O Tal Café, Um Tal de Rui: Follow a Reference in Portuguese
Understand o tal café and um tal de Rui in Brazilian Portuguese. Recover a prior reference, handle an unfamiliar name, and choose a neutral clarification.
Real Life Portuguese · 7 min read · Updated November 2, 2026
The short answer
A friend says “o tal café,” and you try to remember which café they mentioned. Later, somebody says “um tal de Rui,” although you have never met Rui. Tal can help point back to a shared reference or introduce a name at a distance. The surrounding words matter, and some uses can sound dismissive. Practise with original written conversations.
Start with the situation
Original written teaching examples, not a transcript or new recording
Use an earlier mention to understand o tal
In o tal café, tal can point back to a café already mentioned. It is roughly “that café we were talking about,” rather than a claim that you personally know the place. You may remember the earlier description without knowing its name. Connect the expression to what the conversation actually established before adding details of your own.
Você foi ao tal café perto da estação?
Did you go to that café near the station we talked about?
É o café que você comentou ontem?
Is it the café you mentioned yesterday?
Keep the noun visible when the reference is weak
You can say o tal café, a tal mensagem or os tais documentos. The article and noun give you a recognizable object or category. Tal has the same singular form beside masculine café and feminine mensagem; its plural is tais.
If several messages or places were mentioned, tal does not magically choose the right one. Ask which message, document or café the speaker means. Do not pretend that the expression supplies a missing name or address.
Você encontrou a tal mensagem?
Did you find that message we talked about?
Quais documentos você quer dizer?
Which documents do you mean?
Recognize um tal de before an unfamiliar name
Um tal de Rui can identify someone by name while presenting that person as unfamiliar, unimportant to the speaker or at a distance. Depending on the situation, it can carry a dismissive edge. Do not learn it as a universally neutral introduction or assume it says the person is a criminal. It tells you something about how the speaker presents the name, not a verified biography.
If you are simply passing on a caller’s name, uma pessoa chamada Rui is a clear alternative. The same information can be conveyed without deliberately sounding unimpressed.
Um tal de Rui deixou um recado.
Someone named Rui left a message.
Uma pessoa chamada Rui deixou um recado para você.
Someone named Rui left a message for you.
Do not read the speaker’s whole attitude from one word
Tal can be used with a negative or dismissive connotation, but context is needed before deciding what the speaker means in a particular exchange. A remembered recommendation and an irritated remark are different settings. When introducing a new acquaintance yourself, their name or a neutral description avoids an unnecessary distancing effect.
Quem é o Rui? asks for identity. Foi o Rui do curso? checks a specific possibility, but only use that connection if it is available in your conversation.
Quem é o Rui? Não conheço esse nome.
Who is Rui? I do not recognize that name.
A Paula, minha colega de trabalho, vai chegar mais tarde.
Paula, my work colleague, will arrive later.
Separate a remembered reference from a new guess
The original dialogue below supplies the café description before referring back to it. The listener confirms a remembered mention and asks for the missing name. To practise, write one earlier mention, one later phrase with o tal or a tal, and a question about a detail that is still genuinely unknown. A reference marker helps connect information; it does not create the information you never received.
Try it with your own words
Say or write a Portuguese answer before opening the suggestion. Other natural answers can work; compare the meaning and situation, then read the explanation.
Original written practice: Yesterday Ana mentioned one café near the station. Today she says o tal café. Does that establish that you have visited it?
Show a possible answer and explanation
No. It can point back to the café Ana mentioned; it does not establish that you visited it.
Shared discourse reference is not the same as shared personal experience. The café can be identifiable from an earlier mention alone.
Original written practice: Two messages were discussed, and Você encontrou a tal mensagem? leaves you unsure which one. Ask for the missing reference.
Show a possible answer and explanation
Você está falando de qual mensagem? — Which message are you talking about?
The phrase tal mensagem does not resolve two plausible candidates by itself. The question checks the noun’s reference without inventing message content.
Original written practice: A caller gave the name Rui, and you have no information about him. Relay that name in a neutral sentence rather than adopting a dismissive um tal de.
Show a possible answer and explanation
Uma pessoa chamada Rui ligou para você. — Someone named Rui called you.
The name is retained, but no familiarity, job or relationship is added. The neutral description avoids unnecessarily distancing language.
Original written practice: Make a plural phrase referring to documents already mentioned: os ___ documentos.
Show a possible answer and explanation
Os tais documentos. — Those documents we talked about.
The plural form is tais. The phrase still needs a recoverable prior reference; its grammar alone does not identify which documents are meant.
Sources and further reading
Practise a reference you can actually recover
Return to one object mentioned in an original short dialogue, then ask about one detail still missing. Explore Real Life Portuguese with that goal of following the connection between turns. Explore Real Life Portuguese