Saudações básicas e como se apresentar em português

What does “e aí” mean in Brazilian Portuguese?

Textbooks give you oi and olá for “hi,” but the greeting Brazilians actually toss around with friends is e aí. It’s the casual “hey, what’s up?” you’ll hear constantly, and it barely needs an answer — the easiest reply is to fire e aí right back. Save it for friends and informal moments, never for a boss or a stranger you want to impress.

Literally it’s just e (“and”) + aí (“there”) — “and there?” — but as a greeting it works like English “what’s up?” In speech it often softens to e aê, and you’ll see it spelled iaí or iaê to match the sound. The same little phrase pulls double duty as a “so, what next?” connector mid-conversation. The clip flags it directly: after the standard oi/olá, the narrator notes that informalmente you can also say e aí (alongside e qual é) — the everyday opener phrasebooks skip.