What this is about
How Brazilians talk about their bodies: hunger, thirst, fear, pain. Two structures do all the work — estar com + noun for states, and the odd little verb doer, where your body part is the boss of the sentence.
ESTAR COM + noun — the feelings machine
English says "I am hungry" (adjective). Portuguese says "I am WITH hunger" (noun):
| Estou com fome. | I'm hungry |
| Estou com sede / sono / frio / calor. | thirsty / sleepy / cold / hot |
| Ele está com medo do escuro. | afraid OF → medo de |
| Estou com dor de cabeça. | I have a headache — dor de + body part |
DOER — the body part does the hurting
You don't hurt in Portuguese — your head hurts YOU. The body part is the subject, so doer only ever appears in two forms:
| Minha cabeça dói. | singular part → dói |
| Meus pés doem. | plural parts → doem |
| Onde dói? | where does it hurt? — the doctor's question |
| Ontem minha garganta doeu o dia todo. | past: doeu / doeram |
At the pharmacy & doctor — the survival kit
| Estou doente. · Estou com gripe / febre. | I'm sick · flu / fever |
| Preciso de um remédio para dor de cabeça. | remédio PARA — medicine for |
| Tome o remédio duas vezes por dia. | what the pharmacist will tell you |
| Melhoras! | get well soon! (one word, very Brazilian) |
Exceptions & details
1 · estar com vs ser: Estou com frio = I feel cold; Sou frio = I'm a cold person. Choose wisely.
2 · sentir: Me sinto bem/mal (reflexive — how you feel) vs Sinto falta de… (I miss…).
3 · Body parts skip the possessive when obvious: Vou lavar as mãos, Estou com dor nas costas (em + as = nas).
Practise this chapter
10 pool questions plus generated ones — 20 fresh practice questions, reshuffled every visit, inside the grammar library.
Practise Estar com, doer & the body — 20 questions →This chapter is taught in Lição 12 of the course (level A2). Rumo is a complete Brazilian Portuguese course, A1 to B2; level A1 is free.