Cold, Flu & The Corona Virus – Brazilian Portuguese Vocabulary

In this post, you’ll learn how to say you have a cold, the flu and the coronavírus, as well as some common symptoms in Brazilian Portuguese.

I’ve also here included the replay of a live practice session on Instagram with FWBP Academy Members, Diane, when went through some of the these phrases.

Let´s start with how to say: I´m not feeling well.

Não estou me sentindo bem. / I’m not feeling well.

To sound more natural let´s shorten the conjugated verb estar here, and just say tô.

Não estou me sentindo bem.

Now let´s see the difference between a cold and the flu.

a simple cold is resfriado (masc. noun).

To say I have a cold.

Estou com resfriado. / I have a cold.

Notice here that we´re not using the Portuguese verb that means to have, instead we´re using the verb estar followed by the preposition com, which literally translating would be something like I am with…

Let´s shorten the conjugated verb estar here with eu, tô:

Tô com resfriado. / I have a cold.

You can also use the adjective resfriado (if you’re a man) or resfriada(if you’re a woman).

To resfriado!

To resfriada!

Moving onto gripe (fem. noun) – the illness caused by the influenza vírus, the flu.

To say I have the flu:

Tô com gripe. / I have the flu.

or using the adjective.

Tô gripado.

Tô gripada.

So, hopefully you won´t need to say this! But to say I have the coronavírus would be:

Tô com coronavírus. / I have the coronavirus.

Let´s say you´re unsure if you have it or not, you want to say something like I think I have the coronavirus – you´re going to need to use the verb achar, conjugated with eu.

Acho que tô com coronavírus. / I think I have the coronavirus.