Excuse Me in Portuguese: Every Word and When

Someone bumps you on a crowded street in Lisbon. You need to squeeze past a table in a São Paulo restaurant. You didn't catch what your Portuguese teacher just said. In English, one phrase covers all three: "excuse me." In Portuguese, it doesn't work that way.

There is no single word that means "excuse me" in every situation. Portuguese splits the job across three main phrases, and mixing them up is one of the fastest ways to sound like you learned the language from a phrasebook instead of a person. Here's the short version before we go deep:

• Com licença asks for permission. Use it to pass by someone, interrupt, leave a table, or squeeze into an elevator.
• Desculpe or desculpa is an apology. Use it when you actually did something, even something tiny, like bumping an elbow or interrupting a conversation.
• Perdão is "pardon," reserved for things that genuinely inconvenienced someone. It's heavier than the other two.

That's the skeleton. The rest of this guide fills in every branch: the formality split between "desculpe" and "desculpa," the "tu" versus "você" question underneath that split, the Brazil versus Portugal differences, what to say after a sneeze (it isn't what you think), how to ask someone to repeat themselves, and the mistakes English speakers make over and over. If you already know a little Portuguese, you might also want the companion guides on saying please in Portuguese, how to say thank you in Portuguese, and greeting someone with good afternoon, since "excuse me" tends to travel with all three in real conversation. Rio & Learn's broader rundown of polite phrases in Portuguese makes a similar point: etiquette words rarely show up alone, they cluster together in the same few minutes of small talk.

"Com Licença": The Everyday Excuse Me

If you only learn one phrase from this article, make it "com licença." It's pronounced roughly "kohm lee-SEN-sah," with that first "com" coming out as a quick nasal "kõ" rather than the fuller "kum" sound you might expect. The "ç" in "licença" makes an "s" sound, and the ending "-ença" gets nasalized, a little like the "-ence" ending in French words. It takes practice to get the nasal vowels right, which is exactly why reading a pronunciation guide only gets you halfway there.

"Com licença" literally translates to "with license" or "with permission," a literal meaning confirmed by Wiktionary's entry on the phrase, and that's the key to understanding when to use it. It's the phrase for asking permission, not for apologizing. According to the detailed breakdown on Practice Portuguese, "com licença" is what you say before you do something that requires someone else's space, time, or attention, not after you've already caused a problem.

Here's where it covers ground that English speakers don't expect:

• Squeezing past someone. Walking through a crowded bus, weaving through a packed bar, or stepping past someone in a narrow aisle. "Com licença" as you move through.
• Interrupting a conversation. Need to grab a colleague mid-chat? "Com licença" opens the door.
• Entering a room. Knocking on an open office door and stepping in? Say it before you enter.
• Leaving a table. Getting up from dinner to use the bathroom or take a call? "Com licença" as you push your chair back.
• Ending a phone call or leaving a gathering. This is the one that trips up almost every English speaker. In English, you might just say "sorry, I have to go" or nothing at all. In Portuguese, "com licença" is the polite way to excuse yourself from a call or a group, the verbal equivalent of a small bow on your way out.

Migaku's rundown on excuse me in Portuguese makes the same point: "com licença" is fundamentally forward-looking. You use it before an action that needs someone's cooperation, not after a mistake. Think of it as asking, "may I?" rather than saying, "I'm sorry."

There's a casual cousin of "com licença" worth knowing: "dá licença," which literally means "give permission." It's heard more in Brazil, in relaxed settings, among friends or people close in age. It carries the same permission-asking function as "com licença" but with a looser, more conversational tone, closer to "mind if I..." than the slightly more formal "com licença." You wouldn't necessarily use "dá licença" with your boss or an elderly stranger, but with friends, it fits naturally.

