At least three words translate as “to reach”: alcançar, atingir and conseguir. I thought I understood conseguir: to reach as in to manage to do something. Likewise atingir seems to mean reaching a certain level or goal, which could be physical (a mountain top) or not (a college degree). I’m totally baffled on alcançar. Even the AI agent that I use had to confess that it was confused, especially about alcançar.
@douglas.howe, I’ll focus on atingir and alcançar first, since conseguir is a bit more of a tangent. In the sense of reaching, atingir and alcançar are usually treated as full synonyms when applied to a subjective/intangible milestone (e.g. achieving X). Some examples:
- Ela atingiu o topo da carreira. = Ela alcançou o topo da carreira. (She reached the top of her career)
- A canção atingiu o primeiro lugar de vendas. = A canção alcançou o primeiro lugar de vendas. (The song reached #1 in sales)
Otherwise, for concrete/tangible things, their uses differ more. They tend to remain synonymous when applied to certain physical milestones, such as in the following examples:
- O grupo atingiu o cume da montanha. = O grupo alcançou o cume da montanha. (The group reached the mountain’s summit)
- Nós atingimos a linha da frente. = Nós alcançámos a linha da frente. (We reached the front line)
- O avião atingiu a velocidade do som. = O avião alcançou a velocidade do som. (The plane reached the speed of sound).
But in other cases, it can get blurrier or require that only one of them is used. For example:
- O míssil atingiu o alvo. // O míssil alcançou o alvo. (The missile hit/reached the target)
→ If you want to emphasize that the missile struck its target, only atingir should be used, and it takes on the meaning of hitting/striking more so than simply reaching. If you want to emphasize how the missile was able to cover the entire distance to its target, alcançar can still be used. This is more of a theoretical distinction, as in practice, people aren’t always so specific about these nuances when speaking/writing. - Ela alcançou a rapariga para lhe pedir o número dela. (She caught up to the girl to ask for her number) → Only alcançar can be used in contexts like these.
Conseguir, by default, translates better to getting X or being able to X than to reaching. In some cases, it can be directly applied in a comparable sense, but many times, it’ll require help from other verbs (including atingir or alcançar) to complete the meaning. To demonstrate this, I’ll refer back to some of the previous examples, plus some extra ones:
- Ela atingiu o topo da carreira. ~ Ela conseguiu atingir o topo da carreira. → not directly interchangeable)
- A canção alcançou o primeiro lugar de vendas. ~ A canção conseguiu o primeiro lugar de vendas. → the verb conseguir can stand on its own here, but it’s interpreted more as getting/obtaining than as reaching
- Consegui o meu diploma! (I got my diploma!) or Consegui uma promoção! (I got a promotion) → Only the verb conseguir would normally be used in both cases. Alcancei could eventually be used if the intention is to highlight reaching/meeting all of the requirements for a diploma or promotion, not simply the fact that you got one. Still, not so idiomatic in European Portuguese.
Thank you Joseph. I felt reasonably comfortable with conseguir and atingir, but alcançar was confusing to me and the dictionaries I used didn’t clarify things. Even the AI chatbot I use was stumped trying to describe when to use alcançar vs atingir. Given your explanation I will likely only use atingir when meaning “reach” and alcançar for “to catch up to”, and hope I’m understood.
1 Like
You’re welcome! And yes, that approach should be fine 
Over time, as you get more confident, you can switch it up more.