🌍 Countries that Speak Portuguese
Did you know that Portuguese is the 6th most spoken language in the world? 🗣
Portuguese is spoken in Portugal (including Madeira and the Azores), of course, but there are also many other countries and regions that speak the language.
For example: Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, the Special Administrative Region of Macau (Macao), Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Goa (a state in western India)
💬 Portuguese Roots
Just like English, Portuguese has strong Latin roots. Portuguese is considered a “Romance” or “Vulgar Latin” language (just like Spanish, French, Italian, and Romanian). If you have studied any of these other languages, you may notice similarities, not only in vocabulary, but also in grammar structure. Not to mention, the alphabet is very similar: 🔤 The European Portuguese Alphabet
This is why you may be able to easily translate certain Portuguese words, like these:
deliciosodelicious
positivopositive
estaçãostation
Aside from Latin, Portuguese has also been influenced by other languages, such as Arabic, French, Italian, and indigenous South American, as well as African languages.
🤔 Portuguese Portuguese!?
The 2 main dialects of the Portuguese language are:
- Brazilian Portuguese (Primarily spoken in Brazil 🇧🇷 )
- European Portuguese (Spoken in Portugal 🇵🇹 . It also includes the African and Asian colonies’ dialects, because they are much more similar to the European dialect.)
However, as you may have figured out by now (in your desperate Google searches for non-Brazilian Portuguese resources!), “European Portuguese” is also referred to as:
- Continental Portuguese
- Lusitanian Portuguese
- Portuguese of Portugal
- …or sometimes even informally as Portuguese Portuguese! 😉
With only 11 million European Portuguese speakers vs. 200 million Brazilian Portuguese speakers, there’s no wonder why it’s so hard to find quality resources!
🇵🇹 🇧🇷 European Portuguese vs. Brazilian
Although Brazilian and European Portuguese are technically the same language, the differences are so great that even Brazilian Portuguese natives can have a hard time understanding European Portuguese when spoken quickly. Here are just a few of these differences:
- Pronunciation: The European accent is much more closed, especially in the varying degrees of open and closed vowels.
- Informal vs. formal: In most of Brazil, the word for you is você. In Portugal, we use tu in informal situations, and a variety of different forms of você in formal situations. For example, it’s common to address someone using the third person. To ask Rui the question Do you want coffee? in a more formal way, you would say: O Rui quer café?Do you (Rui) want coffee?, Does Rui want coffee?
- Vocabulary: There are many common words that are completely different. For example, the word for dog in Brazil is cachorro and in Portugal it’s cãodog
For a more detailed comparison of these two primary dialects, check out this guide we put together here: European Portuguese vs Brazilian Portuguese
📖 Let’s Start Learning European Portuguese!
We’ll start with a warm-up lesson, just to give you an introduction to how the European Portuguese language sounds and how our Lessons work. If you speak English or other Latin-influenced languages, you may notice some of the warm-up words are quite similar in Portuguese. 😉
After that, the Greetings unit will teach you some useful phrases you can start using right away. Don’t worry about understanding all the grammar just yet. We’ll start exploring those details, little by little, in the Basic Grammar unit.
Estão prontos?Are you(pl.) ready?
If you’re already a Practice Portuguese member, click Mark as Complete below and then continue to the first Lesson.
Good start
Welcome to the course, Larry. Great to have you with us and thanks for your support! Abraço
Good start, muito obrigado
I like how you do things.
Our family is considering moving to Portugal. We will visit in March 2020. I want to learn what I can to be prepared to get familiar with certain areas in the southern portion of Portugal.
Obrigado
Thank you very much,I am eager to learn.
good information
Thank you for this, I just started learning Portuguese and I hope I will continue to improve.
