Creole Phrases

Cape Verde’s spoken language is a Portuguese creole called "Creolo." Its official language is Portuguese. If you don’t speak Portugese but speak Spanish, then you could try speaking Spanish to communicate with the locals which is very similar to Portuguese. Many locals have taken English and/or French in high school, so if spoken simply enough, you will likely be able to communicate in either of them especially with the tourism operators.

If you’d like to take a crack at the locally spoken language of Creolo (a simplified version of Portuguese, originally used to communicate with slaves who were brought from African countries), then here are some key words and phrases. Please note that these are of the creole spoken on Santo Antão.