I Miss You in Portuguese

I have been writing this blog for a while now, and I have realized that I pretty much skipped the Brazilian Portuguese basics. So for those of you who are in the beginning stages of your Brazilian Portuguese mastery, the next few posts that I will write will be geared towards learning some easy Portuguese. In this post, I will tell you how to say I miss you in Portuguese.

“I was here not doing anything and I started to think about you…I miss you ” – “The video game broke, right?” – “yes ” – “I knew it…”

I Miss You In Portuguese

There is a unique way to say I miss you in Portuguese. “Missing” in Portuguese is described as a state of being. “Estou com saudade” literally translates to “I am with longing.” It is used to describe the feeling of wanting to be close to someone or something or some place, but not being able to. It is also used to describe the state of being nostalgic. The word saudade is commonly pluralized to “saudades,” which means the same thing.

Brazilians are shocked to learn that in English there is not a compatible translation for “saudades” – it further confirms their suspicions that American culture is cold, inexpressive and unromantic.

Brazilians have a very warm culture, and thus they will often tell you “que saudades!” “how I missed you!” or they will say “saudades de você!” “I miss you!”

Other common phrases using Saudades:

“Estou morrendo de saudades” – I am dying of missing/longing

“Ficar com saudades” – To start to miss something, to come into a state of missing or longing

“Matar saudades” – Literally means “to kill the longing” – you would say this to a friend who you haven’t seen for a while “Vamos matar saudades!?” – “let’s get together?”

There is one more way to say I miss you in Portuguese which is “Eu sinto sua falta.” This translates to: “I feel your absence.”

Tanta Saudade

In Brazilian music (especially nostalgic Samba) musicians talk a lot about Saudades. For example, here is a song by Djavan and Chico Buarque called ” Tanta Saudade” (So Much Missing). It goes:

Era tanta saudade – It was so much missing
É pra matar – It could kill
Eu fiquei até doente – I even became sick
Eu fiquei até doente, menina – I even became sick, girl
Se eu não mato a saudade – If I don’t get rid of this longing
É, deixa estar – And, let it be
A saudade mata a gente – The missing will kill us
A saudade mata a gente – The missing will kill us