Talk About Your Workday in Brazilian Portuguese: Tasks, Meetings, and Breaks — Practice

Start with a simple description of your routine

Use trabalhar (to work), começar (to start), and terminar (to finish) to frame a typical workday. The present tense can describe routines: começo às nove (I start at nine). Add a time or frequency word to make the schedule specific.

Brazilian speakers often use a gente to mean “we” in conversation; it takes a third-person singular verb, such as a gente começa. Use eu when you want to describe your own routine clearly.

Name tasks, meetings, and deadlines

Useful workday verbs include participar de (to take part in), preparar (to prepare), revisar (to review), and entregar (to submit or deliver). Use a task noun after each verb: revisar um relatório, participar de uma reunião, entregar um projeto.

For a deadline, até means by or until depending on the sentence. Add a date or time: preciso enviar o arquivo até sexta (I need to send the file by Friday). If a deadline is uncertain, ask directly rather than treating a guess as a commitment.

Talk about what is happening today

To describe an action in progress, use estar + gerund: estou trabalhando, estou revisando, estou participando. Brazilians use this pattern frequently in conversation to explain what they are doing right now or during a current period.

You can add a brief status update and a next step. The phrase ainda estou… means “I’m still…,” while já terminei means “I’ve already finished.” Keep the update concrete so colleagues know what is complete and what remains.

Ask a colleague about their day and make a natural reply

A useful opening is Como está sendo seu dia? (How is your day going?). You can answer with one task, one challenge, and a plan for later. In a professional setting, polite requests such as você pode…? keep a question direct and friendly.

For more workplace conversation, continue with Real Life Portuguese guides to polite requests and scheduling. I Speak Portuguese teachers can role-play a stand-up meeting or an informal coffee break. Use the language that fits your team; regional habits and levels of formality vary.

Remember: Describe routines with the present tense, current tasks with estar + gerund, and deadlines with a clear date or time. Add one concrete task when someone asks about your day.

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 work from home three times a week.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Eu trabalho de casa três vezes por semana.

2. I start at eight and finish at five.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Começo às oito e termino às cinco.

3. We have lunch near the office.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   A gente almoça perto do escritório.

4. I have a meeting with the team at ten.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Tenho uma reunião com a equipe às dez.

5. I’m preparing a presentation for tomorrow.

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Estou preparando uma apresentação para amanhã.

6. Can you review the report by Friday?

   Show a Portuguese answer

   Você consegue revisar o relatório até sexta?

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.

Describe routines with the present tense, current tasks with estar + gerund, and deadlines with a clear date or time. Add one concrete task when someone asks about your day.

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 Talk About Your Workday in Brazilian Portuguese: Tasks, Meetings, and Breaks 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.