One more nuance: "com licença" by itself can function as a complete sentence, a signal that you're about to move, interrupt, or leave. But it also works as a sentence starter, the Portuguese equivalent of "excuse me, but..." For example: "Com licença, você sabe que horas são?" ("Excuse me, do you know what time it is?"). If you're building up your ability to ask basic questions like that, the guide to what time is it in Portuguese pairs naturally with this kind of polite opener, and so does the days of the week guide once you're scheduling around the person you just interrupted.

"Desculpe" vs. "Desculpa": Apologizing Your Way Through

Now for the phrase English speakers reach for out of instinct, even when it's the wrong one. "Desculpe" and "desculpa" both come from the verb "desculpar," meaning "to excuse" or "to forgive," and both translate loosely to "sorry" or "excuse me." But unlike "com licença," these are reactive. You use them after something has already happened, even something as small as a bumped shoulder or a misheard sentence.

The difference between "desculpe" and "desculpa" is formality, not meaning.

"Desculpe" is the formal form, tied to the "você" way of addressing someone. Use it with strangers, older people, service staff you don't know, or in any situation where a little distance and respect is expected. It's pronounced "dess-KOOL-peh," with the stress landing on the middle syllable.

"Desculpa" is the informal form, tied to "tu." Use it with friends, family, peers, and, especially in Brazil, with strangers in casual settings too. Migaku's guide to saying sorry in Portuguese points out that Brazilians tend to default to "desculpa" far more readily than European Portuguese speakers do, even in situations where "desculpe" would technically be the more "correct" formal choice. In Portugal, people lean noticeably more on "desculpe" across the board, even with people they know well. Preply's overview of how to say sorry in Portuguese frames this the same way: the choice between the two words is really a choice about your relationship to the listener, not about how sorry you actually are.

That regional split matters if you're trying to sound natural rather than just grammatically correct. If your Portuguese comes from Brazilian media, music, or friends, "desculpa" will feel like the default reflex. If you're headed to Lisbon or Porto, expect "desculpe" more often, even in situations that would call for the informal form elsewhere. We'll come back to exactly why this formality split exists in the next section, because it's tied to a bigger grammar question that trips up almost every English speaker learning Portuguese.

Both words show up constantly in everyday small talk. A few real examples:

• "Desculpe, onde fica o banheiro?" ("Excuse me, where's the bathroom?") in a formal context, like asking a stranger or a waiter.
• "Desculpa, eu não te vi!" ("Sorry, I didn't see you!") to a friend after bumping into them.
• "Desculpe o atraso." ("Sorry for the delay/lateness.")
• "Desculpa interromper, mas..." ("Sorry to interrupt, but...")

You can also intensify either word by adding "me" in front: "me desculpe" or "me desculpa." This shifts the tone from a quick, reflexive "sorry" toward something closer to "I'm really sorry" or "please forgive me." It's the difference between the English "sorry" you mutter while passing someone and the "I'm sorry" you say when you've genuinely let someone down.

If you're speaking to more than one person, the plural form is "desculpem." And for a more formal, almost old-fashioned register, especially in writing, apologies, or customer service contexts, you'll hear "peço desculpa" or "peço desculpas," meaning "I ask for forgiveness" or "I apologize." It's the Portuguese equivalent of switching from "sorry" to "I apologize" in English: same idea, more weight.

Here's a trap worth flagging early, because it catches almost every English speaker at some point: "desculpa" is not the same thing as "sinto muito" or "lamento." Those phrases mean "I'm sorry to hear that," the kind of sorry you say when a friend tells you their grandmother passed away or their flight got cancelled. That's sympathy, not an apology for something you did. "Desculpa" apologizes for your own action or fault. "Sinto muito" expresses sympathy for someone else's bad news. Caminhos Languages touches on this same confusion in its guide to how to say excuse me in Portuguese, noting that learners often reach for "desculpa" reflexively in moments that actually call for sympathy, not apology. Say "desculpa" when someone tells you they lost their job because you did something wrong, and it sounds like you're taking the blame. Say "sinto muito" instead, and you're expressing that you feel for them.

