Kitchen Utensils in Portuguese: A Brazilian Vocabulary Guide — Practice

Start with the tools you use to prepare food

A knife is a faca, a cutting board is a tábua (often tábua de cortar), and a grater is a ralador. These nouns help you understand simple requests and describe which tool is missing.

Learn each noun with its article: a faca, a tábua, o ralador. The article gives you a useful gender cue when you later add an adjective, as in uma faca afiada (a sharp knife).

Name pots, pans, and cooking tools

Panela is a pot or pan in everyday Brazilian Portuguese; the exact English translation depends on its shape and use. Frigideira is a frying pan, assadeira is a baking dish or roasting pan, and tampa is a lid.

For mixing, use colher (spoon), espátula (spatula), batedor de arame (whisk), or liquidificador (blender). You may also hear fouet for a whisk, but batedor de arame is a clear descriptive term.

Ask for the utensil by name

Use você viu…? to ask whether someone has seen an item, or tem…? to ask whether it is available. A polite por favor keeps a short request friendly, especially when you are cooking in someone else’s home.

If you do not know the noun, describe the tool’s purpose and ask what it is called. That gives the other person a chance to supply the word rather than ending the conversation.

Remember: Memorize a utensil with its article and a short question. The tool’s cooking purpose can help you describe it when the name does not come to mind.

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. Where is the cutting board?

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Onde está a tábua de cortar?

2. I need a small knife.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Preciso de uma faca pequena.

3. The frying pan is in the top cupboard.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   A frigideira está no armário de cima.

4. Can you get the pot lid?

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Você pode pegar a tampa da panela?

5. I’m going to blend the batter in the blender.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Vou bater a massa no liquidificador.

6. Have you seen the can opener?

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Você viu o abridor de latas?

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.

Memorize a utensil with its article and a short question. The tool’s cooking purpose can help you describe it when the name does not come to mind.

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 Kitchen Utensils in Portuguese: A Brazilian Vocabulary Guide 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.