Many Portuguese language learners struggle to discern between expressions such as Desculpa, Com licença, or Por favor. These are so-called “politeness” expressions and, as their name implies,…
In Portuguese specifically, yes-or-no questions look the same as declarative sentences, that is, the word order is kept unchanged. A few examples: DeclarativeTu estás no Porto. You are…
If you’re learning Portuguese, you might be wondering: Should I learn European or Brazilian Portuguese? While both variants are mutually intelligible among native speakers, they differ in…
Being a Romance language, why does Portuguese – in specific European Portuguese – sound so Slavic?! Despite being geographically distant and belonging to different language families, Portuguese…
Are you planning a trip to Portugal, or want to get a taste of Portuguese? Learning some of the most common Portuguese phrases will certainly come in…
Portuguese and Spanish are two of the most widely spoken Romance languages in the world and both are considered relatively easy for English speakers to learn. However, language…
Portuguese boasts over 220 million native speakers, ranking it the world’s sixth most-spoken language – impressive! But where did this language begin? As a Romance language, Portuguese…
Despite their shared Latin roots, Spanish and Portuguese aren’t perfect twins. Thousands of words appear similar, but some have diverged in meaning over time, becoming what linguists…
Understanding Portuguese past tenses can be challenging for English speakers. In this article, we’ll break down the Portuguese equivalents of the Past Simple, Past Continuous, and Past…
In 1990, several Portuguese-speaking countries agreed on a spelling reform to create and maintain a cohesive, international standard across borders. In Portugal, the spelling reform was enacted in…
Most languages do well without articles. In this sense, English and Romance languages like Portuguese belong to a minority. The Portuguese definite articles – o, a, os,…
Without conjunctions, we’d sound clumsy and robotic: I like apples. I like pears. I don’t like bananas. No one talks like that. Conjunctions (aka linking words) prevent…
English–Portuguese false friends (or false cognates) are words that look alike in both languages but carry different meanings, often leading to misunderstandings. Because English and Portuguese share…
If you’re learning Portuguese, you might be confused about when to use tão and tanto. While both are essential for intensifying the meanings of other words, they…
Being already familiar with Spanish while learning Portuguese is a huge advantage – these languages are closely related and share thousands of cognate words. Wondering about what…
Intrepid language learners often start trying to interact in Portuguese from day one. I love their attitude and hope you are one of them. Now, being able…
In Portuguese, not only do nouns change spelling depending on number (singular or plural), but so do other word types like adjectives, demonstratives, and possessive pronouns. That’s…
In Portuguese, as in other Romance languages, nouns are classified by gender—either masculine or feminine. However, this gender classification extends beyond nouns to adjectives, pronouns, and articles,…