This is also a good moment to mention that basic vocabulary like this rarely lives in isolation. Once you've got "desculpe," "desculpa," and "com licença" down, you'll want them sitting next to other everyday staples, like saying hello in Portuguese and asking how someone is doing, because real conversations chain these small phrases together constantly.

"Perdão": When You Actually Mean It

"Perdão" is the heaviest of the three main options, and it's the one most English speakers overuse without realizing it. It translates to "pardon" or "forgiveness," pronounced "pehr-DOW" with a nasal ending, similar to the "ão" sound in "não" or in "São Paulo."

Reserve "perdão" for situations that carry real weight: forgetting an important appointment, causing an actual inconvenience, making a mistake that affected someone, or genuinely wronging a person in some way. It's the word you reach for when a quick "desculpa" would feel too light for the situation.

Here's the trap: using "perdão" for small, everyday bumps. If you brush past someone in a hallway and say "perdão," it can sound oddly dramatic, like you've committed some serious offense over a two-second shoulder graze. Rio & Learn's guide to excuse me in Portuguese makes this exact point from a classroom perspective: Brazilian teachers regularly have to walk students back from overusing "perdão" in situations that call for a lighter touch.

Think of the three phrases on a kind of dial, from lightest to heaviest:

"Com licença" (asking permission, no fault implied) sits at one end. "Desculpe/desculpa" (a small apology for a minor fault) sits in the middle. "Perdão" (a real apology for something that mattered) sits at the heavy end. Choosing the wrong one doesn't make you unintelligible, but it does make you sound slightly off, the same way an English speaker would sound odd saying "I beg your forgiveness" after stepping on someone's foot in line at the grocery store.

Quick Reference: Which Word When

Here's the comparison table to keep bookmarked. This is the cheat sheet that answers "how do you say excuse me in Portuguese" in one glance.

Keep this table next to your notes when you're building out other Portuguese basics. If you haven't already worked through a broader vocabulary list, basic words in Portuguese is a good next stop, since phrases like these work best once they're anchored to a wider set of everyday words.

Getting Someone's Attention

Sometimes "excuse me" in English isn't about permission or apology at all. It's about flagging someone down: a waiter, a stranger, a shop clerk. Portuguese has its own toolkit for this, and it doesn't map onto a single phrase.

"Com licença" still works here. Walking up to a counter or catching someone's eye across a room, "com licença" doubles as a polite opener, the equivalent of "excuse me, sir" in English.

But there are more casual, more common options depending on the setting, especially in Brazil:

• "Oi", which usually means "hi," also gets used informally to flag down a waiter or a stranger, functioning almost like "hey there" rather than a greeting. It sounds odd on paper if you're new to the language, calling someone over with what looks like "hi," but it's genuinely common and not considered rude in casual settings.
• "Moço" (young man) or "moça" (young woman) are common ways to address a waiter or a stranger you need help from, regardless of their actual age. It's a bit like the English habit of saying "excuse me, miss" to a server who is clearly not a teenager. It's a set phrase, not a literal age judgment.
• "Com licença, ___" as a sentence starter works when you need to ask a stranger something specific, like directions or the time.

In European Portuguese, you'll also hear "faz favor" used to summon a waiter or get someone's attention in a service context, something like "please" and "excuse me" rolled together. It's far less common in Brazil, where "com licença" or "oi" cover the same ground. If you're navigating restaurants and ordering food while traveling, it's worth pairing this with the vocabulary in food in Portuguese, since getting a server's attention and actually ordering tend to happen back to back.

These small approach rituals are part of a bigger etiquette pattern. PortuguesePod101's guide to Brazilian etiquette points out that Brazilians generally read warmth into how you approach a stranger, not just the words you pick. A flat, abrupt "com licença" barked from across the room lands very differently than the same phrase said with a small smile and eye contact. Tone carries as much information as vocabulary here.