Great for a start
Hi! I recently did a motorcyce tour around Portugal with MotoXplorers out of Lisbon. WONDERFUL! Now I would like to learn the language so I can work with their team to expand tour possibilities to US and other English speaking riders. I know a little French, and yet this language seems more like German to me. I look forward to continuing my studies. And I am happy to have a true European Portuguese teacher to help me learn! Obrigada! Jean
A suggestion for web site navigation: Have a “continue to next lesson” button next to the “Mark as Complete” button. I am on an iPad, and it is not very easy to get to the next lesson from here. Thanks! 🙂
Hi Jean, this is absolutely important for us to add. There is supposed to be a dynamic back button has stopped appearing, but we will get this “Continue” button showing to make it even clearer. Thanks and keep the feedback coming! Abraço
Gosto muito de escutar os teus audios de you tube no meu telemóvel. Agora fiz inscripçao a Premium porque sao muito divertidos e é muito agradável e fácil de conhecer um idioma assim. Eu acredito isto assim. Peço imensas desculpas pelo meu portuñol. Espero aprender muito mas y falar melhor. Muito obrigada por compartir conmigo y tantas pessoas.
Sou Laura desde Argentina
Obrigado pelo teu apoio, Laura! Já adoramos Argentina ainda mais 🙂
Good start
Let’s get started ＝）
In the section on pronunciation, comparing European Portuguese and Brazilian, where it says, “The accent is much more closed…” I presume you mean the EUROPEAN accent is much more closed. As a rank beginning, I’d feel more secure about progressing if you clarified this. Obrigada.
It’s definitely the European accent being talked about on that sentence 🙂 I just made it clearer on the article. Thanks!
Hey there! I am fluent in Spanish and now want to learn Portuguese and will be traveling to Portugal in October. Are there similarities between the conjugation of Spanish and Portuguese?
Hey! Yes, at least on a basic level, there are lots of similarities between Portuguese and Spanish, but watch out for all the false friends (words that look similar, but have completely different meanings) 🙂 Still, Spanish is a good stepping stone for Portuguese, and vice-versa.
Not a bad start, I learned Portuguese for a while until my English wife Cathy Dobson said we are moving to France. Then she changed her mind and now it is Portugal going there from Germany at the end of October 2019.
I’m planning to retire in Portugal next year. I don’t want to do that without being able to speak the language. I have been to Porto, Lisbon, the Algarve coast, and several other places and I’m amazed at how wonderful the people are. I look forward to learning “real” Portuguese, not the Brazilian Portuguese that so many other sources offer.
The best wishes 4 the good starting. Muito obrigado senhors…
I have been using the Duolingo and didn’t realise until recently that it was Brazilian . Oh man 🙁 Looking forward to this learning material. We have just bought a house in Portugal and would love to communicate better with the locals. Wish me luck!!
Haha, good luck to you! And by the way, welcome to Portugal. Don’t worry, I’m sure that most of what you learned from Duolingo will still be useful to you. The two Portuguese variants, on a base level, are very similar.
Muito fixe, obrigado
Thanks for explaining the differences so simply.
Looking so forward to diving into the program; living in Pt near Lisbon. English is widely spoken by the younger & tourist population, but I want to be able to converse with folks in the countryside. So much vocabulary and conjugation to learn and memorize, hoping this process will be of great help.
Have made a start, hope it is better than other methods I have tried.
I have bought a house in the Guarda district and have made many friends over there. I hope to be able to communicate with them more easily.
Okay, I admit I have been lazy to learn to speak Portuguese. I have tried other online courses and I do converse in what I like to call Tarzan Talk with some of my neighbors, Uber Drivers and store employees. Mostly, I know the words for food and can read a menu pretty well! I want to be able to chat now.
Norie in Porto
Looking forward to learning Portuguese! Lisbon is my new favorite city <3
I’m getting an early start with Portuguese, I plan to travel there for my retirement in a couple of years. It’s quite an exciting start learning something new. This will be my fourth language
My mother and her partner have lived in Portugal for 15 years and every year hen we visit I’ve said I really want to learn to speak the language. This decade I’m doing it! I’ve seen your resource grow from a time when it was super basic (still useful) to the brilliant tool it is today. I’m so pleased that it has been so successful for you! It truly deserves to be!
So looking forward to learning on this site. I try to converse in Portuguese in shops and restaurants. I can make myself understood but am lost when they reply. Muito rapido!
Hopefully all the shorties and videos will be of great help
Obrigada
Hang in there, Helen! It will get easier, little by little over time. It’s great that you’re putting yourself out there and practicing even when it’s difficult. That, combined with doing the Shorties, Videos, Lessons, etc, will really help you improve!
Wish i had found this site earlier. I have been learning with Duolingo and knew there were one or two differences between Brazilian and Portuguese but now realise there is so many more. I hope i can now correct my grammar and vocabulary . I want to converse with my son in laws family when i visit Portugal.
