| Spoken by: | 190 million |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Brazil |
| Language family: | Romance |
Phonology
Grammar
Ortography
The brazilian portuguese alphabet consists of 26 letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y and z. The vowels are a, e, i, o, u. The letters k, w and y are the least used, only appearing in foreign languages words. There are variations of the vowels, the accents (á, à, ã, é, í, ó, õ, ú) and a c with cedile, the ç.
Common difficulties
- Phonology: Nasal vowels and rhotics ; Raising vowels to contrast stressed syllables with unstressed syllables: to know the right time to raise /a ɛ e ɔ o/ to [ɐ e i ɨ o u].
- Orthography: the grave accent on an a, known as crase ( à ) ; the words porquê, porque, por que, por quê; the sibilants.
- Grammar: verb tenses and gender inflections. Oblique case pronouns.
Resources
The following resources are all available for free online.
Portuguese - English dictionary
Beginner Podcasts (includes downloadable PDF transcripts and mp3s, as well as comparisons with Spanish phonetics and grammar): Tá Falado
Intermediate/advanced podcasts: Podcast Café Brazil
Intermediate/advanced video series with transcripts and grammar explanations: ClicaBrasil
Listening practice for intermediate/advanced: Conversa Brasileira
Blog about learning Portuguese: Hacking Portuguese (includes more explanatory articles and links to other resources)
There are some Assimil courses for learning Brazilian Portuguese, but they are in French. See them here.
There is also a Pimsleur course.
Free lessons with interesting content are available at GLOSS, but some minimal prior knowledge is needed unless you speak Spanish.
For Portuguese learners with some knowledge of Spanish, the following resources will be especially helpful.
Antônio Roberto Monteiro Simões, Pois não: Brazilian Portuguese Course for Spanish Speakers, with Basic Reference Grammar (2008). 598 pp.
The podcast Tá Falado .
Blog posts on the similarities and differences between the languages at Hacking Portuguese, Fluent in 3 Months, and Wikipedia.