None of these phrases are things you can really learn by just reading them once. The tone matters as much as the words: "oi" said flatly to flag a waiter sounds different from "oi" as an actual greeting, and getting that tone right takes hearing it and repeating it out loud, not just recognizing it on a page. That's the whole gap between knowing a phrase and being able to use it in the moment, which is exactly the gap that speaking practice closes and reading never quite does. That's the idea behind Comigo: you say phrases like these out loud in real, spoken practice, not just read them off a list and hope they stick the next time you're standing in front of a waiter in São Paulo.

"Tu" vs. "Você": The Root of the Whole Formality Split

Before we go further, it helps to understand why "desculpe" and "desculpa" split the way they do in the first place, because the answer explains a lot more than just this one pair of words. It comes down to how Portuguese handles the word "you."

English has one word for "you," whether you're talking to your best friend or a judge. Portuguese has at least two everyday options: "tu" and "você." Which one a speaker defaults to depends heavily on where they're from, and that default quietly shapes which "excuse me" they reach for.

In Brazil, "você" is the everyday, neutral way to say "you" almost everywhere. It's used with friends, strangers, coworkers, family, pretty much anyone, and it conjugates like a third-person verb, so "você fala" ("you speak") uses the same verb form as "ele fala" ("he speaks"). "Tu" still exists in Brazil, but it's regional. You'll hear it a lot in the South and in parts of the North and Northeast, like Pará and Maranhão, sometimes with its own local conjugation quirks. Outside those regions, "tu" can sound noticeably informal or even a bit theatrical if used the wrong way.

In Portugal, the pattern flips in an important way. "Tu" is the warm, default informal "you," used with friends, family, classmates, and anyone you're on comfortable terms with. "Você" still exists, but it can actually feel more distant or even slightly cold in some contexts, closer to keeping someone at arm's length than being neutral. Practice Portuguese's breakdown of formal and informal treatment walks through this in detail, including how European Portuguese speakers often prefer using a person's name directly, or a title, over "você," precisely because "você" can read as oddly formal-yet-impersonal at the same time.

This is exactly why "desculpa" is grammatically tied to "tu" and "desculpe" is tied to "você." In Portugal, where "tu" is the warm everyday default, "desculpa" fits casual apologies naturally, matching how people already address each other. In Brazil, where "você" is the everyday default even among friends, you'd expect "desculpe" to dominate casual speech too, but in practice Brazilians treat "desculpa" as the go-to informal apology anyway, almost as a fixed idiomatic choice independent of whichever pronoun they'd actually use in the rest of the sentence. Language doesn't always follow its own grammar rules perfectly, and this is one of those spots.

There's a third layer above both "tu" and "você": using "o senhor" or "a senhora" ("sir" or "ma'am," roughly) for extra respect, typically with elderly people, authority figures, or in very formal service settings. Pairing an apology with "o senhor" or "a senhora" instead of "você" pushes the whole sentence up a notch in formality, similar to swapping "you" for "sir" in English mid-conversation. If you want a broader look at how Portuguese verb conjugation and pronoun choice work beyond just this one apology pair, Practice Portuguese is a solid general reference for the European Portuguese side of things.

Once this clicks, "desculpe" versus "desculpa" stops feeling like an arbitrary vocabulary quirk and starts feeling like part of a whole system, the same system that decides whether you say "tu" or "você" to your neighbor, your professor, or the stranger who just asked you for directions.

"Excuse Me, What Did You Say?"

English uses "excuse me?" (with rising intonation) or "sorry?" to ask someone to repeat themselves. Portuguese has its own set of options, and picking the right one depends on how polite you're trying to be.

The most casual, extremely common option is simply "Como?" It works like "what?" or "pardon?" in English, a quick, everyday way to ask someone to say something again. It's not rude, just informal, and you'll hear it constantly in casual conversation.

