Learning Portuguese from Portugal (not Brazilian)

[AJGuillaume]

My darling and I will attempt to walk the Caminho Português from Lisboa, starting westward and following the coast to Nazaré, then Fátima and getting back on the Caminho in Tomar.

We tried to study Portuguese on one of the most popular language apps, but it's Brazilian Portuguese, and we would like to learn Portuguese from Portugal. We've been listening to Portuguese news, and the language app we have used definitely does not help us understand Portuguese from Portugal.

Is there an app or a website that would allow us to practice the little we know of Portuguese?

Obrigado
Bon Caminho!

 

[jungleboy]

Portuguese with Leo, Portuguese with Carla and Practice Portuguese are some of the most well-known resources I can think of for European Portuguese.

And unlike the discussion on Robo’s thread about LA v EU Spanish, it’s definitely worth finding European-only Portuguese resources as the POR v BRA differences are significant.

Boa sorte AJ and Rachel!

 

[OZAJ]

And unlike the discussion on Robo’s thread about LA v EU Spanish, it’s definitely worth finding European-only Portuguese resources as the POR v BRA differences are significant.

This accords with what my Brazilian friends have told me.

It might be worth noting that English is more widely spoken in Portugal than in Spain or France.

 

[jungleboy]

My darling and I will attempt to walk the Caminho Português from Lisboa, starting westward and following the coast to Nazaré, then Fátima and getting back on the Caminho in Tomar.

Will you follow the Caminho do Mar as we did last year (which doesn’t go through Nazaré but comes pretty close), or stick more closely to the coast?

 

[AJGuillaume]

Will you follow the Caminho do Mar as we did last year (which doesn’t go through Nazaré but comes pretty close), or stick more closely to the coast?

We thought of following the Camino do Mar. We'll be starting at the end of August, and I thought staying closer to the coast might bring us some cooler temperatures. We experienced that when we walked the Norte in 2018, also in August and September. And my darling loves beach walking.

So we'll be following the Trilho das Areias (https://trilho-das-areias.webnode.page/).

I had toyed with the idea of doing a detour to Sintra, but it might be crazy busy at that time of the year, so we'll come back another time to visit.

We'll follow the coast to Nazaré, then cut across to Fátima, and continue on to Tomar. From Tomar, we'll be back on the Caminho.

From Porto, we were thinking of walking the Caminho Português da Costa.

Obrigado pelas referências para aprender português!

 

[MariaSP]

A Portuguese teacher friend of mine recommended these: https://www.youtube.com/c/PortugueseWithLeo

https://www.youtube.com/@TalktheStreets

Learn European Portuguese Online | Mia Esmeriz Academy

A website dedicated to helping people learning Portuguese, offering materials, courses, tools and information about the best way to learn European Portuguese.

learn-portuguese.org

 

[Friend from Barquinha]

Comments from someone studying European Portuguese (a bit sporadically, but keenly) for the last several years.

I have studied both in-person and online, in smallish classes, plus using Portuguese with Leo, a bit, and most recently, Duolingo for review--I'd guess this may be the app the original posters are talking about.

I also was an English-language teacher for adults, for quite a few years, at the college level.

All the resources are useful for learning basic vocabulary and some grammar. You are definitely at an advantage with studies of a previous Romance language--French, Spanish or Italian, for example--because a lot of the grammar concepts are the same or similar, and a fair bit of vocabulary is cognates (related though not identical).

HOWEVER--deciphering what people are actually saying is the big challenge. The first time I came into Portugal among Portuguese-speakers after a lot of time in Spanish-speaking countries, I was amazed. The language sounded much more like a central-European language than a Romance one!

So be warned that even if you've worked very hard and succeeded in picking up basic-level continental Portuguese--you will probably end up using English most of the time.

My experience is: being confident, carefully rehearsing my question, or whatever--and then being totally flummoxed at what the response is--delivered at a hammer-drill speed, with lots of swallowed beginnings and ends of words. Back to English and a lot of gesturing.

Boa sorte e bom caminho! They'll welcome you anyway

 

[lindam]

There is also an App called Language Drops where it is possible to select European Portuguese. The free part of the App will give you five minutes per day of Portuguese practice, mainly in the form of vocabulary building (rather than grammar). Boa sorte!

 

[jungleboy]

HOWEVER--deciphering what people are actually saying is the big challenge.

--and then being totally flummoxed at what the response is--

Very true in the case of European Portuguese and another reason why comprehensible input (discussed in the recent DuoLingo thread) is so important!

 

[SturdyLegs]

Comments from someone studying European Portuguese (a bit sporadically, but keenly) for the last several years.

I have studied both in-person and online, in smallish classes, plus using Portuguese with Leo, a bit, and most recently, Duolingo for review--I'd guess this may be the app the original posters are talking about.

I also was an English-language teacher for adults, for quite a few years, at the college level.

All the resources are useful for learning basic vocabulary and some grammar. You are definitely at an advantage with studies of a previous Romance language--French, Spanish or Italian, for example--because a lot of the grammar concepts are the same or similar, and a fair bit of vocabulary is cognates (related though not identical).

HOWEVER--deciphering what people are actually saying is the big challenge. The first time I came into Portugal among Portuguese-speakers after a lot of time in Spanish-speaking countries, I was amazed. The language sounded much more like a central-European language than a Romance one!

So be warned that even if you've worked very hard and succeeded in picking up basic-level continental Portuguese--you will probably end up using English most of the time.

My experience is: being confident, carefully rehearsing my question, or whatever--and then being totally flummoxed at what the response is--delivered at a hammer-drill speed, with lots of swallowed beginnings and ends of words. Back to English and a lot of gesturing.

Boa sorte e bom caminho! They'll welcome you anyway

As a linguist and language teacher I second what's said above. Even if you use a more Portugal-Portuguese oriented app, it does not mean you will be able to straight away understand everything (or anything) that's said around you or to you once you land in Portugal. That takes some getting used to and more real-life practice. Starting from scratch and picking up some basics with an app will help you with basic practical stuff and asking questions about it (food, accommodation, directions etc) and create goodwill from locals. So it's definitely worth it. