A tourist in Rio de Janeiro can ignore Brazil’s etiquette. A devoted learner can’t. In fact, understanding Brazil customs and etiquette—and some of their roots—is a solid path to richer contact with the language. Because the etiquette of Brazil is fairly different from Portuguese etiquette, learning cultural etiquette in Brazil is a great opportunity to understand Brazilian people. After all, meeting new people and hearing different perspectives contributes to a richer life experience! Traveling and getting to know different realities often reveals unthinkable life conditions and habits. Even though the cultures, concerns, and consumption habits worldwide tend to assume a growingly homogenic behavior in comparison to decades ago,... Show more

Do you sometimes wish the weekends had more days? When are your next vacations? Do you know your best friend’s birthday? If you want to answer any of those questions in Portuguese, you first need to learn how to talk about dates in Portuguese. Then, you’ll be able to do many more things, like making plans, arranging meetings and celebrating anniversaries! Talking about dates is a part of everyday interactions. Every time you need to solve some bureaucracy, you need to write your date of birth or indicate today’s date. When making plans with your friends, you better know the days of the week to avoid mix-ups. And if you are a history buff, then you know dates are a must-know!  Today, you will learn how to write the date in Portuguese,... Show more

Whether it’s a Christmas celebration, a birthday party, or a simple barbecue (churrasco!), there’s a family gathering just about every month in Brazil. Yes, those events where small cousins are running around, grandmother asks about your love life, and there’s more food than people can handle. Learning how to talk about family in Portuguese is essential, even if you don’t attend one of these family gatherings in Brazil (which we recommend you do!). After all, this is a topic that always comes up in conversations. People will ask you about your family, or tell you stories about their own family involving multiple relatives. In this article, we’ll go over the vocabulary you need to know to talk about all kinds of families, as well as... Show more

Travel: Is there any other activity that demands so much planning, money, and time...or that generates so many interesting and fulfilling discoveries? Yes, traveling can be both a pleasure and a challenge. Leisure in newfound places walks hand in hand with language and cultural barriers. Learning Portuguese basics for travel can be helpful, but it might not be enough to help you generate a truly rich and comfortable experience. There are many sources online with common Portuguese travel phrases, but many of them fail to illustrate the nuances of the daily vernacular you’ll actually be hearing on your trip. It’s not uncommon to learn some Portuguese travel phrases but neglect to brush up on local manners and signs of politeness. After... Show more

Learning the numbers in Portuguese solves many problems. You can ask for caipirinhas (a Brazilian cocktail) for you and your buddies. Or count the goals in a soccer match. Or know how much a ticket from Sao Paulo to Rio will cost... You can also negotiate your salary, answer how many months (or years) you plan to stay in the country, and tell people your age. Like in any other language, it’s important that you learn at least the numbers to ten in Portuguese right at the start. That will solve some communication problems when you’re speaking to a Brazilian or Portuguese person who doesn’t speak English. Exciting, isn’t it? When do we begin? Well, sit down, take it easy, breathe—count to ten. → Want to review numbers vocabulary in... Show more

Making mistakes is a part of life. There’s no way around it, and that’s why knowing how to apologize is a must. Whether we inadvertently make a mistake or say something we didn’t mean, saying "I’m sorry" is always necessary. It doesn’t mean it’s an easy thing to do, but it’s something we have to deal with. Now that you’re learning a new language, it’s also a good idea to expand your vocabulary and include ways to say sorry in Portuguese. After all, mistakes in pronunciation, word choice, or comprehension is a part of the process. That’s totally okay! By using the right words to apologize, you can make the process smoother. As you gain more experience with the Portuguese language, there will be more situations in which you might need... Show more

Not everything can be translated. The Biblical story of the Tower of Babel tells of a time when all humans stopped speaking the same language to drown in the confusion of different idioms. The conflicts have spread throughout humankind, which has been dissolved into different tribes. Indeed, communication is full of perils. Speech is the root of every possible human bond and results in building or destroying bridges. Normally, when a message fails to be transmitted, the consequences aren’t good. This effort to translate is hard enough in daily matters. But what about the untranslatable Portuguese words and those of other languages? The benefits of learning untranslatable Portuguese words may not be obvious at first sight, but they... Show more

Yes, even beginners can quickly learn conversational Portuguese well enough to carry on real conversations with native speakers. Of course, beginners won’t be able to carry a conversation the same way they could in their native language. But, just knowing a few tips like which questions to ask to keep a conversation going are all you need to speak and interact with real native speakers! But before we get to specific suggestions, let’s first take a closer look at how having real Portuguese conversations is so vital to your mastery of the language. Learning to Carry a Conversation is Vital to Mastery of Any Language Communicating with other people is the very point of language and conversation is almost second nature in our native tongue.... Show more

Learn 4 tools and techniques to stop translating in your head and start thinking in Going through lessons is enough to get by and learn the basics of , but to truly become fluent you need to be able to think in . This will allow you to have conversations with ease, read smoothly, and comprehensively understand natives. To do this, you need to go beyond just completing daily or weekly lessons. We naturally translate in our heads because it's viewed as the easiest way to learn the definitions needed when learning a language. This way of learning can actually hinder your skills and fluency later on. If your brain has to make neural connections between the word you're learning, what it means in your native tongue, and the physical object... Show more

Speaking is usually the #1 weakness for all Portuguese learners. This is a common issue among language learners everywhere. The reason for this is obvious: When language learners first start learning a language, they usually start with reading. They read online articles, books, information on apps and so on. If they take a class, they spend 20% of their time repeating words, and 80% of the time reading the textbook, doing homework or just listening to a teacher. So, if you spend most of your time reading instead of speaking, you might get better at reading but your speaking skills never grow. You get better at what you focus on. So if you want to improve you speaking skills, you need to spend more of your study time on speaking. Here... Show more