New Year’s Resolutions in Brazilian Portuguese: Talk About Your Goals
Use meta, objetivo, and resolution vocabulary to discuss a plan without making it sound more formal or absolute than you intend.
Real Life Portuguese · 6 min read · Updated October 15, 2026
The short answer
Resolução de Ano Novo is a direct translation of ‘New Year’s resolution.’ In everyday conversation, meta para este ano (goal for this year) is another natural option and can describe a practical change. Objetivo also means goal or objective and may sound more formal depending on context.
Choose between meta and resolução
Be specific about the action you want to take. ‘I want to improve my Portuguese’ becomes quero melhorar meu português; ‘I want to practice every day’ becomes quero praticar todos os dias.
Minha meta para este ano é praticar português com mais frequência.
My goal for this year is to practice Portuguese more often.
Uma das minhas resoluções é caminhar três vezes por semana.
One of my resolutions is to go for a walk three times a week.
Say what you plan to start, stop, or continue
Use começar a + infinitive for starting an activity, parar de + infinitive for stopping it, and continuar a + infinitive or continuar + gerund for continuing. In conversational Brazilian Portuguese, you will commonly hear continuar praticando (keep practicing).
Ir + infinitive is a frequent way to talk about a future plan: vou ler mais (I’m going to read more). The context tells the listener how firm or specific the plan is.
Vou começar a estudar antes do trabalho.
I’m going to start studying before work.
Quero continuar praticando, mesmo quando estiver ocupado.
I want to keep practicing, even when I’m busy.
Pretendo cozinhar em casa mais vezes.
I plan to cook at home more often.
Ask about someone else’s goal
A friendly question invites the other person to share as much or as little as they want. Você tem alguma meta para este ano? means ‘Do you have a goal for this year?’ You can follow up without treating the answer as a promise.
Use talvez (maybe) or espero conseguir (I hope I can) when your plan is still uncertain. These expressions let you talk about an intention without presenting it as a fixed commitment.
Você tem alguma meta para este ano?
Do you have a goal for this year?
Espero conseguir ler mais livros em português.
I hope I can read more books in Portuguese.
Put it into practice
Describe one action with quero, vou, or pretendo, then make it concrete with when or how often. The linked I Speak Portuguese article offers another set of original goal-related examples.
Quick practice
Which Portuguese example matches “I hope I can read more books in Portuguese”?
Choose an answer to check yourself.
This guide is an original Real Life Portuguese adaptation of an earlier article from I Speak Portuguese.
Keep practicing with the Real Life Portuguese app
Build on this guide with everyday expressions and native Brazilian audio. Choose iPhone, Android, or the web app.