What’s the Total = Quanto Deu?

First Published: 20th of November, 2020 by Patrick Carpen.

If you go to the shop or supermarket in Brazil and you’re purchasing a number of items, you might ask: what’s the total cost of these items? There are many other situations where you might need to ask for the total cost. So how exactly do you say this in Portuguese? Let’s take a look!

What’s the total = Qual é o total?

However, it’s more common for Brazilians to use “quanto” which means “how much” instead of “qual” which approximates “what.”

How much is the total = Quanto é o total?

But even more common than these two is an idiomatic expression: quanto deu?

Quanto deu = how much it gave?

It’s not exactly banging up with a literal English translation, but the expression “quanto” means “how much” and “deu” is derived from the verb “to give.”

Let’s take a look.

Present Tense

I give: eu dou

you give: você dá

he gives: ele dá

she gives: ela dá

it gives: dá

they give: eles dão

Past Tense

I gave: Eu dei

you gave: você deu

he gave: ele deu

she gave: ela deu

it gave: deu

they gave: eles deram

As you can see:

Quanto = how much

Deu = it gave

Sort of like, how much did adding it up give?

As you can see, it’s not a literal translation, but it’s a common way of saying “what’s the total” in Brazil.

Related: Cheaper: Mais barato or mais em conta?