Essential Portuguese car rental vocabulary

English may be the “universal language” but suffice to say that some Kemwel car rental destinations like Portugal and Brazil may require some level of bilingualism during your viagem (trip). Perhaps you are learning Portuguese while dancing samba or maybe you have realized that many English words ending in "tion" take on the signature "ção" ending, such as estação (station), comunicação (communication) or imaginação (imagination). Whatever the reason may be, this blog post will provide readers with some useful automobile and travel-related vocabulary for your car rental experience in Brazil or road trip across Portugal through the Kemwel booking engine!

Practical Portuguese words for car rentals

Why learn Portuguese

Whether you realize it or not but Portuguese is the official language in nine Lusophone countries, not to mention the sixth most spoken on the planet. Outside of Portugal and Brazil, other Portuguese-speaking nations include Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Timor-Leste, Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Principe, as well as the Chinese autonomous territory of Macau. Certain words in English even derive from Portuguese such as cobra, banana, and even embarrass that comes from embaraçado that originally meant tangled or tied in knots.

Granted that only 5 percent of Portuguese speakers reside in Portugal, this country happens to be among Kemwel’s most popular European car rental spots. Between a quarter and a third of this Iberian nation can reportedly speak English as a second language, which is more than neighboring Spain but also France and Italy. About seven million English speakers travel to Portugal annually, so a large portion of the population being bilingual certainly comes in hand, especially in tourism areas like Faro and Aveiro full of sandy beaches plus warm weather.

Large cities like Lisbon and Porto will of course have their fair share of English speakers. Foreign expats have also gotten around for years without speaking a lick of Portuguese. Younger people will also obviously speak more of it since English is taught in schools. Nonetheless, part of the fun with traveling is immersing oneself in new cultures and customs, especially language. Let’s say you’re going on a road trip to Faro or adventuring around Beja- this is where you may very well need to resort to your most basic Portuguese.

Whether you’re filling up at a posto de gasolina (gas station) or dropping off your vehicle at an estação de trem (train station), the Kemwel booking engine guarantees options! With some of our car rental suppliers such as Localiza, Unidas and Movida from Brazil, these vocabulary words will certainly come in handy as you rent a car in a Portuguese-speaking country!

Airport car rental vocabulary

When you’re departing the aviaõ (plane) and looking for the escritório do alugel de carros (car rental desks), the following vocabulary will be useful within our network of Portuguese airport car rentals. Keep this information in mind when you are reserving your affordable car rental at Lisbon Portela Airport or the Porto Airport!

Train station car rental vocabulary