Online Basic Portuguese Learning Course

Beginner Portuguese in the Brazilian standard — the variety spoken by four out of five Portuguese speakers.

Portuguese is the sixth most spoken language in the world and official on four continents. Its reputation as “Spanish with a different accent” is misleading: the vocabulary really is close, and the pronunciation really is not. Portuguese has nasal vowels that Spanish lacks, a completely different set of r and s sounds, and in Brazil a ti/di shift that changes how half the words sound.

So this course puts sound first — the nasal vowels, the throat r, the z between vowels, and the stress rules that make written Portuguese readable on sight. Then the grammar: gender and the compulsory preposition-article contractions, ser versus estar, the three verb families, negation and questions. Then real situations — greetings and obrigado/obrigada, introductions, polite ordering, numbers, family, food, shopping, travel, directions, and emergencies. The final module adds the past tense.

What makes this course different

It teaches Brazilian Portuguese and says so. Over 80% of Portuguese speakers are Brazilian, and Brazilian pronunciation is more open and easier for a beginner. European differences are noted wherever they matter.

It warns Spanish speakers. The vocabulary transfers, the pronunciation does not, and portunhol is understood but instantly recognisable. The course addresses this directly.

It covers the Arabic layer — açúcar, azeite, almofada, armazém, álgebra, and oxalá — plus the Portuguese words that travelled the other way into Bengali, Malay, and Japanese.

How it is organised

Six modules: getting started, sounds and spelling, first grammar, first conversations, everyday Portuguese, and the past tense with reading practice. Five review quizzes, and two free preview lessons.