Learn Portuguese together

Twenty-six letters you already know, the accents that change a word, and the ç.

1. A to L: the first letters and the silent h
2. M to Z: the second half of the alphabet
3. Accents, the til and the ç
4. Checkpoint: The Portuguese Alphabet
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Nasal vowels, lh and nh, the two r sounds and the soft endings of Brazilian speech.

1. Nasal vowels: ã, õ, ão and the m at the end
2. lh, nh, ch and the two r sounds
3. Brazilian endings: leite, noite, tudo
4. Checkpoint: Sounds and First Words
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Oi, tudo bem? Meu nome é … – names, origins, você and o senhor.

1. Oi! Meu nome é …: greeting and saying your name
2. De onde você é?: countries, cities and languages
3. Tudo bem?: how you are, você and o senhor
4. Checkpoint: Greetings and Introductions
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

O livro, a mesa, os amigos – every noun is masculine or feminine, and the article shows which.

1. O, a, um, uma: gender and the articles
2. Plurals: livros, lições, papéis
3. Adjectives: agreement and position
4. Checkpoint: Nouns, Gender and Articles
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Two verbs for “to be”: who you are with ser, how and where you are with estar.

1. Ser: identity, origin and character
2. Estar: states, feelings and location
3. Ser or estar?
4. Checkpoint: Ser and Estar
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Counting to a thousand, telling the time, the days and the months.

1. De zero a cem: numbers up to 100
2. Que horas são?: telling the time
3. Dia 7 de setembro: days, months and dates
4. Checkpoint: Numbers, Time and Dates
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Minha mãe, o irmão da Ana – the people around you and whose they are.

1. Minha família: the family
2. Meu, minha, seu, sua: possessives
3. O carro dele, a casa da Ana: whose is it?
4. Checkpoint: Family and Possession
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Falar, comer, abrir – the three verb groups, and how to say no and ask.

1. -ar verbs: falar, trabalhar, estudar
2. -er and -ir verbs: comer, abrir
3. Não and questions
4. Checkpoint: Regular Verbs and Negation
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Um pão de queijo e um cafezinho, por favor – food, ordering and paying.

1. Na padaria: querer and gostar de
2. Café da manhã, almoço e jantar: the meals
3. No restaurante: ordering and paying
4. Checkpoint: Food, the Padaria and the Café
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Onde fica o metrô? Vou de ônibus – places, movement and prepositions.

1. Places in the city: tem, fica, no, na
2. Ir and vir: going places
3. Directions: siga em frente
4. Checkpoint: The City, Contractions and Directions
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Acordo cedo, faço café, saio às oito – the day from morning to night.

1. Faço, posso, digo: the irregular core
2. My day: from acordar to dormir
3. Housework and weekends
4. Checkpoint: Daily Life and Irregular Verbs
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

A cozinha, o quarto, em cima da mesa – rooms, furniture and prepositions of place.

1. Minha casa, meu apartamento: rooms and types of home
2. Em cima, embaixo, ao lado: furniture and where things are
3. Este, esse, aquele: this, that and that over there
4. Checkpoint: Home and Where Things Are
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Vou à praia no sábado – free time, clothes, colours and ir + infinitive.

1. Vou viajar: plans with ir + infinitive
2. Posso provar?: clothes, colours and sizes
3. Futebol, música e o tempo: hobbies and the weather
4. Checkpoint: Leisure, Shopping and Plans
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Falei, comi, fui – the past tense of what happened.

1. Regular verbs in the past: falei, comi, abri
2. Irregular verbs in the past: fui, fiz, tive
3. Telling what happened: primeiro, depois, no final
4. Review: the pretérito perfeito
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Quando eu era criança … – background, habits and the pair with the perfeito.

1. Quando eu era criança: habits in the past
2. Estava chovendo quando…: background and interrupted actions
3. Perfeito or imperfeito? Choosing the past
4. Review: the imperfeito and the past in contrast
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Eu te amo, vi ele ontem, me passa o sal – replacing what was already said.

1. Me, te, nos: people as objects
2. O, a, ele, ela: things and people you mention
3. Lhe, para ele: indirect objects
4. Checkpoint: Object Pronouns
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Maior, melhor, tão bonito quanto – comparing people, places and things.

1. Mais … do que, menos … do que
2. Melhor, pior, maior, menor
3. Tão … quanto and the superlative
4. Checkpoint: Comparison
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Me levanto, estou fazendo – verbs with se and actions in progress.

1. Eu me levanto: reflexive verbs
2. Estou fazendo: actions in progress
3. Acabar de, começar a, continuar: start, stop, again
4. Checkpoint: reflexive verbs and estar + gerúndio
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Fala mais devagar, por favor – asking, telling and advising.

