Your first conversation: asking well

Two requests, two answers

Fátima needs a residence certificate. She wants to ask the junta de freguesia (the parish council), by email, which documents she has to bring. She opens an AI assistant and types her first request. Then she tries a second one. See the difference:

Bad request	Good request
"write an email to the junta"	"I live in the parish and I need a residence certificate to hand in at my daughter's school. Write a short, polite email to the junta de freguesia asking which documents I have to bring, what the opening hours are and whether I can arrange it by email. Formal but simple tone, maximum 8 lines. End it with '[SIGNATURE]', which I will replace with my name later."

With the bad request, the AI has to guess everything. You get a generic email, with three paragraphs of politeness and nothing concrete. With the good request, you get an email Fátima can send almost untouched: she only swaps the label for her name.

The AI is not lazy or stubborn. It just does not know what you have not told it.

The formula: five pieces

A good request has, in this order:

1. Situation — what is going on. "I live in the parish and I need a residence certificate."
2. What you want — the task, with a clear verb. "Write an email asking…"
3. Who it is for — who will read it. "For the parish council." It changes the tone: you do not write the same way to a friend and to an authority.
4. Format — length and shape. "Maximum 8 lines." "As a list." "In European Portuguese."
5. Example (if you have one) — a similar text you liked. "Write in this style: …"

You do not always need all five. But the more pieces you give, the less the AI has to guess.

Here is Fátima's request, ready to copy. Replace what is in [square brackets], except the label [SIGNATURE]: leave that one exactly as it is. You only write your name later, in the email, outside the AI.

I live in the parish of [name of parish] and I need a residence certificate for [what it is for]. Write a short, polite email to the junta de freguesia asking which documents I have to bring, what the opening hours are and whether I can deal with it by email. Formal but simple tone, maximum 8 lines, in European Portuguese. End it with "[SIGNATURE]", which I will replace with my name later.

Let the AI ask you questions

Sometimes you do not know what needs to be said. Then ask the AI to question you first. Add this sentence at the end of any request:

Before you write, ask me up to 3 questions about what you still need to know. Only then write.

The AI might ask, for example, "Is this the first time you are asking for this certificate?" or "Would you rather collect the document at the counter or receive it by email?" You answer, and the final text comes out much closer to what you need.

Fine-tuning: the conversation goes on

The first answer is rarely the final one. Do not start again from zero. Reply in the same conversation, with short follow-ups:

Shorter, maximum 5 lines.

More formal. Address the president of the junta as "Exmo. Senhor Presidente".

Others that work: "Remove the last paragraph." "Give me three suggestions for the email subject line." "Explain what you changed." This is called iterating: improving little by little.

Where and how to use it, today

This is how it looks on 6 October 2026; your screen may differ.

• On the computer: open the browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari) and type the address of the assistant. Lesson 4 has the list. Type your request in the text box at the bottom and press Enter.
• On the phone: install the official app from your phone's store (Play Store or App Store). Check that the name of the company that publishes it is the real one.
• By voice: phone apps usually have a button with a microphone. Press it, speak, and what you said appears as text. Some also have a voice conversation mode, in which the AI answers out loud. It is very handy if you do not like typing on a small screen.

Normally, the service asks you to create an account with your email. There are free versions and paid versions. To start, the free one is enough. For prices and differences, see the Current state page.

Each service also has a minimum age in its terms of use, and sometimes it requires a parent's permission for minors. If you are a parent or grandparent, check before letting a child use it.