bandeiras nas casas em competições de futebol em Portugal

What does “meter” mean in European Portuguese?

In European Portuguese, meter is the everyday verb for putting something somewhere — far more common than the more formal pôr. Describing how flags go up during football tournaments, a speaker says muitas pessoas metem a bandeira nas casas, “people stick the flag on their houses,” usually on the balcony. Textbooks lean on pôr, but meter is what you’ll actually hear in Portugal for the keys in your pocket or a plate in the dishwasher.

Frequency, not formality, is the real split between the two words: pôr stays neutral and slightly bookish, while meter is what actually fills Portuguese conversation — mete isso aqui (“stick this in here”), mete-te na fila (“get in line”). In Brazil the same verb survives but sounds rougher, sometimes crude, which is why Brazilians default to colocar or pôr and leave meter mostly to Portugal.