"O quê?" is blunter, closer to a flat "what?" It's fine among friends but can come across as abrupt with strangers or in formal settings, the same way "what?" sounds a little sharp compared to "sorry?" in English.

For a fuller, more polite version, especially with someone you don't know well, combine "desculpe" or "com licença" with the actual question: "Desculpe, o que você disse?" or "Com licença, o que você disse?" ("Excuse me, what did you say?"). This is the safest option in formal settings, job interviews, or any interaction where you want to sound respectful rather than casual.

Here's the one that genuinely surprises English-speaking learners: in Brazil, "Oi?" on its own, with rising intonation, is a completely normal way to ask someone to repeat themselves, functioning the way "sorry?" does in English. Since "oi" also means "hi," this throws people off the first few times they hear it. Context makes it clear: if someone just said something you missed and you respond "Oi?" with a questioning tone, no one thinks you're greeting them for the second time. They understand you're asking them to repeat what they just said.

If the conversation is moving too fast and none of this is landing, it's completely fine to fall back on a simple, honest line like I don't speak Portuguese to reset things and slow the other person down. Native speakers generally appreciate the heads up far more than watching you nod along, lost.

If you're building comfort with these small back-and-forth exchanges, it helps to also nail down how to answer simple yes or no questions cleanly, since "como?" moments often lead straight into a quick confirmation. The guide to yes in Portuguese covers that ground well, and it's worth pairing with this one.

What to Say After a Sneeze

Here's a small but very real trap for English speakers. In English-speaking cultures, plenty of people mutter "sorry" or "excuse me" reflexively after sneezing, especially in a quiet room or a meeting. Portuguese speakers do not do this. Saying "desculpa" after a sneeze in Brazil or Portugal will get you a confused look, because in Portuguese, a sneeze isn't treated as something to apologize for at all.

Instead, the person nearby (or the sneezer themselves, if no one else says it first) says "Saúde!" which literally means "health." It works exactly like "bless you" does in English: a small, automatic kindness, not a big deal, but expected. If you sneeze in a room full of Portuguese speakers and nobody says anything, don't be surprised, but if someone does, "saúde" is what you'll hear, and the polite response back is a simple "obrigado" or "obrigada" ("thank you"), which pairs neatly with the fuller guide on how to say thank you in Portuguese.

This is a good example of why phrasebook memorization only gets you so far. You can know every word for "excuse me" perfectly and still instinctively blurt out "desculpa" the first time you sneeze around Portuguese speakers, simply because your English reflex kicks in faster than your Portuguese brain can catch it. The fix isn't more reading. It's enough spoken repetition that "saúde" becomes the automatic response instead, which again is the entire premise behind practicing out loud with something like Comigo rather than just skimming a list of vocabulary once and moving on.

How to Respond When Someone Says These to You

Knowing how to say "excuse me" only solves half the problem. You also need to know what to say back when someone says it to you.

When someone says "com licença" to you, whether they're asking to pass, interrupt, or step away from a table, you generally don't need a full sentence in response. A nod works. A simple "sim" ("yes") works. In service contexts, like a shop clerk letting a customer go ahead or acknowledging a request, you'll often hear "pois não," a slightly formal, very common way of saying "sure" or "go ahead" or "of course." It's one of those phrases that looks confusing translated word for word, since it literally reads like "well, no," which seems backwards for something so agreeable. Rio & Learn's explainer on the meaning of pois não traces it back to a kind of shorthand rhetorical question, something closer in spirit to "how could I possibly say no?" that got compressed over time into a fixed, everyday phrase. You'll hear it constantly from shop clerks, receptionists, and waiters the moment you ask them for something. It's worth keeping separate from its near-twin "pois é," which does not mean "of course" at all, but instead works more like "yeah, right" or "I know," agreeing with something already said rather than granting a request.

