How to Say Yes in Portuguese (And Why Brazilians Barely Use "Sim")

So you're learning Portuguese, you know the translation for "yes" is "sim," and you're probably wondering why Brazilians keep answering your questions with random verbs instead of just saying that simple phrase.

Here's the thing: you're not going crazy. Brazilians really do this, and there's actually a reason for it that nobody tells you in beginner courses.

Yes in Portuguese: The Basics (And Why They Don't Tell the Whole Story)

The standard way to say yes in Portuguese is sim. It comes from Latin (like most Portuguese vocabulary), and it works across all Portuguese-speaking countries—Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, you name it.

Pronunciation: "Sim" has that distinctive nasal sound at the end. The vowel is nasalized, which means air flows through your nose as you pronounce it. If you want to pronounce the nasal sound correctly, think "seem" but let it resonate in your nasal cavity. Most language courses include audio examples of this, and you should absolutely practice it because the nasal vowels in Portuguese are everywhere.

The grammar is straightforward: "sim" is an affirmative response that works in any context. Formal meetings? Sim. Casual conversations? Technically sim. Different levels of formality? All covered by sim.

But here's where Portuguese gets interesting—and where most courses completely fail you.

The Verb Repetition Pattern (What Native Speakers Actually Do)

Ask a Brazilian "Você gosta de café?" (Do you like coffee?), and they'll probably answer "Gosto" (I like it). Not "Sim" or "Sim, gosto." Just... the verb.

This is how you actually say yes in Portuguese in informal Brazilian conversation. You repeat the verb from the question. Linguists call these "echoic affirmative responses," but whatever—the point is that this is the default way Brazilians say yes, and nobody warned you about it.

The pattern works like this: take the verb from the question, conjugate it to match the first-person singular, keep the same tense, and that's your answer.

Common examples of different ways to say yes:

You don't need to include the pronoun "você" or "eu"—just the verb works fine in colloquial conversation.

This isn't slang. It's standard Brazilian Portuguese grammar that somehow doesn't make it into most courses until way too late.

Yes and No in Portuguese: The Cultural Context

When you say "não" (no) in Portuguese, you typically repeat the verb too: "Não, não gosto" (No, I don't like it). Just answering "não" by itself sounds abrupt—borderline rude—to native speakers. Like you're angry about something.

The verb repetition pattern exists for both affirmative and negative responses. It softens the response and sounds more natural. This is the kind of cultural context that matters when you're trying to learn Portuguese beyond textbook basics.

Brazilian Portuguese speakers use this pattern constantly. TV shows, conversations, texting—it's everywhere once you know to look for it.

European Portuguese: Different Ways to Say Yes

Portugal uses "sim" more frequently than Brazil in informal contexts. Portuguese speakers in Portugal still use verb repetition—"Gostei" (I liked it) is common—but "sim" shows up in regular conversation without sounding stiff or overly polite.

Regional phrases you'll hear in European Portuguese:

In northern Portugal, particularly around Porto, "pois" functions as an informal way to say yes. In the Azores and Madeira, people sometimes just say "é" as an affirmative response.

This is one of those cases where Brazilian and European Portuguese have genuinely different patterns, not just pronunciation differences. If you're specifically trying to learn European Portuguese, paying attention to these regional expressions matters.

Other Portuguese Words and Phrases for Agreement

Claro (Clear/Of course) The most common expression after verb repetition. Translation: "Sure" or "Of course." Works in both Brazil and Portugal, sounds natural, and you'll hear it constantly from native speakers.

Com certeza (Certainly/For sure) More emphatic affirmative response. You're not just agreeing—you're confirming you're really sure. Often used in customer service or polite formal contexts.

Está bem / Tá bem (All right/Okay) Universal phrase across Portuguese-speaking countries. In Brazilian Portuguese, people often abbreviate it to just "Tá bom."

