How to learn Portuguese and some basic Portuguese words

It's very easy to find Portuguese people in the street who speak English, so don't worry too much if you don't know how to speak Portuguese, you'll be okay. However, if you come to Portugal with Erasmus, why not learn our language? It is always worthwhile. After discussing several ways to learn Portuguese in this post, I will also include some basic Portuguese phrases which could be useful for anyone who decides to visit Portugal.

How to learn Portuguese in Portugal?

In several universities some of the courses can be taught in Portugues, therefore, you need a control of Portuguese language. In my opinion if you know how to speak Spanish this makes it easier to learn Portuguese because many words are similar.

From what I could find, the vast majority of Portuguese universities have Portuguese language courses available. The following links have more information about these courses.

• University of Coimbra
• University of Lisbon
• University of Porto
• University of Aveiro
• University of Minho (Braga)

Regarding the link to the University of Minho, this doesn't have any information about the Portuguese language course but instead a shortcut to some forms to fill in, which I can't access, but which should have information about the Portuguese language course.

If you don't want to do a Portuguese language course available through a Portuguese university...

The Centro Português Et Cetera has a Portuguese language course available, but only in Lisbon.

The Instituto Camões da Cooperação e da Língua also has Portuguese language courses in several different countries, as well as in Aveiro and Lisbon in Portugal. Visit the site and find out if they have a centre near to you. If they do, why not learn a bit of Portuguese prior to your Portuguese Erasmus experience.

There are also several websites which have Portuguese courses available, some of which are free, but some which you need to pay for.

Advice: Portuguese from Portugal is different from Portuguese in Brazil. When you are looking for an online Portuguese course, make sure that it's in Portuguese from Portugal.

Source

And now, some basic Portuguese

Olá! - this means hello in English.

Obrigado! - Thank you!

De nada! - You're welcome!

Sim - Yes.

Não - No.

Bom dia! - Good Morning!

Boa tarde! - Good Afternoon!

Boa noite! - Good night!

Prazer em conhecer-te! - Nice to meet you!

Tudo bem? /Como estás? - How are you? Tudo bem is used more often than Como estás, and both phrases require different answers. Whilst the phrase Tudo bem can be answered with yes or no, the phrase Como estás needs to be answered with bem (fine) or mal (sad). In order to ask how the person posing the question is, you need to add "e contigo? " which means "and with you? ".

Como te chamas? - What's your name?

Chamo-me ______ - My name is _______.

Sabes falar Inglês? - Do you speak English?. Espanhol (Spanish), Francês (French), Alemão (German).

Onde é ______ - Where is _____?

O Supermercado - The supermarket.

A Casa de banho - the Bathroom.

A Discoteca e o Bar - the Disco and Bar.

O Restaurante - the Restaurant.

O Mercado - the Market.

O Shopping - the Shopping.

O Hotel/ o Hostel- The hotel/hostel.

Just as with Spanish, Portuguese words are either feminine or masculine, with "a" being feminine and "o" masculine, therefore supermercado in Portuguese is masculine and casa de banho is feminine.

With this last question you can also add other information, such as:

Onde é/fica _______ mais barato? For example, onde é/fica o restaurante mais barato? Fica here means lies or be, but you can also use é. Mais barato means cheapest, so Onde fica o restaurante mais barato? means Where is the cheapest restaurant?

If you have any other suggestions for essential phrases do not hesitate to send me a message, I'll quickly update this post.

I hope you enjoyed it!

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