hear Brazilians saying "brigado" or "brigada". That's ok in informal conversations, but no one should write it this way. In fact, I recommend that you always say the right thing. Dropping the "o" does not make it sound cool, youth, or more Brazilian. Let's say it is just a bad habit that we have.  

For Portuguese lessons, visit www.StreetSmartBrazil.com

Obrigada :)

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Picture thanks to Lilivanili in Flicker's Creative Commons