Pois / Pois é (That's right) Confirms what someone else said. Less about answering a direct question, more about showing agreement with a statement.

Obrigado/Obrigada (Thank you) Not technically "yes," but when someone offers you something and you say "obrigado" (if you're male) or "obrigada" (if you're female), you're implicitly accepting—which functions as an affirmative in context.

Each of these words operates at different levels of formality and has specific usage contexts that you pick up naturally when you hear them used thousands of times.

Pronunciation and Usage: What Actually Matters

The nasal sound in "sim" trips up a lot of learners. Portuguese has multiple nasal vowels, and if you don't pronounce them correctly, you'll sound like you're speaking Spanish with a Portuguese accent. Not great.

But honestly? Pronunciation matters less than understanding the verb repetition pattern. You can say "sim" with a weird accent and people will understand you. But if you only ever say "sim" instead of repeating verbs like a native speaker, you'll sound textbook-formal in casual conversations.

If you're trying to learn Portuguese naturally, the vocabulary and grammar patterns you actually need to master come from real usage, not pronunciation drills.

Why This Pattern Matters (And Why Courses Ignore It)

Most Portuguese courses teach you "sim" on day one and then... that's it. They don't mention that Brazilians rarely use it in informal speech. So you show up in Brazil, confidently answer "Sim!" to every question, and wonder why everyone's responding with verbs while you're the only person saying "sim" like a robot.

The verb repetition pattern isn't advanced grammar. It's beginner-level Portuguese that somehow gets skipped because courses focus on teaching you the "correct" formal way to say things instead of how Portuguese speakers actually talk.

Compare this to how yes works in Japanese or French—every language has quirks with affirmative responses. Portuguese just happens to have a particularly distinctive one that directly impacts how you sound in everyday conversation.

Different Ways to Practice This (Most of Them Don't Work)

You can memorize the grammar rule. You can drill verb conjugations. You can make flashcards with "gosto," "quero," "entendo" and try to remember them.

But here's the reality: grammar drills won't teach you when to use verb repetition versus "sim" versus "claro." That comes from hearing native speakers in actual contexts—watching someone ask "Você quer mais?" (Want more?) and seeing the natural response is just "Quero" (I want some).

When you see it enough times in different contexts, with different verbs, in different situations, you stop translating in your head and just... know. That's how you internalize these patterns in any new language.

Textbooks can explain the rule. They can't give you the 10,000 repetitions you need to actually use it without thinking.

The Actual Way to Learn Portuguese Naturally

If you want to sound like a Portuguese speaker instead of a walking translation dictionary, you need massive exposure to real content. Not exercises designed for learners—actual Portuguese content that native speakers watch.

Learn Portuguese through the stuff people actually consume: Netflix shows, YouTube videos, podcasts, whatever. That's where you'll hear the verb repetition pattern used naturally, where you'll pick up expressions like "claro" and "com certeza" in context, where you'll understand which phrases fit which situations.

The fastest way to internalize these patterns is by seeing them used in real Portuguese content, not by memorizing grammar rules.

Migaku's browser extension works with Netflix, YouTube, and pretty much any Portuguese content online. When you don't understand a word or phrase, you just hover over it for an instant translation—no pausing, no dictionary apps, no breaking your flow. Those words automatically become flashcards, so you're building vocabulary from actual usage instead of random word lists.

The thing is, when you learn "gosto" from watching someone answer a question in a Brazilian show, your brain connects it to that context. You remember it's a verb repetition response. You see how it fits the conversation. That sticks way better than seeing "gostar = to like" on a vocabulary list.

The mobile app syncs everything across devices, which means you can review those flashcards anywhere. And because they came from real contexts—actual questions and answers, natural conversations, stuff you were interested in watching anyway—you're learning how Portuguese speakers actually talk, not how textbooks think they should talk.

There's a 10-day free trial if you want to check it out and see how learning from real Portuguese content compares to whatever method you're using now.