À vontade: how to say make yourself at home in Portuguese
You arrive at a Portuguese friend's house for dinner and stop just inside the door. You are not sure whether to sit down, take your shoes off, or wait to be shown where to go.
Your friend takes your coat, points at the sofa and says 'fica à vontade'. It is her way of telling you to stop hovering and treat the place as your own.
What it means
The literal translation of 'à vontade' is 'at will'. In everyday use it means at ease, comfortable, or feel free.
Portuguese people say it to hand you permission to relax: to sit where you like, help yourself, ask whatever you want. It is the phrase that turns a stiff visit into a comfortable one. Once you have taken the chair and stopped hovering, you are in 'está-se bem' territory.
Who you can say it to
You can use this with anyone. The verb in front of it is what changes with how well you know the person. With a friend you say 'fica à vontade'. With someone you address formally you say 'fique à vontade' or 'esteja à vontade'.
A shop assistant will say it to let you browse without being followed. A doctor will say it to a nervous patient. It is warm rather than slangy, so it also belongs in a polite email: 'fique à vontade para perguntar' (feel free to ask).
What you say back
Accepting is the usual answer, and it is short. A man says 'obrigado' and a woman says 'obrigada'. Two more words make it warmer.
- 🙏 Obrigado, muito simpático. (Thank you, very kind of you.)
If your host is already halfway to the kitchen and you would rather they sat down, this is how you stop them.
- ✋ Não se incomode. (Please do not go to any trouble.)
Whichever you choose, the answer that comes back will almost certainly be 'de nada'.
Words it travels with
This phrase lives with four verbs. 'Estar' describes how you feel, as in 'estou à vontade aqui' (I am comfortable here). 'Ficar' invites, as in 'fica à vontade' (make yourself at home).
'Sentir-se' is the same idea with more feeling behind it, as in 'não me sinto à vontade' (I do not feel comfortable). 'Pôr' is what a good host does to a guest, as in 'ela pôs-me logo à vontade' (she put me at ease straight away).
More ways to say make yourself at home
If someone is hovering in your hallway and you want them to relax, this is the warmest thing to say.
- 🏠 Sinta-se em casa. (Make yourself at home.)
If there is food or drink on the table and you want them to take some without asking first, use this one.
- 🍽️ Sirva-se. (Help yourself.)
If they keep apologising for being a bother, this tells them to stop being so polite.
- 🙅 Não faça cerimónia. (Do not stand on ceremony.)
If you only learn one of the three, learn 'sinta-se em casa'. It covers all three situations, and it is the one a Portuguese host is most likely to say to you first.
A detail most foreigners miss is that 'à vontade' has a second job that has nothing to do with hospitality. Put at the end of a sentence, it means easily, or with room to spare.
'Chegamos lá em vinte minutos, à vontade' means twenty minutes and no need to rush, and 'dá para seis pessoas, à vontade' means the dish will feed six without anybody going hungry. Same two words, completely different work, and it is the position in the sentence that tells them apart.
Back in the hallway it only ever means the first thing. Your friend is pointing at the sofa, and she would like you to sit down.