1. Fale or fala? The imperative for você
2. Pode…? Polite requests
3. Você deve, você tem que: advice and obligation
4. Checkpoint: the imperative, requests and advice
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

A passagem, a pousada, a rodoviária – moving around Brazil.

1. Planning a trip: tickets, buses and planes
2. At the hotel and the pousada
3. Holidays and sightseeing: telling about a trip
4. Checkpoint: Travel and Holidays
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Estou com dor de cabeça – the body, symptoms and the doctor.

1. The body and dor de
2. At the doctor: symptoms and appointments
3. At the pharmacy: advice for health
4. Checkpoint: Health and the Body
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Carnaval, o jogo do Brasil, parabéns pra você – how Brazil celebrates.

1. Carnaval: street parties, parades and costumes
2. Football: the match and the fans
3. Birthdays, Christmas and New Year: Parabéns pra você!
4. Checkpoint: Festivals, Futebol and Celebrations
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Espero que você venha – wishing, needing and feeling.

1. The present subjunctive: from falo to fale
2. Wishes, requests and feelings: Espero que você venha
3. É importante que…: necessity, doubt and certainty
4. Checkpoint: The Present Subjunctive
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Farei, faria, gostaria – the future of writing and the polite conditional.

1. Farei, direi, trarei: the future of writing
2. Gostaria, faria, diria: polite and hypothetical
3. Plans, promises and predictions
4. Checkpoint: the future and the conditional
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Se eu tivesse tempo, viajaria – the unreal present and wishes.

1. Falasse, fizesse, fosse: forming the imperfect subjunctive
2. Se eu fosse você…: unreal conditions
3. As if, if only, although: como se, quem dera, embora
4. Checkpoint: the imperfect subjunctive and hypothesis
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Quando eu for, se você puder – the tense Portuguese kept for the future.

1. Quando eu chegar: forming the future subjunctive
2. Se você puder: real conditions about the future
3. Quem quiser, onde for, como puder: whoever, wherever, however
4. Checkpoint: the future subjunctive
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

O livro que li, a cidade onde nasci, a pessoa cujo nome esqueci – joining two sentences into one.

1. Que and quem: the person I met, the friend I live with
2. Onde, o que, o qual: places, ideas and longer prepositions
3. Cujo and definitions: the author whose book I read
4. Checkpoint: relative pronouns
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Foi construído em 1960, aluga-se, vendem-se casas – when the doer does not matter.

1. Ser + particípio: the passive with ser
2. Vende-se, aluga-se: the passive with se
3. Estar + particípio and the unknown “they”
4. Checkpoint: the passive and the impersonal se
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Para vocês entenderem, antes de sairmos – an infinitive with a person.

1. Para eu, para vocês entenderem: the personal infinitive
2. Antes de, depois de, sem: prepositions + personal infinitive
3. É melhor vocês irem: the infinitive instead of the subjunctive
4. Checkpoint: the personal infinitive
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

O currículo, a entrevista, Prezada senhora – professional Portuguese.

1. O currículo: job ads and your CV
2. Fale um pouco sobre você: the job interview
3. Prezada senhora: formal e-mails
4. Checkpoint: work, studies and formal contact
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Acho que sim, não acho que seja – saying what you think and why.

1. Acho que, não acho que: giving your opinion
2. A reportagem e as redes: news and social media
3. Em primeiro lugar…: arguing a point
4. Checkpoint: opinion, media and argument
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Tenho estudado, tinha saído – the perfect tenses of Portuguese.

1. Tenho feito: what has been happening lately
2. Tinha feito: the past before the past
3. Terei feito, teria feito: the future and conditional perfect
4. Checkpoint: Compound Tenses
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Se eu tivesse sabido, teria ido – regret and the unreal past.

1. Tenha feito: hoping and doubting about what is done
2. Se eu tivesse sabido: the past that did not happen
3. Quando tiver terminado: once something is done
4. Checkpoint: The Compound Subjunctive and Past Hypothesis
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Ele disse que viria – repeating what others said.

1. Disse que …: reporting what someone said
2. Perguntou se …: reporting questions and requests
3. Admitiu, negou, alegou: choosing the reporting verb
4. Checkpoint: reported speech
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Embora chova, portanto, uma vez que – the logic of a text.

1. Porque, como, já que: giving the cause
2. Embora, apesar de: conceding a point
3. Por isso, para que: consequence and purpose
4. Checkpoint: cause, concession and consequence
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Me disseram, disseram-me, dir-se-ia – proclisis, enclisis and the mesóclise.

1. Não me disse: proclisis and the words that pull the pronoun
2. Disseram-me, convidá-lo: enclisis in the written norm
3. Far-se-á, dir-lhe-ia: recognising the mesóclise
4. Checkpoint: Pronoun Placement in Writing
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

A realização do evento, o aumento dos preços – how written Portuguese turns verbs into nouns.

