Learning to speak a new language is exciting; learning to write a new language is even more exciting! It will open new worlds for you. So, dig into these tips and advice for learning how to master the Portuguese alphabet easily - at PortuguesePod101 we make it easy, fun and relevant for you!
Starting anything from scratch can be challenging, especially if you learn how to write in a language completely different from your own. It is really like navigating through a territory that is completely unknown to you.
However, this need not be a big hurdle or a problem! At PortuguesePod101, we introduce you to Portuguese writing in simple, easy-to-follow steps, and you can ask for advice or help anywhere along the way. It is important to master the Portuguese alphabet completely from the start.
Download Your Free Guide to Beginner Portuguese!
If you want to master the Portuguese language and become fluent, get this Portuguese eBook! You need physical worksheets to practice on.
This eBook is a MUST-HAVE for all Portuguese learning beginners!
Download your Free Portuguese practice sheets PDF today and learn the Portuguese language in no time! This is a must-have guide for absolute beginners
The Portuguese alphabet is very easy to learn because it uses the same alphabet as English.
Knowing the basics of the Portuguese alphabet is a huge step in learning Portuguese, because it’s a “phonetic” language. That means that if you know the letters, then you can read the words, and people will understand you. In fact, the writing system is so exact that when you ask someone to spell a word, they usually just say it slower. We’ll go over the pronunciation of each letter and the rules for spelling in our pronunciation series.
Alphabet
The Portuguese alphabet consists of five vowels and twenty-one consonants just like English. You also form words the same as in English by putting letters together in certain orders. Portuguese is a Latin-based language, so it shares many words with English. Cognates are similar looking words with similar meanings. For example, “electricity” (eletricidade) and “traditional” (tradicional) are English-Portuguese cognates.
Accent Marks
Portuguese has three accent marks: the agudo,the crase, and the circunflexo. Accent marks indicate strong syllables and help in determining the meaning of words. Strong syllables determine the unique rhythm of each word. Accent marks can also change the pronunciation of the syllable.
Portuguese also has two special marks: the til and the cedilha. Where we placethe marks changes the pronunciation of only that syllable.
Learning Other Languages
If you know Portuguese, then Spanish, French, and Italian will be easier to understand and learn because they share common roots.
Much like French in Paris, the Portuguese (Brazilian) language is a romance language and it is spoken by a quarter of a billion people worldwide, mostly residing in Brazil.
Depending on which school of thought you follow, the Portuguese (Brazilian) alphabet can contain either 23 letters or 26 letters. Being a derivative of Latin, Portuguese (Brazilian) is a pluricentric language, meaning that there are both oral and written variations.
If you’re visiting Brazil and you’re familiar with European Portuguese, you should know that the pronunciations are different. Brushing up on the basics of the Portuguese (Brazilian) Alphabet would definitely be in your best interest.
Upper Case
Lower Case
Name
A
a
á
B
b
bê
C
c
cê
D
d
dê
E
e
e
F
f
efe
G
g
gê
H
h
agá
I
i
i
J
j
jota
K
k
cá
L
l
ele
M
m
eme
N
n
ene
O
o
ó
P
p
pê
Q
q
quê
R
r
erre
S
s
esse
T
t
tê
U
u
u
V
v
vê
W
w
dábliu/dáblio
X
x
xis
Y
y
ípsilon
Z
z
zê
While the history of the Portuguese (Brazilian) Alphabet is largely unknown, the language is believed to have been adopted in 1916. Several revisions have been made to the language and the modified form currently used in Brazil began circulation in 1943 and was subsequently revised again in 1970.
Brazil is a stunning locale and whether you are visiting for business or pleasure, learning the Portuguese (Brazilian) Alphabet is an integral part of maximizing your experience in this beautiful place.
If you’re looking to learn Portuguese (Brazilian) then be sure learn not only the variations in intonation but sentence structure and the Portuguese (Brazilian) accents as well. Whenever possible, practice, practice, practice!
During the course of your Portuguese (Brazilian) lessons make sure you listen intently and use your mouth to form the words, instead of just your voice! This alphabet is about passion, expression and beauty and is an art form in and of itself. The influences of the Portuguese (Brazilian) Alphabet come from African languages as well as French, so it is understandable that this unique dialect is so powerful and expressive!
Learning the Portuguese (Brazilian) Alphabet can be an eye-opening experience for both students and tourists alike! Maximize your experience and enjoy the process as you go as learning the Portuguese (Brazilian) Alphabet can last you a lifetime and open a number of doors for you, no matter where your travels take you.
