Acordar vs. Levantar: Wake Up or Get Out of Bed — Practice

Use acordar for waking up

Acordar means to wake up or awaken. It describes the moment you stop sleeping, whether you get out of bed immediately or stay under the covers. Acordar alguém means wake someone else up.

For a morning routine, say a que horas você acorda? to ask what time someone wakes. In many Brazilian conversations, acordar is also used broadly for starting the day, but the verb itself focuses on waking.

Use levantar for getting up

Levantar means to get up, stand up, or lift something. In a morning routine, levantar-se or simply levantar describes getting out of bed: levantei às sete (I got up at seven). Many Brazilians also say levantar da cama.

The timeline is easy to separate: acordar is when you wake; levantar is when you get up. If you say acordei às seis e levantei às sete, the listener understands that you were awake for an hour before leaving bed.

Remember: Acordar is wake up; levantar is get up or stand up. You can use both in one sentence to describe two different moments in your morning.

Check your understanding

Choose the English meaning of each Portuguese example. Answer before looking back at the tables. These questions check the written examples in this guide; they are not a listening or proficiency test.

Recall the Portuguese, then say it

Read the English prompt and say a Portuguese version before opening the answer. The answer shows the example from the lesson; other natural translations may also work. Compare the meaning and the situation rather than counting a different word as automatically wrong.

1. I wake up at six during the week.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Acordo às seis durante a semana.

2. The noise woke the baby up.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   O barulho acordou o bebê.

3. She woke up early but stayed in bed.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Ela acordou cedo, mas ficou na cama.

4. I get out of bed after the alarm.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Eu levanto da cama depois do despertador.

5. He woke up at five and got up at five thirty.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Ele acordou às cinco e levantou às cinco e meia.

6. Please stand up to open the window.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Por favor, levante-se para abrir a janela.

Make the phrase useful to you

Choose one example you could actually use. Say it once from memory, then change one detail that fits your life, such as the person, place, time, or object. Check whether your change also needs a different verb form, article, or adjective ending. If it does, compare it with the pattern in the explanation.

Acordar is wake up; levantar is get up or stand up. You can use both in one sentence to describe two different moments in your morning.

Return to two prompts tomorrow without opening the answers first. If a phrase still feels difficult, shorten it to a useful chunk and build the complete sentence again.

Sources and your next lesson

This I Speak Portuguese practice guide builds on our Acordar vs. Levantar: Wake Up or Get Out of Bed? lesson on Real Life Portuguese, with written recall tasks and additional speaking practice. The explanations and examples are teaching material; the practice questions are exercises, not a transcript of a recording.

To add Brazilian audio to your routine, choose a lesson in the Real Life Portuguese app. The app offers its own lessons and practice; this page does not imply that every example here has an app recording.