Rotina matinal e noturna de mãe e filha

What does “chega de” mean in Portuguese?

Chega literally means “it arrives,” but on its own it is the word you say when you want something to stop: “enough.” Add de plus a noun and you have the everyday complaint pattern — chega de telas (“no more screens”), chega de desculpas, chega de conversa. As a bare exclamation, Chega! is a complete sentence: “That’s it.”

The verb chegar keeps its ordinary sense everywhere else — cheguei em casa, “I got home” — so context does the sorting. Two useful relatives: já chega (“that’s enough now”) and chega pra lá, “shove over,” from the same idea of arriving into a space. Portugal uses chega de too, but basta is more common there.