Hi there, this is great information but it seems you forgot to mention the Azores ( Açores) and Madeira. Why is that?
Hi Catia, Although the Azores and Madeira are separate from mainland Portugal, they are still considered part of the country of Portugal. I’ll add a note to make it clear that those regions are also included when we say “Portugal”.
Obrigado
The first time I went to Portugal (I’ve since bought a home in Arcos de Valdevez and cannot wait to finalise this process) I thought I was clever when a dog walked past and I said O cachorro. The man I was talking to smiled and said that this was a sausage on a bread roll. I also have been trying to learn a song to sing for me new friends in Portugal (I sing a bit) but the strong G pronunciation for D in some instances is quite off putting. So whilst I have Michel Thomas (European Portuguese) I am glad to have found this.
Steve
I am from Macau and have been looking for European Portuguese courses online for so long, I feel very lucky to have finally found you!
Welcome, Diogo! Thanks for your support!
I’m looking forward to the course. Let’s get started!
Hi! I’m Cape Verdean American and understand Cape Verde’s portuguese creole, and somewhat understand Portuguese Portuguese but really would like to master this. 🙂
Very interesting. That’s the kind of information that is difficult to get on the web.
Thanks!
I’m excited for this course! I just bought an apartment in Lisbon and look forward to moving to Portugal from Los Angeles.
Interesting information and good introduction.
Hi we have bought a retirement house in Herdade da aroeira and would like to learn the language before we move there.
I am locked down in London and missing the beautiful Algarve at Easter time. I have decided that the best way to use this enforced rest is to learn Portuguese and I am so glad to have found you.
I look forward to the opportunity to practice in your beautiful country as soon as we get back to some sort of normality. My best wishes to everyone in these troubled times. God bless and stay safe.
Thank you, Bernard. Glad to hear you’re keeping a good attitude through all of this. Portugal will be waiting for you when things start to improve. 🙂 Best wishes to you too, stay well!
It was pretty hard to find resources for EU Portoghese but i finally did It. I’m learning through differenti websites. I’m absolute beginner. I’m italian and i speak fluently spanish and basic french so at the moment it’s not really hard. I chose eu Portugues because I absolutely love the pronunciarono, already back during my Erasmus when i eas so fascinated hearing Portuguese speaking to each other. Thanks for the resources you give us. Muito obrigado
Very helpful and informative, obrigado (-:
What a lovely place, we lived there for a few months.
good beginning!
Delicioso was my Mother’s favorite description of any meal prepared by someone else! My family came from the island of Faial. My son found this site for me and it’s just what I was seeking. What my other called “puro Portuguese”.
Looking forward to learning EU Portuguese with your guidance. Thank you in advance!
You’re welcome in advance! 🙂
I am really excited to start this course 🙂
Esta muito boa pratical platform. EU gosto esta site.
It was interesting to get to know some of the differences we have between Brazilian and Continetal Portuguese. I wonder if we lern to pronounce “o cão” later 🙂 – it is a god start of a language course to provide some information of the spread of the language in the world.
Glad you liked it! I just added an audio clip at the end so you can hear how to pronounce “cão” . Also, we’re working on a learning note with a more extensive comparison of European/Continental Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese — keep an eye out for that soon!
I like how you have it where are you have it Real time and then you slow the sound down that helped me to hear the little. Different sounds
The concept looks amazing. I feel Im going to learn Portuguese this time..
Thanks, Rami! Let’s hope you get to make good progress here 🙂 Feel free to reach out anytime you need some extra help.
I’m happy to be here and I think learning will be fun here.
We’re happy to have you learning with us!
Hello Rui and Joel! Looking forward to the course!
Thanks for your support, Sichen! Hope you have fun practising Portuguese with us 🙂
I have returned to Portugal after lockdown. It is as wonderful as ever. Determined to learn the language this time.
Thank heavens I found your site first. I didn’t realise the differences were so great
If I had embarked on learning Brazilian Portuguese I would have had a lot of unlearning and confusion to contend with!
Great
Exciting as I liked your videos and your presentation style (and avo) – just a small question – I heard from a Portugese friend that cachorro is also used in P for a small young dog …?
