Inviting Yourself

By James Hall / / (4) Advanced Portuguese
voce-sabe-onde-fica

How do you say something like, I'd like to go with you sometime or ask, Can we play with you guys?

In Portuguese there are several key verbs that make it easy and clear that you'd like to do something - to participate.

Portuguese invitational verbs

participar: to participate
poder: to be able to, can
gostar: to like, enjoy
adorar: to adore, love
querer: to want

Imagine you are on the beach. There's a volleyball game and you'd like to join in. There's a break in the action so you make your move. You gain the attention of one of the players but what do you say?

Posso participar?

PODER is the perfect verb here since you're making a friendly request: Can I play?

But what if you wanted to be a little more formal, not quite so direct? You could say,

Gostaria de participar. => I would like to participate.

*This sounds a bit off in English, right? In Portuguese it does_not 😉 GOSTAR makes it clear you are expressing that you would like to go with them. The verb is in it's conditional form because you're saying this is something you would like to do.

And they answer: VocĂȘ quer participar?
You: Adoraria! (I would love to!)

You're in a hotel and you overhear someone saying that they'll be hiring a boat out to some island paradise in the afternoon. You want in, so you say...

Adoraria ir com vocĂȘs! => I'd love to go with you all!

They answer: VocĂȘ quer ir tambĂ©m?
You: Eu posso?
They confirm: Pode!

Now let's invite someone:

VocĂȘ quer ir ao restaurante com a gente? => Do you want to go to the restaurant with us?

*Note that you could also use para o in place of ao. Both say to the.