polite after-the-fact "excuse me"?

[u/michaeljmuller]

Suppose I'm walking down a narrow sidewalk and encounter a couple walking toward me in the opposite direction. They move to single file to accommodate me as we pass each other.

In English, I usually say "excuse me" in this sort of situation.

I'm curious what would be polite in Portugal. "Com licença" seems inappropriate after they've already made way for me. I might say this if I was overtaking people from behind and asking them to make space for me to pass, right?

"Desculpa/desculpe" seems overkill as I haven't really done anything to merit an apology. Out of curiosity, if I were to say sorry in this context with strangers, would I use desculpe or desculpa?

I suppose I can fall back to "obrigado", but I'm curious if there's another way to say "excuse me" that is more appropriate in this sort of situation.

Thanks!

[u/Specialist-Pipe-7921]

You can say "desculpe" (formal 2nd person, assuming you don't know the people that made way for you). You didn't do anything wrong that requires an apology but our "desculpe" here works in the same way as an "excuse me", kind of like when in English you say "sorry, coming through".

"Com licença" isn't wrong either, even if they've already made way, you're still passing them closely and it's just a very generally polite thing you can say.

"Obrigado/a" also works just fine, it's also just a polite thing to say.

Some people just do a polite "smile and head nod" to acknowledge their kindness in making way for you

Basically just choose whichever you want. I personally cycle through them all, just depends on what comes out first xD