When someone says "desculpa" or "desculpe" to you, the standard responses are:

• "Tudo bem" ("It's fine" / "all good")
• "Não tem problema" ("No problem")
• "Não faz mal" ("No harm done" / "it's okay")

Any of these work interchangeably in casual and semi-formal settings. They're the Portuguese equivalents of "don't worry about it," and using one instead of a blank stare is part of what makes an exchange feel natural rather than stilted. If you're working on rounding out these small conversational reflexes, they sit well alongside greetings and farewells like goodbye in Portuguese and good morning in Portuguese, since a huge share of daily Portuguese conversation is just these short, functional exchanges strung together.

Brazil vs. Portugal: The Regional Cheat Sheet

Portuguese spoken in Brazil and Portuguese spoken in Portugal share the same core vocabulary for "excuse me," but lean on different phrases with different frequency, and the tone shifts too. Here's the breakdown.

Neither version is "more correct." They're just different social defaults, the same way "you're all set" and "you're sorted" both mean the same thing in American versus British English but sound distinctly regional. If you're deciding which dialect to focus your learning on, this kind of regional texture is worth factoring in early, and it connects to the bigger question plenty of learners ask before they start: is Portuguese hard to learn? Regional variation is one of the reasons the honest answer is "it depends on which Portuguese you're learning and where you plan to use it."

Common Mistakes English Speakers Make

Almost every English speaker learning Portuguese makes some version of these mistakes, usually because English simply doesn't force you to make these distinctions. Rio & Learn's overview of polite phrases in Portuguese flags several of these same patterns from years of teaching English-speaking students, so you're in good company if one of these sounds familiar. Here's the rundown, with the "why" behind each one.

Mistake 1: Using "com licença" to apologize for a mistake. Why it happens: English speakers hear "com licença" translated as "excuse me" and assume it covers every "excuse me" situation, including apologies. It doesn't. "Com licença" is about permission, not fault. If you elbow someone, "com licença" sounds like you're asking their permission to have elbowed them, which makes no sense. Use "desculpa" or "desculpe" instead.

Mistake 2: Using "perdão" for everyday small bumps. Why it happens: English speakers sometimes learn "perdão" first because it looks like the English word "pardon," and "pardon me" feels like a safe, polite default. But "perdão" carries real emotional weight in Portuguese. Save it for situations that actually matter.

Mistake 3: Not knowing "com licença" is also how you leave a table or end a call. Why it happens: English doesn't really have an equivalent ritual phrase for this. You'd just say "sorry, I have to go" or nothing at all. Portuguese treats leaving a group or ending a call as something that deserves its own small verbal courtesy, and skipping it can come across as slightly abrupt, even if you didn't mean it that way.

Mistake 4: Saying "desculpa" after a sneeze instead of expecting "saúde." Why it happens: pure reflex. English speakers are trained to apologize for small bodily interruptions like sneezing or coughing. Portuguese treats a sneeze as something to bless, not apologize for.

Mistake 5: Confusing "desculpa" (apology) with "sinto muito" (sympathy). Why it happens: English "I'm sorry" does double duty, covering both an apology ("I'm sorry I broke that") and sympathy ("I'm sorry for your loss"). Portuguese splits these functions cleanly, and mixing them up can genuinely confuse the person you're talking to, since "desculpa" implies you did something wrong.

Mistake 6: Treating "desculpe" and "desculpa" as interchangeable regardless of who you're talking to. Why it happens: English has no "tu" versus "você" distinction, so the whole concept of matching your apology's formality to your relationship with the listener doesn't exist in English at all. It takes deliberate attention at first, until it becomes automatic.

Mistake 7: Assuming the tu/você split is just regional flavor, not a formality signal. Why it happens: once learners notice that Brazil "mostly uses você" and Portugal "mostly uses tu," it's tempting to treat the whole thing as a dialect quirk, like saying "soda" versus "pop." It's actually a live formality choice in both countries, not a fixed regional label, which is exactly why the same country can have both "desculpe" and "desculpa" in everyday use depending on who is talking to whom.

