What language is spoken in Rio de Janeiro?

Brazilian Portuguese. Not the European variety you'd hear in Lisbon. Cariocas, as Rio locals call themselves, speak with an accent where the letter 's' before a consonant comes out as 'sh.' The word 'mesmo' (same/really) sounds like 'mesh-mo.' The 'de' in 'Rio de Janeiro' softens to 'djee.' You'll hear 'beleza' (literally 'beauty') tossed around at beach bars along Copacabana's Avenida Atlântica the way Australians use 'no worries.' 'Valeu' (val-EH-oo) does the work of 'obrigado' in casual settings, closer to how Londoners use 'cheers.' The rhythm of Carioca Portuguese is faster than the Lisbon variety, with vowels that stay open and round.

English proficiency in the tourist corridor, meaning Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon, and Barra da Tijuca, sits at about 4 out of 10 (sourced from the EF English Proficiency Index, which ranks Brazil in its 'low proficiency' band). Staff at Zona Sul's larger hotels manage fine. Hostel owners in Santa Teresa tend to speak decent English too. But hail a taxi on Rua Barata Ribeiro, try asking directions at Central do Brasil station, or order at a per-kilo lunch counter in Centro, and you'll hit a wall fast. Uber drivers rarely speak English, though the app handles navigation. At Maracanã Stadium on match day, the vendor selling cold Brahma beer from a styrofoam cooler won't understand 'how much.' Google Translate's camera mode is worth downloading before you land at Galeão. Point it at a menu in Lapa. It'll save you from accidentally ordering chicken hearts. Unless you want to. They're good grilled with lime and coarse salt.

About 5 phrases cover 80% of daily interactions in Rio, fewer than most guidebooks suggest. 'Fala inglês?' (do you speak English?) gets a quicker, more honest answer than fumbling through a sentence. 'Quanto custa?' (how much?) at the Feira de São Cristóvão or the Saara market in Centro saves the awkward phone-calculator routine. 'Uma cerveja, por favor' at any boteco in Botafogo gets you a cold chopp draft for around R$10 to R$14. Brazilian Portuguese genders its 'thank you.' Men say 'obrigado,' women say 'obrigada.' Get it wrong and nobody in Ipanema will correct you, but get it right and you'll notice a shift in how the barista at your morning padaria responds. 'Tudo bem?' (everything good?) works as both greeting and question. The answer is always 'tudo bem.'

Reading Portuguese is easier than hearing it, which works in your favor for menus and street signs. The Latin alphabet means you can sound out names on the tiled calçada sidewalk plaques in Ipanema and get close enough. Price tags use commas for decimals. R$12,50 means twelve reais and fifty centavos, about US$2.42 at the current rate of 5.16 BRL per dollar. ATM screens at Banco do Brasil and Bradesco offer English, but the smaller Banco24Horas machines sometimes don't. Download offline Portuguese in Google Translate before you leave Galeão's airport Wi-Fi.