Resources for Improving European Portuguese [English Version]

This is my second article in Portuguese. For people who want to speak Portuguese of Portugal. This is the English Version. Original in Portuguese.

[Photo by Luís Feliciano on Unsplash]

It's Portuguese from Portugal, Not Brazil


Portuguese is the language of Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and a few smaller countries. It is part of "Romance" languages with roots in Latin.

First do you want to learn Brazilian Portuguese or Portuguese from Portugal?

For many people, Brazilian Portuguese is the right choice. For people who want to travel or live in Portugal, it is not.

It is important, because many online resources are in Brazilian Portuguese. Many Portuguese translations are in Brazilian Portuguese. Because one has a population of 11 million and the other of 211 million.

And it usually has the label "Portuguese"

Things about Portuguese from Portugal


Some people say "It's a difficult language". That's a lie.

For English speakers (like me) it's not that difficult. Some words are a little harder to pronounce. And it has a nasal sound to some people compared to other languages.

It has similarities with other Romance languages like Spanish, French, Romanian, Catalan, Italian. If you speak one of these it is a great benefit.

Resources

  • Deepl is a translation application with a PT Portuguese option
  • Memrise is an Android and Apple app with courses in PT Portuguese. Drops is another option
  • HelloTalk and Tandem are apps for finding language partners
  • Falar Português is a website with lots of materials in PT Portuguese
  • For conjugations try conjugacao.com.br. It's a Brazilian site, but there's not a big difference (in this sense).
  • Podcasts in Portuguese. 1) Learn to eat. 2) 1001 Reasons to like Portugal. 3) Se Regalam Dudas. 4) Dava 1 Filme.
  • Dictionaries - Priberam dictionary and infopedia.

I hope to update this list in the future.

Finishing Up

Good luck!
Duncan