5 Lovely Compliments in Portuguese

Today I will be telling you all about 5 Lovely Compliments in Portuguese. Isn’t it nice when you receive a compliment? Isn’t it even nicer if you can surprise your friends, or loved ones by complimenting them in their language? If you are a person who loves making others happy, this post is for you!

Being nice as we are (humhum…biased comment alert!), the Portuguese love when people are nice. In previous posts I told you how to say “You are welcome” or just “Welcome” and how that made us feel good. Today I thought that I could take it a bit further and explain how you can put a smile on someone’s face with the perfect compliment. So, take a look, here they come!

Compliments in Portuguese

First of all, you should know that “compliment” in Portuguese is “elogio”. It is a bit of a false friend because you could think that “cumprimento” means “compliment”, but in fact it means “greeting”. So, bear in mind:

Cumprimento –> Greeting

Elogio –> Compliment

Now that you know this, I will be telling you about 5 compliments in Portuguese that you can use in different situations and with different people.

Work Compliment

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If you want to congratulate someone on their work, you can say:

1) Excelente trabalho!

This means something like “good job”, or literally “excellent job”! If you like what someone did, tell them how excellent you think what they did is. You can use this with friends and relatives, but especially at your work place with your colleagues or your subordinates (if you are the boss, for example). This will make them feel better and it will make YOU feel good too.

Who doesn’t like a recognition of their work, right?

Beauty Compliment

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Ok, that sounds a bit weird. But what I mean is that you can compliment someone on how they look, if that is appropriate. Seriously, do not use this on a total stranger in a dark alley, because you might get in trouble. You know what I mean, right?

That being said, if you have a special someone or even a close friend or a family member who is looking especially good, you can let them know by saying:

2) Que bonita/o que estás hoje!

When you use this compliment, you are actually saying “How pretty/handsome you are today!”. You will say this when you look at the person and you think that they are looking really nice. “Bonito” means “beautiful” or “handsome”.

Besides this, you can always make a compliment on the elegance of the person. If you think that the way they are dressing is especially classy and make them look good, you can say the following:

3) Que elegante que estás hoje!

If you guessed that the meaning of this sentence is “How elegant you look today”, then you were right! Use and abuse this if you want to make your friends, relatives or loved ones happy!

Compliments for Parents

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As you know, parents love when people compliment their kids. Again, do not do that to a total stranger in the street out of the blue for no reason, because it might be interpreted in a bad way, if you know what I mean…

But! You can totally compliment your friend´s or your sister´s child if they are well-behaved kids, for example. You can do that by saying:

4) Que menino/a bem comportado/a! 

That literally means “What a well-behaved boy/girl!”. Parents will love it and most children will be happy to hear that they behave well. So, if you want to be your friend or sister´s favourite, and maybe be invited to be the godfather or godmother of the kid, you can use this compliment. Who knows? It may work…

Compliment for Friends

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Who is the friend that does not like to be acknowledged for their great friendship? If you have friends who you feel are great, use this compliment on them:

5) És um ótimo amigo!

Meaning “You are a great friend”, if you say these words, you can be sure you will be making someone happy. Isn’t it nice to feel that your friendship is appreciated? Would you not like to hear it? I sure would! So, use it as often as you can with your friends and make your relationship stronger and long-lasting!

I sure got inspired to say it to my best friends. I have a few and I love them, so why not compliment them? Also, while you are at it, tell them you love them too! You can check out how in here.

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And that’s it! I hope you liked this article and that you too feel compelled to go out in the world and make people happy by using these 5 Lovely Compliments in Portuguese. Also, since you are at it, compliment away in any language you know! I just think that if we are more positive and tell people how good/ beautiful/ amazing they are, the world will automatically become a better place, one smile at a time.

What do you think about this? Do you have any favourite compliments in Portuguese or in your language? Let us hear about it on the comments section below! Spread the love!

Beijinhos,

Mia

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