Saudade in Portuguese: Meaning, Pronunciation, and How to Use It
Learn how saudade works in real sentences, from missing a friend to saying you miss a place or a familiar routine.
Real Life Portuguese · 7 min read · Updated October 14, 2026
The short answer
Saudade is a feeling of missing someone, somewhere, or something. English may use “miss,” “long for,” or “nostalgia,” depending on the context. There is no need to treat the word as impossible to translate; look at who or what the speaker is thinking about.
Understand saudade through the person or thing you miss
The noun is feminine: a saudade. In Brazilian Portuguese, people often say estou com saudade de… or estou com saudades de… Both singular and plural forms are common in everyday speech.
Estou com saudade da minha família.
I miss my family.
Que saudade da praia!
I really miss the beach!
Sinto saudade daquela época.
I feel nostalgic for that time.
Use de to say who or what you miss
After saudade, de connects the feeling to its focus: saudade de você (missing you), saudade do trabalho (missing work), saudade das férias (missing the vacation). The article combines with de in forms such as do, da, dos, and das.
In a conversation about a person, a warm phrase is estou com saudade de você. If you mean several people, say estou com saudade de vocês. Context makes the referent clear, so you do not need to add a separate pronoun every time.
A gente está com saudade dos nossos amigos.
We miss our friends.
Você está com saudade do Brasil?
Do you miss Brazil?
Estou com saudades de vocês.
I miss you all.
Choose a natural phrase for how you feel
Estar com saudade is a common way to describe the feeling you have now. Sentir saudade emphasizes feeling or experiencing it. Matar a saudade means to reconnect with someone or revisit something that you missed; literally, it says to “kill” the longing, but use the expression as a whole.
Pronunciation varies by region and accent. Listen for the open first syllable and the final de when it is present, then practice the complete phrase at a normal conversational pace. A clear sentence matters more than copying one accent perfectly.
Estou com saudade de conversar com você.
I miss talking with you.
Vamos tomar um café para matar a saudade?
Shall we have coffee and catch up?
Senti saudade da comida da minha avó.
I missed my grandmother’s cooking.
Ask someone about saudade without making assumptions
Use the phrase as an invitation to share, not as a claim about how another person must feel. Você está com saudade de casa? asks whether someone misses home; it does not assume that moving abroad has been difficult for them.
For more ways to describe feelings, explore Real Life Portuguese guides to gostar de and everyday conversation. I Speak Portuguese teachers can help you use saudade in personal stories and hear how the phrase changes with tone. Give your answer a detail—who, where, or what you miss—to make it sound natural.
Do que você está com mais saudade?
What do you miss the most?
Tenho saudade das conversas depois da aula.
I miss the conversations after class.
Quando você voltar, a gente mata a saudade.
When you come back, we’ll catch up and make up for lost time.
Put it into practice
Say estar com saudade de or sentir saudade de, then name the person, place, or experience you miss. Learn matar a saudade as a complete expression for reconnecting.
Quick practice
Which Portuguese example matches “I really miss the beach”?
Choose an answer to check yourself.
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.