According to the deep-dive on com licença, desculpe, and perdão from Practice Portuguese, this cluster of mistakes is one of the most common feedback points their own students run into, precisely because English collapses distinctions that Portuguese keeps separate. None of these mistakes will make you unintelligible. Native speakers will understand you and won't think twice. But getting them right is what separates "understandable" from "sounds like they actually live here," and that gap closes fastest with repetition, ideally the out-loud kind, not the flashcard kind.

Mini-Dialogues: Seeing These Phrases in Context

Reading a list of phrases is one thing. Seeing how they actually chain together in a real exchange is another. Here are a few short, realistic dialogues.

On a crowded bus:

A: Com licença, posso descer aqui? (Excuse me, can I get off here?) B: Claro, pode passar. (Sure, go ahead.)

Bumping into someone at a market:

A: Ai, desculpa! Não te vi. (Oh, sorry! I didn't see you.) B: Tudo bem, sem problema. (It's fine, no problem.)

Interrupting a coworker, formally:

A: Desculpe interromper, mas você tem um minuto? (Sorry to interrupt, but do you have a minute?) B: Claro, pode falar. (Sure, go ahead.)

Leaving a dinner table:

A: Com licença, já volto. (Excuse me, I'll be right back.) B: Sem problema, te esperamos aqui. (No problem, we'll wait here.)

Ending a phone call politely:

A: Com licença, preciso ir, tenho uma reunião agora. (Excuse me, I need to go, I have a meeting now.) B: Sem problema, até mais! (No problem, see you later!)

Asking someone to repeat themselves, casually:

A: A reunião foi remarcada. (The meeting got rescheduled.) B: Como? Não entendi. (What? I didn't catch that.) A: A reunião. Foi remarcada para amanhã. (The meeting. It got rescheduled to tomorrow.)

Getting a waiter's attention in Brazil:

A: Oi, moço! Pode trazer mais um copo d'água? (Excuse me! Can you bring another glass of water?) B: Pois não, já trago. (Of course, coming right up.)

After a sneeze:

A: Atchim! (Achoo!) B: Saúde! (Bless you!) A: Obrigada! (Thank you!)

Notice how naturally these words move between "com licença," "desculpa," "tudo bem," "pois não," and "saúde" depending on the exact moment. None of them is interchangeable with the others, and that's really the whole lesson of this article in miniature. If you want more of this kind of real, functional back-and-forth practice, rounding it out with everyday numbers and time expressions helps too, since so many small talk exchanges involve a number or a time somewhere in them, which is exactly what numbers in Portuguese and the what time is it in Portuguese guide cover in full.

Etiquette phrases like these rarely stay isolated once you start noticing them. The same instinct that tells you when to say "com licença" instead of "desculpa" also shows up when you're figuring out how to wish someone a proper happy birthday in Portuguese, how to offer real congratulations in Portuguese instead of a flat "parabéns" said without any feeling behind it, or how to casually reference the days of the week when you're rescheduling a meeting you just apologized for missing in the first place. Small talk is built from dozens of these little reflexes stacked on top of each other, and "excuse me" is just one of the first ones you'll need.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is "desculpa" rude?

No, "desculpa" is not rude. It's the informal version of "desculpe," tied to the "tu" form of address. It's perfectly polite among friends, family, and, especially in Brazil, with strangers in casual settings. As Migaku's rundown on excuse me in Portuguese notes, formality in Portuguese is about matching your words to the relationship, not about one word being inherently ruder than another. It can sound slightly too casual in a very formal context, like addressing an elderly stranger or a business client in a country where "desculpe" is the norm, but it's never impolite on its own.

What's the most polite way to say "excuse me" in Portuguese?

