Acordar vs. Levantar: Wake Up or Get Out of Bed?
Acordar is waking up; levantar is getting up. You can wake at one time and leave bed later.
Real Life Portuguese · 5 min read · Updated October 15, 2026
The short answer
Acordar means to wake up or awaken. It describes the moment you stop sleeping, whether you get out of bed immediately or stay under the covers. Acordar alguém means wake someone else up.
Use acordar for waking up
For a morning routine, say a que horas você acorda? to ask what time someone wakes. In many Brazilian conversations, acordar is also used broadly for starting the day, but the verb itself focuses on waking.
Acordo às seis durante a semana.
I wake up at six during the week.
O barulho acordou o bebê.
The noise woke the baby up.
Ela acordou cedo, mas ficou na cama.
She woke up early but stayed in bed.
Use levantar for getting up
Levantar means to get up, stand up, or lift something. In a morning routine, levantar-se or simply levantar describes getting out of bed: levantei às sete (I got up at seven). Many Brazilians also say levantar da cama.
The timeline is easy to separate: acordar is when you wake; levantar is when you get up. If you say acordei às seis e levantei às sete, the listener understands that you were awake for an hour before leaving bed.
Eu levanto da cama depois do despertador.
I get out of bed after the alarm.
Ele acordou às cinco e levantou às cinco e meia.
He woke up at five and got up at five thirty.
Por favor, levante-se para abrir a janela.
Please stand up to open the window.
Put it into practice
Acordar is wake up; levantar is get up or stand up. You can use both in one sentence to describe two different moments in your morning.
Quick practice
Which Portuguese example matches “I wake up at six during the week”?
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