We didn’t know what to talk about, so Practice Portuguese team member, Molly, gave us a list of questions to answer! Topics include: pet peeves, where else in the world we’d live, binge-watching habits, favourite cuisine, biggest fears and much more! We also reveal some behind-the-scenes news of what the Practice Portuguese team has been […]
Perguntas Pessoais
Personal Questions
Maratona de Leitura
Reading Marathon
Featured Shorty: “Diário de uma Quarent(o)ena II.”
A lot has happened, to say the least, since we last recorded a podcast episode!
We start out by challenging your comprehension with casual Portuguese conversation to get you up to speed on what’s been happening with us personally as well as in the world… since we know we are definitely your primary resource for all things COVID-19!
We spend the rest of the episode tweaking the pronunciation of our brave listeners who once again contributed their recordings. (Obrigado!)
We review the pronunciation of the different R, S, E, and O sounds, perfecting the cadence and flow of Portuguese sentences… plus, you’ll discover a word that even Rui has trouble pronouncing!
A Portuguese Kitchen
Enjoying food is an important part of the culture of Portugal. Whether you’re buying groceries, ordering at a restaurant, or just talking about food, you’ll need to be comfortable with the basics of Portuguese cooking vocabulary. To start, let’s focus on some of the things you might find in a Portuguese kitchen. Food Storage There […]
Food Groups
Exploring food groups is a convenient way to help us learn European Portuguese food vocabulary in a more organized way. Dairy Products First let’s look at some Leite, iogurte, and queijo are a part of many Portuguese people’s breakfasts and snacks. Queijo, in particular, is very important and there are several tasty varieties. As for leite, […]
Talking About Food
Portugal is a country of food lovers, so we use a lot of different expressions to describe the food we eat and how we feel about eating it. The 2 ways to say “I’m hungry” in Portuguese are: | Hunger and Satisfaction I’m Hungry! For starters, instead of saying I am hungry, in Portugal we […]
The Preposition “Com”
One very common Portuguese preposition is Like all prepositions, it’s an invariable word placed before a noun (or pronoun) to indicate the noun’s relationship to other words. When to Use “Com” Just like the English use of “with”, the preposition com is used to… Indicate people or things that are together: Say what something has, […]
Polite Expressions
Just like its people, the Portuguese language is very courteous. Below are just some of the many polite phrases used to express basic, everyday courtesy in Portuguese. A little kindness goes a long way, especially when you’re struggling to communicate in a new language! This guide covers the most important phrases, but there are also […]
Forming Negative Phrases
There are a few different ways to say no, to make a sentence negative, or to refer to a quantity that is zero. Here are some of the important words to know: Not The simplest way to make a sentence negative in Portuguese is just to place the word before the verb. This is the […]
Saying Goodbye in European Portuguese
Let’s learn how to say goodbye in Portuguese! There are many options, depending on who you are talking to, the time of day, or how long it will be until you see them again. Take a look at the infographic below for a quick guide:
Plurals in Portuguese
A challenging part of learning Portuguese is realizing that many words need to be adjusted to agree with the gender and number of the people or objects we are talking about. Let’s see a quick overview of which types of words change, and which ones stay the same to help us understand the rules for […]
Dining Out In Portugal
Whether you’re just visiting or planning to live in Portugal, learning some food vocabulary is going to be pretty important! 😆 As part of our Cooking and Eating unit, this guide should give you a good introduction to dining out in Portugal, or, in other words: Breakfast & Coffee There are and , which are […]
Essential Portuguese Conjunctions
There are 3 essential conjunctions that you’ll need when you want to start connecting your thoughts and forming more complex sentences in Portuguese: These 3 are called , because they combine multiple independent phrases into one. You’ll learn much more about conjunctions in later units, but for now, we’ll focus on these 3 essentials. 1) “E” […]
Good/Bad vs. Well/Badly
What’s the difference between mau and mal? What about bom and bem? These pairs of Portuguese words are very similar in meaning, but they’re not interchangeable. It comes down to understanding the difference between adjectives and adverbs and how they are used in Portuguese. Adjectives Good and bad are adjectives, which modify nouns (people / places […]
BONUS: Palavras Japonesas Inspiradas na Língua Portuguesa
BONUS: Japanese Words Inspired by the Portuguese Language
After listening to our last podcast on foreign words derived from Portuguese, a Japanese member, Ryoko, came to our rescue with recordings of every Japanese word we mentioned, plus a bunch of new ones for good measure. Join us as we explore surprising similarities between Japanese and Portuguese in this bonus episode!