For a formal apology, "desculpe" (or the stronger "me desculpe") is the safest, most broadly polite option. For asking permission in a formal setting, "com licença" works everywhere and never sounds too casual. If in doubt in a very formal situation, "peço desculpas" reads as noticeably more formal and careful, closer to "I apologize" than a quick "sorry," and pairing any of these with "o senhor" or "a senhora" pushes the politeness up another notch when you're speaking with someone older or in a position of authority. The same instinct that picks the right "excuse me" also applies to saying please in Portuguese: formality is a habit you build across many small words, not just one.

Do Brazilians say "excuse me" a lot?

Yes, arguably more than English speakers do, just spread across different words depending on the moment. "Com licença" gets used constantly, for passing people, ending calls, leaving tables, and more, situations where English speakers often say nothing at all. Brazilians also tend to reach for "desculpa" quickly and often, even for very small things.

What if I don't know which word to use?

Default to "com licença" if you're asking permission or trying to move past someone, interrupt, or step away. Default to "desculpe" (formal) or "desculpa" (informal) if you've already done something, even something small, like a bump or a misheard question. If you're truly unsure and the moment feels significant, "desculpe" is a safer general fallback than "com licença," since apologizing when it wasn't strictly necessary reads as polite, while asking permission when you should have apologized can sound like you're avoiding responsibility.

Is there a difference between "com licença" and "dá licença"?

Yes, mostly in formality and region. "Com licença" is the standard, works-everywhere version. "Dá licença" is a more casual variant, heard mostly in Brazil, used among people who know each other or in relaxed settings. They mean essentially the same thing.

Why do Portuguese speakers say "saúde" after a sneeze instead of apologizing?

Because a sneeze isn't treated as a fault in Portuguese-speaking culture the way it can feel like one in English-speaking habits. "Saúde" ("health") functions like "bless you," a small wish of good health, not an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. Saying "desculpa" after a sneeze will just confuse people, since there's nothing to apologize for.

Can I just use "com licença" for everything to be safe?

Not quite. "Com licença" covers permission-based situations well, but it sounds genuinely wrong as an apology. If you bump into someone and say "com licença" instead of "desculpa," it can come across as if you're asking permission to have already bumped into them, which reads as slightly odd or even careless, rather than protecting you from making a mistake. It's safer to learn the actual distinction than to lean on one phrase as a catch-all.

Does the "tu" vs. "você" choice actually matter if I'm just a tourist?

It matters less if you're only passing through for a week, since native speakers will extend a lot of patience to a visitor. But if you're spending real time in a Portuguese-speaking country, or dating, working, or studying there, getting comfortable with the distinction pays off fast. Defaulting to "você" as a safe, neutral choice works well almost everywhere in Brazil, while defaulting to a polite "o senhor" or "a senhora" is the safer opening move in more formal Portuguese settings until someone signals you can relax into "tu."

How do I actually remember which word to use in the moment?

Reading a comparison table (like the one earlier in this article) is a solid start, but the real fix is saying these phrases out loud repeatedly until choosing between them stops requiring conscious thought. That kind of automatic recall is muscle memory, not just knowledge, and it only builds through speaking practice, which is the whole approach behind Comigo: short, spoken lessons where you actually say "com licença" and "desculpa" in context instead of just reading them off a page one more time. If you want a longer, more personal account of what that kind of practice actually looks like over time, how I learned Portuguese walks through one real learning path in more depth.

"Excuse me" looks like a simple, one-word phrase to translate, right up until you realize English has been quietly doing the job of three or four separate Portuguese phrases this whole time. Once you can feel the difference between asking permission, apologizing for a fault, and genuinely asking forgiveness, a whole layer of Portuguese conversation gets easier, including all the small talk that surrounds it, from how are you to ordering food to navigating someone's house in Portuguese as a guest. Start with "com licença" for permission, "desculpa" or "desculpe" for small faults, and save "perdão" for when it really counts, and you'll already sound more natural than most learners who stop at a single catch-all phrase.