Learning Basic Beginner Portuguese (Brazil)
If you want to study Brazilian Portuguese or have begun and feel overwhelmed, this guide is here to help you. Learning a new language doesn’t need to be a total minefield. As with other romance languages, there are similarities, cognates, grammar, and such. This article outlines a recommended method to learn Portuguese with free resources and covers key grammar points you should learn.
Step One: Structure + First Words
Never seen a lick of Portuguese before? Then this section is for you. Otherwise, skip to the next step. Start off with the basics. Google is your friend, and you should be able to find tons of articles and videos on most topics. Even ChatGPT can help you with most questions you have. (There is still a free version of ChatGPT at time of writing). Exhaust Google searching until you’re at the point of not being able to find info. Only then is it recommended buying some books or otherwise investing in lessons. If you want a partner to chat with, you can always use Reddit or the Tandem app. Both are free and have communities full of language exchange-looking partners.
Step Two: Bookmark Free Resources
Here are some favorite resources:
- LingoHut (Beginner): Get some of your first vocab words here and begin to orient yourself with the language. The lessons are bite-sized and contain audio to help you with pronunciation.
- LiveLingua Free Courses (Beginner to Intermediate): These courses start at a beginner level but have Intermediate options as well. If you already speak Spanish, they have a course geared towards you too.
- Português para principiantes (Beginner to Intermediate): An online book with interactive exercises and audio clips.
- StreetSmartBrazil (Beginner to Intermediate): A blog that is written in both English and Portuguese and will cover topics from basic vocab to idioms.
- Tá Falado (Intermediate): Small podcast that is grammar-focused and also emphasizes the differences between Spanish and Portuguese. The podcasts also have transcripts to follow along with.
- Lingua da Gente (Intermediate to Advanced): These are podcasts with transcriptions in both Portuguese and English.
- Portal Cafe Brasil (Advanced): Monolingual podcast with advanced topics and niche vocab. They have monolingual transcripts you can follow along with.
Tools of the trade:
The following free resources are tools that any level can benefit from.
Read also: Understanding PLCs
- Conjugação: This is an online conjugator. Especially at the beginner level, it can help to look up your verb of choice to make sure you’re using it correctly.
- Dicio: A monolingual online dictionary, this is useful for double-checking the gender or a word or even just the pronunciation. Most words have audio recordings with them.
- Tatoeba: An online dictionary that contains both Portuguese and English. They have other languages as well.
Step Three: Build the Vocab
It will be really hard to speak if you don’t know any words. Some people even argue that you should ignore grammar completely and just learn words. This step and the next go hand in hand. You should be doing these at the same time, but since that can be overwhelming, they’ve been included separately.
Here are the words you should search in either a dictionary for or for a vocab list in:
- Introduction/Meeting Someone (How are you?, I’m…., etc.)
- Family Members (Mom, Sister, etc.)
- Buildings (Hospital, Library, etc.)
- Places (Bathroom, Stores, etc.)
- Location Words (Above, next to, etc.)
- Animals
- Food
- Numbers
- Time
- Colors
- Question Words (Why, Where, etc.)
- Transportation (Cars, Planes, etc)
- Careers/School
- Hobbies (Sports, TV, etc.)
- Feelings (Sick, Happy, etc.)
- Travel Phrases (Departures, Ticket counter, etc.)
If you’re feeling lazy and don’t want to search everything individually - consider using Memrise. Its a free app and site where you can access vocab lists and practice spaced repetition in one place. Check out this 1000 Elementary Words in Portuguese list. This is not an exhaustive list but should get you pretty far. Next let’s look at the grammar we’ll need to sound cohesive.
Step Four: Portuguese Grammar Points
Now, here are the specific grammar topics you should be looking for - in order.
Note this is just my personal opinion so feel free to go about this in any way/order.
Read also: Learning Resources Near You
- Word Order in Sentences (Note the differences with Adjectives)
- Verb Conjugation in Present Tense
- Plural Words (Carro vs Carros, etc)
- Connecting words (E, Ou, Mas)
- Different versions of This, That, Here, There (Ali, Aqui, Isso, Esse, etc)
- Verb Conjugation in the Past Tenses (Pretérito Imperfeito and Pretérito Perfeito) *There is also the Pretérito Mais-que-perfeito, but the usage of this is quite nuanced so I recommend you revisit when you’re at an advanced level.
- Using commonly confused verbs (Ser/Estar, Poder/Conseguir, Saber/Conhecer)
- Possession (Dela, Dele, Do)
- Using To Go (Ir) for Future Tense
- Verb Conjugation in the Future Tense (Futuro do Presente)
- Comparison Words (Mais/Menos, Maior/Menor, Melhor/Pior)
- Adverbs
- Prepositions (Para, Por, De, Em, etc)
- Conditional Conjugation (Futuro do Pretérito)
- Contractions (Na, Do, Dela, etc)
- Subjunctive Mode (Se eu tivesse, quando eu tiver, etc. “If I had, When I have, etc”)
- Imperative Mode (Deixe, Sai, etc. This is a “command” form.)
- Reflexive Verbs (Chame-me, vestimos-nos, etc.)
- Indirect Pronouns (os, as, lhe, etc)
This isn’t a comprehensive list of every grammar topic out there, but this will get you far. If you master these subjects add a healthy dose of vocab and speaking practice - you can become fluent.
Step Five: Practice!!!
None of your cramming or research will matter if you don’t practice. And I mean practice every aspect of speaking a language. If you’re following the steps here, you should be getting plenty of reading and listening practice. That leaves speaking and writing.
To practice Speaking:
If you don’t know someone to practice with, this can be tricky. Earlier in this post I mentioned using Reddit or Tandem to find free language partners. If you don’t want to interact with humans (extreme introvert perhaps) then I suggest you try “shadowing”. Go to one of the podcasts with transcripts, listen and repeat after them. This will help you with pronunciation, but to really get true speaking practice you’ll need to record yourself. Record yourself speaking Portuguese and have a conversation with yourself. It’s crucial to record yourself because you need to watch yourself back for errors. Talking to yourself might be just as “awkward” as finding randos to practice with so - I suggest you move on to real people as soon as you can. 😅 Both of these methods are not anywhere near as good as finding a partner though - it can just help in the meantime.
To practice Writing:
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There are a ton of writing prompts online. Have you ever thought of using one for language learning? Because that’s exactly what you should do. Keep a journal of sorts and start writing away! You can do this even if you’re still at the beginner level. I’ll give you some prompts to start with.
- Introduce yourself to a work friend
- Talk about your favorite foods and where they’re from
- Describe your daily routine
- Write your wish list of places to travel to
That should keep you busy for a bit, but if you’re looking for a real challenge answer some general journal prompts. This could be:
- Describe your ideal self in 5 years
- What is your dream career?
- Tell me the plot of your favorite TV show
tags: #learning #basic #beginner #portuguese #Brazil