Why is Learning the Portuguese Alphabet Important?
A language’s alphabet is its building blocks. Trying to learn how to write in Portuguese without first learning its alphabet is a bit like trying to build a brick house without touching the individual bricks! It is impossible to do a good job that way. So don’t believe language schools and methods that try to teach you otherwise. You will regret it later.
Also, once you start recognizing symbols and words, you will be encouraged by your own progress and motivated to learn even faster. Even just learning the basics of the alphabet will allow you to start recognizing simple Portuguese words, and it will feel great!
Furthermore, knowing the alphabet even helps with pronunciation, as learning the individual letters of any language will start uncovering nuances and intricacies that are not always apparent when you’re simply listening to the words.
Completely mastering the Portuguese alphabet, no matter how long it takes, will give you an excellent head start in learning how to write and read the language. It will offer you a solid foundation on which to build the other language skills, so set a goal to learn the alphabet so well that you’re able to recite it in your sleep!
Read on for helpful tips and secrets to learning the Portuguese alphabet quickly and effectively.
How to Download Your Free Guide to Beginner Portuguese
If you want to master the Portuguese language and become fluent, get this Portuguese eBook! You need physical worksheets to practice on.
This eBook is a MUST-HAVE for all Portuguese learning beginners!
Download your Free Portuguese practice sheets PDF today and learn the Portuguese language in no time! This is a must-have guide for absolute beginners
Log in with Your Free Lifetime Account and we’ll give you a bundle of PDF cheat sheet including Survival Phrases, Romantic Lines, Learning Tips… — absolutely Free!
3 Reasons to Learn Portuguese Through PDF Lessons
Let’s now take a closer look at how studying Portuguese lessons in PDF format can help you reach your dream in up to half the time of normal video or audio lessons!
① Saves Minutes on Your Data Plan
Learning Portuguese through PDF lessons can dramatically reduce your data use. Once a lesson or tool is downloaded, you can then access it offline via your computer or smartphone any time or place regardless of Internet access. And once you’ve download the Portuguese lessons in PDF format, you can actually access them faster than logging in and trying to do so via a live site. So not only will learning Portuguese using PDF lessons save minutes on your data plan—it will save you some significant time as well as the lessons add up!
② Print and Take All Portuguese Lessons and PDF Tools With You Anywhere
Sometimes, a tiny smartphone screen just isn’t adequate, especially when you are trying to learn something new. The great thing about PDF lessons, tools or files is that they can be quickly printed and taken anywhere after you download them. In fact, printing out Portuguese lessons in PDF format can actually save you time when compared to going through the material on a smartphone with a small screen—even with the extra printing time!
③ Great Study Tool to Boost Retention and Mastery
Studying video or audio lessons online is a great way to learn a language because students can play and rewind sections as many times as needed until the lesson is mastered. But when you review the same Portuguese lessons again in PDF format, an incredible thing happens: your retention dramatically improves! Thanks to Time Spaced Repetition, seeing the information again in written format helps reinforce the information in your mind and improves both retention and recall. The benefits of learning Portuguese using PDF lessons quickly add up to significant time savings for you, your data plan, and your dream of learning a new language!
Why are we giving it away?
Learning to read and write is a must for all beginners. Although you get video lessons on how to write in Portuguese at PortuguesePod101, you’ll still need physical worksheets to practice on. That’s why you’re getting this printable tutorial PDFs as a gift.
With a language, like with anything you have to learn from scratch, having a few mnemonic devices handy are key to learning it fast. A mnemonic device is basically any method or technique that helps you to retain or commit something to memory more easily.
Here are a few mnemonic devices to memorize the Portuguese alphabet so you can speed up learning how to write in Portuguese.
① Find and Learn an Alphabet Song or Poem in Portuguese
Can you still remember your childhood alphabet song in your own language? The best way to commit it to memory so you can recite it is still your mom or first teacher’s way - with music, a song and/or a poem! Find a recording and learn to sing the song, or recite the poem along as best as you can. Ask your PortuguesePod101 teacher to help you understand exactly what you are singing or saying, and soon you’ll have reciting the alphabet under your belt! Repeat it out loud as often as possible.
However, you still need to learn how to write it.
② Study a Few Letters At a Time
Remember when you were young and learning to write for the first time? You didn’t start with words or sentences; you started with letters, one at a time!
