Learning Notes

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 […]

The average home is full of all kinds of objects, pieces of furniture, and appliances. In this unit, we’ll explore the most common objects you’ll find in each room of your house. The Living Room – Sala de Estar The room where you’ll likely spend lots of time relaxing with your family and friends is […]

If you plan to or a home in Portugal, here are some of the main types of housing you have to choose from: Types of Housing – A private bedroom for yourself in a house shared with other people. – A complete, unshared home, but in shared with others. You could also categorize this as apartment which […]

His, Hers, Yours, and Theirs There are just a few more Portuguese possessives to learn: Subject Possessive Pronoun/Determiner English Equivalent Ele, Ela, Você His, Her/Hers, Your/Yours (formal) Eles, Elas Their, Theirs See what happens there? The pronouns/determiners for the third-person singular (+ você) and the third-person plural are all the same! Gender and Number Agreement […]

Now, when it comes to irregular verbs, there are no consistent rules, so the only way to learn them is through practice and memorization. Many of the most frequently used verbs happen to be irregular, so to get you started, here are just a few that come up quite often (conjugated in the present tense):

Causal subordinating conjunctions (conjunções subordinativas causais) introduce the reason or cause for what was said in the independent clause. Examples:

As you may recall from the earlier Portuguese conjunctions unit, conjunctions are words that connect other words or phrases together. They help you link your thoughts together by showing different types of relationships between the parts of a sentence. You practiced with many different types of “coordinating” conjunctions, which serve different purposes, such as showing […]

Final subordinating conjunctions (conjunções subordinativas finais) describe the purpose of the event or action. Indeed, porque can be both a causal and final conjunction. It all depends on if we’re talking about cause (why something happened) or purpose (reason for doing something). Note: The classification of para as a conjunction in this context is not consensual, […]

Temporal subordinating conjunctions (conjunções subordinativas temporais) tell us when the action or event described in the independent clause has occurred or is occurring.

As part of our Tu e Você unit, this guide will cover how to address people formally vs. informally in Portugal, with a special focus on the difference between tu and você in European Portuguese. Grammatically, it doesn’t take too long to learn the basics. The most challenging aspects for , however, tend to be […]

Here’s how we refer to the present day, the day before, and the next day: Now let’s put them into context: By combining the terms and with ontem and amanhã, you can also form expressions to refer to

Let’s explore some examples of the most common words used to talk about the order and relationships among different events in time. It’s important to be able to talk about now, later, earlier, before, and after in Portuguese. Current Time is the term we use to refer to the present. Past and Future We use […]