What Does Enturmar Mean? How It Differs from Interagir in Portuguese

What does enturmar mean in Portuguese? Here's the enturmar meaning in a nutshell: enturmar is to fit in with a group of people and become part of the "turma", what you'd call your crew or your squad in English, while interagir simply means to interact, talk or have contact with someone. Both words are about being around other people, but they're not the same thing: you can interagir with someone every single day and still never enturmar with their group.

So if you've been wondering how to say "fit in" in Portuguese, enturmar is the word you're looking for. The interagir meaning is the easy one, since it looks almost exactly like the English "interact". Just watch the spelling: it's "enturmar" with an E (and "se enturmar" or "enturmar-se" when you're talking about yourself), never "inturmar". "Interagir" is written with a G, though in some forms the G turns into a J, as in "eu interajo" or "que ele interaja".

In this lesson I'll walk you through enturmar vs interagir with a video, practice sentences and two bonus words you'll hear all the time in Brazil: "turma" and "entrosar". And if you want to put all of this into practice, check out my Portuguese ice breaker questions, perfect for starting to enturmar with Brazilians.

Video: How to Use "Interagir" and "Enturmar" in Portuguese

In just a few minutes, the video shows you when to use interagir and when to use enturmar in Portuguese. The key is the result: with interagir there's contact with someone; with enturmar you end up being part of the group, the "turma".

Practice Sentences with Interagir and Enturmar

These practice sentences show interagir and enturmar the way we use them in Brazil: at college, at work and at get-togethers. Notice one detail: enturmar almost always comes with a pronoun, as in "me enturmei", "ele se enturmou" or "não consegui me enturmar".

Interagir

Interagir means to interact: to talk, respond or have any kind of contact with someone, without it implying friendship. Its synonyms are "conversar", "se comunicar" and "se relacionar". Heads up: it's not an irregular verb, the G just changes to a J in forms like "eu interajo"; the verbs that really are irregular are in my list of irregular verbs in Portuguese.

To interact with people, talk, get in touch.

• "Se você não interagir com as pessoas você vai sair da reunião sem ter conhecido ninguém."
• "Eu tava conversando com Marcos mas ele nunca interagia, só ficava escutando."

“Eu não sou antissocial. Simplesmente acho desnecessário interagir com certas pessoas. Procuro identificar os ambientes que me fazem bem. Frequento lugares onde sou querido, e não tolerado.” - Aristófanis Quirino dos Santos

Article in Portuguese: Interação Social: 6 Dicas Que Vão Te Ajudar Muito

Enturmar

Enturmar means to join a "turma", whether it's a group of friends, classmates or coworkers, until you feel like you're part of it. It's spelled with an E, "enturmar", never "inturmar", and its closest synonyms are "entrosar" and "se integrar". If you're trying to fit in at a new job, this work vocabulary in Portuguese will help you enturmar faster.

To interact with people and manage to become part of the group.

• "Nossa cara, você chegou aqui na universidade há 1 mês e já se enturmou com todo mundo."
• "Ele era muito tímido e não conseguiu se enturmar com os companheiros de trabalho."

In other words, you can "interagir" with someone without necessarily becoming part of the group.

Article in Portuguese: Como me enturmar sem ser chato?

Bonus: Turma and Entrosar

To really nail the enturmar meaning, it helps to know the word it comes from, "turma", and its close cousin "entrosar", which we use a lot in Brazil at work, at college and even in soccer. And if you want to know what we call the friends in our turma, check out these ways to say friend in Portuguese.

Turma = a group of people, who can be friends or strangers, which is where the word "enturmar" comes from: joining a group and becoming part of it.

"A turma inteira está reunida aqui pra viajar"

Entrosar = To connect with people, get along, be part of the group, very similar to "enturmar".

"Já vi que você conseguiu se entrosar com o pessoal."

Remember to take notes and make your own sentences with every word and/or expression you learn.

The most common Brazilian Portuguese expressions