Decide on tackling only a few letters each week, and then don’t move on from these till you are completely familiar with them. Don’t take on too many at once, or you may become discouraged. Also, remember to ask your teacher at PortuguesePod101 if you have questions!
Learn to incidentally spot the letters in books, road signs (If you’re living in the country), magazines, on TV, anywhere you encounter written Portuguese. Remember to write them out!
③ Write Out the Letters of the Alphabet By Hand
Make it a goal to write out your week’s letters at least once a day, and commit to this goal. You can also do it every time you have a free moment. Get yourself a special notebook for this purpose that you can carry with you anywhere you go. Sitting on the train or bus? Waiting for someone somewhere? Whip out your notebook and write the Portuguese alphabet, or the letters you are learning. Aim for about 20 repetitions, while silently saying the letter in your head as you write it out. This way, you will soon be able to form and write words all by yourself! Exciting, isn’t it?
Writing something down with a pen also seems to engrave it in the brain in a way that nothing else does. As an added benefit, it gives you the satisfaction of seeing a new language in your own writing!
Once you’ve mastered the whole alphabet, commit to writing it out in its entirety at least once a day, for at least one month. More repetitions are obviously better.
④ Involve Your Whole Body
Research has shown that the more senses and actions we use to learn something, the quicker the new information sticks in the memory and becomes habitual. To apply this principle while learning the Portuguese alphabet, write out huge letters by tracing them in the soil, or with chalk on the floor. Now, while saying the letter out loud, walk on the lines you have just traced. In this way, you ‘write’ the letter by moving your whole body!
Having fun just makes it even easier to learn something, so why not ‘write’ the letters out with dance steps while moving to your favorite Portuguese music!
This is a simple trick that seems silly, but you’ll be surprised how quickly you will commit intricate letters to memory this way. It really works!
⑤ Use Associations To Memorize Letters
This technique would involve saying the Portuguese letter out loud, and then thinking of a word in your own language that sounds the same as the letter. That would then create a phonic association that should make it easier for you to remember the letter. Better even if the association is something you can draw or picture.
If the script of the new alphabet is very different from your own, look at it closely, and see if you can find an image that the letter reminds you of
⑥ Now Have Fun Trying To Write Words!
Try to write words from your own language in Portuguese, and ask your friendly PortuguesePod101 teachers for feedback! Or post them on the forum and see if anyone can read them. You will be so pleased with yourself when you start writing words that are readable and recognizable by native speakers.
Do you know how to say hello in Portuguese? It’s the most basic phrase that you’ll need to say and hear in everyday life. If you don’t know yet, learn 15 ways to say hello and greet others in Portuguese. Why 15? The more variations you know, the more you can speak and the more fluent you become!
Can you introduce yourself in Portuguese? Don’t worry! Check out the 10 Portuguese Lines You Need To Introduce Yourself with this free Review Sheet. From “My name is…“ and “I live in…” down to “My hobbies are…” Just review the 10 lines. It will only take you 2 minutes. Then, introduce yourself in the comment section below!
How good is your Portuguese? Care to put it to the test? Here’s the deal! We’ve come up with this must-know Portuguese Phrases List. Learn the top 25 Portuguese phrases, hear the native pronunciation and put your Portuguese to the test. Did you know them all? If not, review the list and master these easy phrases!
Has anyone thanked you today? We will. Thank you for reading this article and learning with us! In fact, today, you’ll learn the many different ways to say “Thank You” in Portuguese. It’s one of the most important Portuguese phrases. Check it out and watch the video too to practice your pronunciation.
Obrigada pelo guia gratuito. I am really enjoying the resources. I noticed a minor error on the Portuguese Alphabet Chart. For C, center and coal should be switched in order. Centro and casa would also be switched in order. Then they will coincide with /k/ ; /s/.
Say Hello in Portuguese
Introduce Yourself
Top Portuguese Phrases
Thank You in Portuguese
A language’s alphabet is its building blocks. Trying to learn how to write in Portuguese without first learning its alphabet is a bit like trying to build a brick house without touching the individual bricks! It is impossible to do a good job that way. So don’t believe language schools and methods that try to teach you otherwise. You will regret it later.
With a language, like with anything you have to learn from scratch, having a few mnemonic devices handy are key to learning it fast. A mnemonic device is basically any method or technique that helps you to retain or commit something to memory more easily.
Olá, Christine,
Muito obrigada pelo feedback! 😅
We'll take a look and make it better.
Sincerely,
Marcia
Team PortuguesePod101.com