“Cachorro” is also known and used in Portugal to some extent, yes. But overall, it’s more present in Brazilian Portuguese 🙂
A bit of a misnomer to call a Germanic language like English “Latin-based” or to say it has Latin roots. The fact there are so many cognates with a Romance language like Portuguese stems from the Norman invasion of Britain in the 11th century, after which Old French became the language of the ruling classes — for centuries to come.
When we say it has Latin roots we mean that a large amount of English vocabulary comes from Latin root words. Germanic tribes had a lot of contact with the Roman Empire and the Catholic church also had a good deal of influence on the development of Old English. Later on Latin was the root of many words used to talk about scientific discoveries. Perhaps “Latin-influenced” would be a better way to word it, instead of Latin-based. I’ll make some edits, thanks!
Very excited to get started- stumbled onto “Practice Portuguese” while searching for a European Portuguese option, and loved the YouTube videos- I just took out an annual subscription. Visiting in May 2022 with my husband to celebrate my retirement from military service, our anniversary, and the end of the pandemic! I have a little over a year to practice- starting from absolute scratch. Thanks to your whole team for this fun, intuitive option!
Xxx Ooo,
Kelly (thanks for adding “K” to the alphabet- very kind of you!)
Congrats Kelly – there’s a lot to celebrate in 2022! Thanks so much for the support. We’re happy to have you on board and hope we can help get you where you want to be by next year. 🙂
Looking forward to getting started! Signed up for the one-year plan to start with. Love the Youtube videos…very engaging! Moving to Lisbon with my 2 dogs from Calgary Canada in October. Can’t wait to enjoy the warm sunny weather and to practice and improve my newly acquired Portuguese!
Best of luck with your move! Happy to have you on board. 😊
Definitely a good start – been looking for a structured learning tool to complement my reading and listening.
Thank you so much for this.
Steven
Very exited to try this out! Not a very beginner but would like to start from the beginning. I followed Portuguese lessons a year ago once a week in school (because of the corona crises wasn’t possible anymore) and learned everyday on other free sites, but I would like to have something close to school, to have more structure, so I have a feeling this should be the right place 🙂 I’m from Russia, but have been living and working in Belgium for the past 23 years. I speak fluently Russian, English and French and also Dutch quite well. I always LOVED Portuguese language! And now I love Portugal!! My favorite country so far! I visited it twice and it was a love from the first sight. I would love to move there one day! 🙂 I watched quite few of your podcasts sometime ago on youtube and I loved it! So I decided finally to try your site. So hopefully you ‘ll teach me Portuguese so the day I decide to live in Portugal I’ll be fluent in it! 😀
Thank you in advance for your lessons! 🙂
Rui, meu nome e Kara.
I just started. I plan on moving to Portugal in a few years.
Just moved to Portugal and found you gents on the TAP flight channel. I immediately knew that I had to join this team to teach this “old dog” a new language in a practical and effective process. Estou Pronto!
I am Czech, I’m trying to learn Portuguese so I can communicate with my boyfriend’s family and get to know them better 🙂 I found your podcast, and it’s exactly what I neede to stay in touch with Portuguese language while not living there 🙂 Muito obrigada para o vosso trabalho! 🙂
I’ve been live in Portugal now about five years. I hoped that the language catches me like for small kids. It doesn’t. I’ve had many courses and also personal teachers without any progress. I’m a bit frustrated. I hope this finally the way to achieve something!
Hang in there, you’re not alone! Glad to hear you’re sticking with it even though it’s been a frustrating process. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions as you get started learning with us. You also might get some inspiration from some of the blog posts here, where there are a number of articles that talk about learning strategies.
Very interesting. Can’t wait to start learning.
I am planning to go Uni in Portugal so I have around a year to learn Portuguese on B1/B2.
Well composed content. Im glad I have found this space to learn as I’m a new resident.
Our family is moving to Portugal next year, so we have started this as well as online lessons and I am truly amazed at this website and all the helpful audio clips that make pronouncing the words so much easier! Looking forward to being able to speak very well in the years to come!
