Learning Notes

It’s time to learn how to use the gerund in European Portuguese! 🥳 Simples vs. Composto So what is the exactly? For English speakers, it generally corresponds to the verb form ending in -ing, when it is used as a noun (e.g. “I like cooking“). However, the Portuguese gerund plays a different role, which is […]

After exploring the Pronunciation Guide for European Portuguese Vowels and Pronunciation Guide for European Portuguese Consonants, you probably had a better sense of how to pronounce the various sounds of Portuguese in isolation. However, when you listened for these sounds throughout the Units and in the Shorties, you may have heard some things you didn’t expect! […]

You may have come across the word logo in Portuguese and had trouble translating it. Logo is another of those Portuguese words that has several meanings… The word can mean “therefore”, it can mean “soon”, and (don’t hate us!) it can also mean “later”. 😳 Sometimes it does not have a clear translation in English, […]

Let’s talk about relative determiners! There is only one relative determiner – cujo (and its variants). This is a relatively recent change to the terminology, so you may find a lot of articles that list cujo as either a relative pronoun or a quantifier, but this is incorrect. Relative determiners always agree in number and […]

The Portuguese R is one of the more difficult sounds to master. We covered it briefly in our Pronunciation Guide to European Portuguese Consonants, but it deserves a bit more explanation! Pronunciation varies across different Portuguese dialects, so you will likely hear variations in the the R (as well as other sounds). We’ll focus on […]

In the next couple lessons, we’ll let you practice with large numbers, such as those in the ten-thousands and hundred-thousands. A few reminders: – Remember that 100 is cento when it’s part of a number (i.e. followed by e) – Remember that 100 is just cem when it’s by itself (i.e. not followed by e) Here’s […]

The simplest translation for the Portuguese verb andar is “to walk”, but the fun doesn’t stop there! Andar can take on many different meanings, depending on the context. As opposed to , which is pretty straightforward, refers more to the general act of moving, acting, or changing places. It can indicate that an action is […]

Learning Portuguese-English cognates is a great way to build vocabulary fast! It’s basically using what you already know to get a jump-start. Cognates are simply words that are very similar in both languages, usually due to a common root. We talked about them in our guide to European Portuguese Shortcuts, as well as our video […]

False cognates, also known as , are words that look and/or sound similar in two different languages, but that don’t actually have the same meaning. In other words (no pun intended), they “trick” you into thinking they are true cognates. Let’s start with what’s most important: making sure you don’t run into any doors when […]

In the next set of , we’ll introduce phrases that will help you have a basic conversation in Portuguese. Many beginners are afraid to initiate a because they don’t know whether they’ll understand or be understood. Well, we wouldn’t recommend discussing politics right away 😳, but with some preparation, you can at least get further […]

Some Portuguese verbs have such similar meanings that it can be quite confusing for learners to know which to use in different contexts. Two of these tricky verbs are and . In this Learning Note, we’ll cover how to distinguish between poder vs. conseguir.

In this Learning Note we’ll cover 3 main topics: 🗺 Countries in Portuguese (so you can say where you’re from!) 🤓 Whether to use a definite article (o or a) before the name of your country 🗣 How to state which language(s) you speak and your nationality (both male and female forms) You may have […]