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Learn the Portuguese Language with Online or In-Person Courses

Olá e bem vindo!

Learning the Portuguese language is an adventure, whose lessons can take you to Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, and beyond!

As a language, you will find it somewhat familiar if you speak other European languages like English and Spanish.

Whilst some people may think it will take a lot more time to practice and perfect Portuguese compared to Spanish though, beginners will be able to get by just fine in Portugal or Brazil.

Learning Brazilian or Portugal Portuguese with a native teacher will put students in good stead, but it's best if you can find a native AND non-native speaker to teach you, as contact with other students whose first language might be English or Spanish can understand the difficulties in pronunciation, speaking, vocabulary, and grammar you may be having.

A tutor will be of great help if you want to start to practice some phrases before a trip or study Portuguese at university, so finding some courses online or in-person at your level with a dedicated tutor will be heaps of fun and a great help!

Portuguese: A Background

Spoken in Portugal and Brazil mainly, people sometimes find native Portuguese speaking individuals hard to understand when they come into contact with them.

Of course, these people have never had a Portuguese lesson, and even those students who have spent some time with a teacher, trying day after day to refine their pronunciation, speaking, and vocabulary skills will notice that understanding Portuguese is notably difficult (more on this in a moment).

Portuguese is a romance language, just like Spanish, Italian, and French, and given its location on the Iberian peninsula, Spanish has many similarities.

When people start to speak Portuguese, they immediately notice the heavy accent difference between Portugal and Brazil, even as beginners. Once you get to a more professional level, you will realise that in your lessons, your tutor has probably only been speaking in one of them as they're very distinct.

Features of Portuguese

Whether you've got a private tutor or are doing courses in a group, you will notice that the pronunciation is notably hard.

However, you may want to learn Portuguese with a Brazilian accent in your courses, as this is known to be easier.

At university, and more generally, your best bet for having fun as you practice with other beginners is to spend a good amount of time speaking with other students, as you won't get stressed about the accent. You will probably hear most audio in Brazilian Portuguese throughout your learning also, so you will be able to start imitating this pronunciation when you feel free to.

European and Brazilian Portuguese differ a lot in pronunciation, with the language spoken in Brazil using different phrases on a day to day basis, only using the third person você for all second person interactions, and pronouncing -te as tche, and -de as dge. 

To the untrained ear, this can sound very odd, but once you have listened to a bit of audio in your Brazilian Portuguese courses, you will be able to have some fun with this yourself.

As for European Portuguese, a beginner may require more time, classes, and help to practice and eventually ace this pronunciation.

As you use the Portuguese language in your professional life or day to day life in Portugal, you will notice that it sounds a lot harsher, with a -ch sound featuring heavily, like a Scottish loch.

As your teacher will tell you, this sound is formed when you have r- at the start of a word, or when -rr- appears in the middle of a word. The Brazilian equivalent is much softer, being more akin to an -h sound.

What's more, European Portuguese does not use the -te or -de ending sound, with a harder but slightly more aspirated t and d respectively.

Did this first lesson already sound like fun to you?

Get in contact with one of the many qualified Portuguese tutors on Superprof to begin your Lusophone journey today!