Oh, many thanks for your kind words! And good luck with your move – your family will be very welcome here 🙂
One question about the pronunciation for “estação”: when I live in Lisbon, I’ve hardly heard anyone actually pronounce the “e” in any word that starts with it
Hah, that’s very true, and not just for Lisbon 🙂 We tend to brush past that first vowel, since it’s unstressed. The word ends up sounding like ‘shtação’. We actually have a video talking about all these disappearing sounds which could be interesting and insightful for you: Mystery of the Disappearing Sounds (in European Portuguese!).com/videos/mystery/
Well here I go! Been living in Lisbon for just over 8 months now – it is time and I couldn’t be more excited to learn the language of my new home! 💪
Olá Tammy! WOW
Good luck on this journey!
It’s going to be a rollercoaster of emotions, for sure… But a really fun one!
We’ll be here to help you anytime you need. 😀
Cheers,
Luís
Obrigada Luís! I keep hearing how difficult it is to learn Portuguese….which pushes this stubborn Canadian to learn the language even more! 😁 Cheers!
I’ve been watching your videos on youtube for some time. They’re great! Now it’s time to start the full course. I’ve been learning Portuguese for some time but I’m stuggling with the lack of continental Portuguese resources especially when it comes to mastering the pronounciation. Your videos helped me a lot!
Very detailed and educative… can’t wait to learn more and more!
Great!
I cannot wait to speak this beautiful language to my boyfriends family and be able to share conversation properly:)
Thank you for this application! 🥰
Eu estou pronto, vamos lá!
Si, i am curious to see how the chapters unfold and how much I will improve at the end of this journey.
A por ello!!
It seems to be what I need to learn real European Portoguese
Los descubrí por Spotify al buscar lecciones de portugués europeo,
Looks great, but I don’t see the Mark as Complete button. I’m using the Google version. Any tips?
Obrigada.
The “Mark as Complete” button will only appear for active members who are accessing this page from within a Unit. If you are indeed a member, make sure you are logged in! 🙂
I am a member for over a year now. I see no complete button either! I was just on this page to review the Intro to European Portuguese.
Very informative introduction. I am keen to carry on.
I love this. My kids just got iPads and I downloaded this for them. Thank you!!!!!
Sounds exciting! Let’s start the journey 🙂
Looking great so far, I’ve been having fun with Duolingo but this seems much more comprehensive with an emphasis on real situations. Onwards!
Looks good
muito prazer
Sounds exciting! Let’s start the journey
Cool
Great! Let’s start.
Let’s start!
Looking forward to learning European Portuguese
Until a friend of mine told me that the translator had a Brazilian accent and suggested Practice Portugese
Ok
Yes , im interested How do I start?
Welcome! Here’s the link to subscribe: Become a Member Feel free to contact us with any questions. More details about what membership includes are here: Membership Benefits
Yes I’m ready
Let’s go
Sounds good)
Found you guys while looking for answers to grammatical question while reading beginer EP short stories and doing duolingo – Then saw your youtube stuff so decided to switch as i am moving to loule . You guys are hilarious
Looking forward to starting!
I liked it
Great
Good
I am really enjoying this app. My husband and I are studying for our A2 test. This is a great supplement to my tutoring sessions. Also, you said Rui speaks 日本語 in a video I watched? ほんとに‼️わたしも日本語を話せます! 2011 年にJLPT5できました！
Good!
🙂
After one full year of Duolingo and not really going anywhere I’m finally looking forward to learning Portuguese that I can use next time I visit Portugal! I’ve now already heard that it’s quite different. I’ll have to unlearn quite a bit.
I am happy to improve my basic knowledge of Português)
Very good first impression
Ready to start!
It has been a nice introduction.
I am Planning on spending more time in Portugal and I am ready to Learn the language.
Great to hear that! Please feel free to reach out whenever you need. Boa sorte! 🙂
Traveling to the Azores this year. Can’t wait to learn Portuguese.
I am American but I speak Spanish and some Romanian. Many words are familiar however the pronunciation is far different. I’m excited to start this journey. We we are moving to the Algarve from the USA in May 2024!
Yes ready. I even start getting nervous.
This was very helpful, thank you!
okay let’s start
My Great Grandmothers immigrated from Madeira to Hawaii and were the last to speak Portuguese. I’m so excited to start learning, and hope to visit where they came from in a few years.
Excited to learn!
I’ve traveled to Portugal 3 times and I would love to learn how to speak Portuguese. To hold a proper conversation.
I’m going twice this year and would continue in the future .