(“Arigato” once again to Ryoko Kawaoka for her generous time in preparing the list and recordings for this episode!)
Present Continuous in Portuguese
This Learning Note will cover the present continuous in Portuguese. When we talk about actions that are happening right at the time of speaking, we use the present continuous, also known as the present progressive. Let’s start by taking a look at how this works in English. Present continuous in the first person: I am […]
As Sardinhas Que Fumavam
The Sardines That Smoked
Hoping for a calm, vegetarian dining experience at a local Portuguese restaurant, Sr. John gets thrown off guard by unprofessional service and a problem with his order! Find out how he deals with these challenges, and learn lots of vocabulary and expressions to use the next time you’re dining out.
Talking about Quantity
These are three of the simplest, most common words used to talk about quantity in Portuguese: Countable Nouns When talking about countable quantities (which usually end in “-s” in English as well as Portuguese), muito, pouco and algum all change according to gender and number: Uncountable Nouns With uncountable nouns (such as virtues, qualities, or time, […]
Introduction to Portuguese Adjectives
are words that describe a noun, assigning it a quality, state, appearance, or other property. (Adverbs are also used to describe, but instead of nouns, they modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.) In Portuguese, using adjectives requires that you consider the gender and number of the word being modified, as well as the word order […]
When to Use Dele/Dela vs. Seu/Sua
Dele vs seu? When forming 3rd person possessives in European Portuguese, how do we decide when to use dele, dela, deles, delas vs. seu, sua, seus, suas? Possessives formed with de are less ambiguous: they agree strictly with the subject, not with the object. In contrast, seu and its derivatives agree with the object, so […]
3rd Person Possessives: De + Pronoun
The Ambiguity of Seu, Sua, Seus, and Suas To review, the Portuguese possessive pronouns/determiners for the third-person forms are the following: Subject Possessive Pronoun/Determiner English Equivalent Ele, Ela, Você His, Her/Hers, Your/Yours(formal) Eles, Elas Their, Theirs As you can see, , , , , and all share the same exact possessive determiners! Since the determiners agree with […]
Introduction to Possessives
Possessive Determiners vs. Possessive Pronouns In this unit, we’re going to learn about possessive determiners and possessive pronouns in Portuguese, which both serve the function of expressing possession or ownership of something. In English, these are words like my, your, his, her, their, and our (possessive determiners) and mine, yours, his, hers, theirs, and ours […]
1st and 2nd Person Possessives
Mine, Yours, and Ours Let’s take a closer look at this first group of possessives: meu, teu, nosso and vosso, plus their feminine and plural forms. Subject Possessive Pronoun/Determiner (for masculine nouns) Possessive Pronoun/Determiner (for feminine nouns) Eu Tu Nós Vós, Vocês Gender and Number Agreement Remember that the pronoun/determiner has to agree in gender […]
Ser vs. Estar: Two Ways of Being
Are you familiar with the verbs and ? Even with a lot of practice, they are still easy to mix up! Don’t worry: in this unit you’ll learn more about when to use one versus the other. A Basic Distinction: Ser vs Estar Ser is typically used to describe permanent states or conditions. It refers […]
Supermix Interview (with Tatiana, Rui & Joel)
When we launched Diálogo 24 Um Café Em Lisboa (with our special guest, Tatiana from Brazil), it understandably created some controversy with our audience, who normally looks to us for European Portuguese content!
While most members loved exploring the differences between the two dialects, a few members were worried that we were losing our European Portuguese focus. (We’re not!)
To discuss why we occasionally expose our audience to Brazilian content and much more, Tatiana invited Rui & Joel to her radio program, Supermix (based in Italy), for a special interview. We also talk about other aspects of Practice Portuguese that you might have been curious about too! (Note: Some of Tatiana’s audio had to be re-recorded because of technical issues, so some editing was necessary. However, we’ve tried to retain the authenticity of the live interview as much as possible!)