How to Say Board in Portuguese (Plus Whiteboard, Chalk and Chart)

How do you say board in Portuguese? It depends on the board: a wooden board, a cutting board or an ironing board is tábua, a surfboard is prancha and a game board, like a chessboard, is tabuleiro. And if you mean a table of data, like the periodic table or a nutrition facts table, the word is tabela (the table you eat at is a different word: mesa).

The same goes for the board in a classroom. For a whiteboard in Portuguese, a chalkboard or a blackboard, here in Brazil we say quadro (or lousa, very common in São Paulo). And chalk in Portuguese is giz. In English you switch between board, table, chart and plank without thinking, but in Portuguese each one has its own name.

Below I show you each way to say it, with phrases to practice and a video, plus expressions we use all the time in Brazil like "preço tabelado" and "gol de tabela". It's one of those word families that trip learners up, just like the Portuguese false friends.

Video: Ways to say BOARD in Portuguese

Board in Portuguese can be tábua, tabela, prancha or even tabuada (times tables), depending on what you're talking about. In this video I explain each one with its pronunciation, so you won't be left wondering the next time you need it.

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List with phrases to practice

Here's each type of board or table with its Portuguese translation and an everyday phrase translated into English. These are some of those hard Portuguese words for learners, because one simple English idea turns into several different words.

IRONING BOARD - TÁBUA DE PASSAR

An ironing board in Portuguese is tábua de passar, because in Brazil ironing clothes is "passar roupa". The iron itself is the ferro de passar. Any wooden board is also a tábua, like the "tábua de carne", the cutting board in the kitchen.

• Vou ter que comprar uma tábua de passar pra engomar essas camisas (I'm going to have to buy an ironing board to iron these shirts).

PERIODIC TABLE - TABELA PERIÓDICA

The periodic table in Portuguese is tabela periódica. We use tabela for any table of data with rows and columns: the "tabela de preços" (price list), the "tabela do campeonato" (league standings) or an Excel spreadsheet table.

• Você conhece todos os elementos da tabela periódica? (Do you know all the elements of the periodic table?)

NUTRITION FACTS TABLE - TABELA NUTRICIONAL

A nutrition facts table in Portuguese is tabela nutricional, although on food packaging in Brazil you'll read the heading "Informação Nutricional". If you like cooking, it goes well with these recipes in Portuguese.

• Ela me contou que tava lendo a tabela nutricional e quase cai pra trás quando viu a quantidade de gordura saturada que tinha por porção. (She told me she was reading the nutrition facts table and almost fell over when she saw how much saturated fat there was per serving.)

SURFBOARD - PRANCHA DE SURF

A surfboard in Portuguese is prancha de surf, or just prancha. The same word shows up in the plank exercise at the gym ("fazer prancha") and, in the diminutive, in pranchinha, the hair straightener, which in many parts of Brazil we also call "chapinha".

• Cara, acredita que ontem eu tava pegando umas ondas a prancha partiu ao meio, ainda bem que tá na garantia. (Dude, can you believe that yesterday, while I was catching some waves, my board snapped in half? Good thing it's still under warranty.)

There's also the "Pranchinha de cabelo".

• Você trouxe a pranchinha? Tô precisando dar um jeito nesse cabelo. (Did you bring the hair straightener? I really need to fix my hair.)

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Article in Portuguese: Evite os oito maiores erros de quem faz chapinha no cabelo

TIMES TABLES - TABUADA DE MULTIPLICAÇÃO

The multiplication table, or times tables, in Portuguese is tabuada. In everyday speech almost nobody says the full "tabuada de multiplicação": we say "a tabuada do 7" for the 7 times table, just like at school.

• Com 7 anos de idade ele já sabia a tabuada completa. (At 7 years old he already knew all his times tables.)

Article in Portuguese: Campeonato de tabuada incentiva o aprendizado de alunos de forma lúdica

WHITEBOARD, CHALKBOARD - QUADRO

The classroom board in Portuguese is quadro: the "quadro-negro" is the chalkboard (or blackboard) and the "quadro branco" is the whiteboard you use with markers. Heads up, quadro is also a painting or a picture hanging on the wall.

• Os professores começaram a reclamar que o fato de usarem giz pra escrever no quadro estava causando alergia. (The teachers started complaining that using chalk to write on the board was giving them allergies.)

Article in Portuguese: Artista vietnamita cria incríveis obras de arte em calçadas usando apenas giz de cera

BLACKBOARD - LOUSA

Lousa is another way to say board (chalkboard or whiteboard) in Portuguese, and it's very common in São Paulo and in southern Brazil. Quadro and lousa are synonyms, so you'll hear both; these days schools also talk about the "lousa digital", the interactive smart board.

• A professora escreveu toda a lição na lousa e pediu pra gente copiar no caderno. (The teacher wrote the whole lesson on the board and asked us to copy it into our notebooks.)

CHALK - GIZ

Chalk in Portuguese is giz. The "giz de cera" is the wax crayon kids use for coloring, and the "giz de lousa" is good old white chalk.

• Acabou o giz, alguém pode buscar mais na secretaria? (We're out of chalk, can someone get more from the front office?)

CHESSBOARD - TABULEIRO

A chessboard in Portuguese is tabuleiro, not quadro. We use tabuleiro for any game board, like checkers or any board game, which in Brazil we call a "jogo de tabuleiro".

• Arruma as peças no tabuleiro que eu já volto pra gente jogar. (Set up the pieces on the board, I'll be right back so we can play.)

EXTRA

Beyond the direct translations, tábua and tabela also show up in verbs and Portuguese idioms we use all the time in Brazil. These three will come in handy in a meeting, at a store and while watching a soccer game.

To strike up a conversation could be "entabular uma conversa" in Portuguese, but this verb is very formal.

The most common way would be to say "não conseguimos estabelecer/ter com eles".

Strike up a conversation - Entabular

To strike up or open a conversation in formal Portuguese is entabular, but it sounds stiff, almost like something out of an official document. In everyday, colloquial Brazilian Portuguese, we say "puxar conversa" or "começar uma conversa".

• Não foi possível entabular uma conversa proveitosa com o grupo responsável por fazer essas mudanças, eles estavam na defensiva. (It wasn't possible to have a productive conversation with the group in charge of making those changes, they were on the defensive.)

Preço tabelado

These are fixed, preset prices, there's no way to change them.

• Eu até pedi um desconto, na mesma hora o vendedor já falou que todos os preços eram tabelados. (I even asked for a discount, and right away the salesperson told me all the prices were fixed.)

Gol de tabela

A gol de tabela is a goal that comes from a one-two: two players pass the ball back and forth quickly (a give-and-go) and the last one shoots. In Brazil we call that play a "tabelinha".

• Nos últimos 3 minutos do jogo eles fizeram um gol de tabela e se classificaram. (In the last 3 minutes of the game they scored off a one-two and qualified.)

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