1. Verb to noun: -ção, -mento, -agem
2. Aumento da gasolina gera protestos: headlines and news style
3. A gente → nós, pedir → solicitar: formal and informal register
4. Checkpoint: Nominal Style and the Formal Register
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Tese, argumentos, proposta – building an essay the Brazilian way.

1. The thesis and the introduction
2. Development: arguments and evidence
3. Conclusion and proposal
4. Checkpoint: the argumentative essay
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Diversidade, desigualdade, identidade – talking about Brazil today.

1. A diverse country
2. Inequality and rights
3. Music, cinema and television
4. Checkpoint: society, culture and identity
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Você, tu, o senhor, a gente – who you are talking to, and how.

1. Você, o senhor, a senhora: the scale of address
2. Tu in Brazil: regions, agreement and the pronoun te
3. A gente and nós: two ways to say “we”
4. Checkpoint: Forms of Address and Register
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Tá, pra, vi ele, tem – the Portuguese people speak and the Portuguese they write.

1. Tá, pra, cê, né: how Brazilians really speak
2. The norma culta: the written standard and who defines it
3. Variation and preconceito linguístico
4. Checkpoint: Spoken Brazilian and the Norma Culta
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Desfazer, cafezinho, papelaria – prefixes, suffixes and new words.

1. Des-, re-, pré-: prefixes and the hyphen
2. Padaria, dentista, beleza: suffixes of place, trade and quality
3. Cafezinho, golaço: diminutives and augmentatives
4. Checkpoint: word formation
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Pisar na bola, dar um jeito, cair a ficha – the Portuguese of native speakers.

1. Pisar na bola, cair a ficha: everyday idioms
2. Tomar uma decisão, prestar atenção: collocations
3. Quem não tem cão caça com gato: proverbs
4. Checkpoint: idioms, collocations and proverbs
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Deve ser, pode ser que, será que – certainty, doubt and attitude.

1. Deve estar, pode ter: probability and possibility
2. Será que? Talvez, pelo visto: doubt and inference
3. Aliás, afinal, hein: words that carry attitude
4. Checkpoint: Modality and Nuance
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

O mesmo, tal, sendo que, o qual – keeping a long text together.

1. Este, aquele, o referido: reference and substitution
2. Sendo que, o qual, de forma que: long sentences
3. Nesse contexto, diante disso, por fim: paragraph and text
4. Checkpoint: Cohesion and Advanced Syntax
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Senhoras e senhores – speaking to convince.

1. Boa noite a todos: opening and closing a talk
2. Figuras de linguagem: rhetorical devices
3. Com todo respeito: rebutting and conceding in a debate
4. Checkpoint: Rhetoric, Presenting and Debating
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Machado de Assis, Alencar, Gonçalves Dias – the canon read for its language.

1. Machado de Assis: the narrator who does not tell everything
2. Minha terra tem palmeiras: Romanticism, Alencar and Gonçalves Dias
3. O Navio Negreiro: Castro Alves and the poetry of abolition
4. Checkpoint: Reading Brazilian Literature
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Ônibus or autocarro, estou fazendo or estou a fazer – one language, many norms.

1. Regional Brazil: accents described, not ranked
2. Portugal and Brazil: autocarro or ônibus?
3. Lusofonia: Portuguese in Africa and Asia
4. Checkpoint: Variation: Brazil, Portugal and Africa
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

From Latin to the Acordo Ortográfico – why Portuguese looks as it does.

1. From Latin to Galician-Portuguese
2. Portuguese arrives in Brazil: Tupi, Africa, Pombal
3. Spelling reforms and the Acordo Ortográfico
4. Checkpoint: History of the Portuguese Language
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Fizera, houvesse feito, tendo chegado – Portuguese at its full stretch.

1. The simple pluperfect and literary tenses
2. Gerund and participle clauses
3. Word order and emphasis
4. Checkpoint: Complex Syntax and Literary Tenses
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Puxe não é push – rendering meaning between Portuguese and other languages.

1. False friends
2. Untranslatable words
3. Translation techniques
4. Checkpoint: Translation and Interpretation
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Passa lá em casa – what Brazilians mean and do not say.

1. Vou ver: saying no without saying no
2. O jeitinho and Brazilian social codes
3. Que ótimo…: irony and humour
4. Checkpoint: Pragmatics and the implicit
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Reading, writing and speaking like an educated Brazilian – the last mile.

1. Reading at full speed: crônica, essay, report
2. Writing with precision: nuance, register, revision
3. Speaking with nuance: markers, hesitation, turns
4. Checkpoint: The summit – mastery in practice
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions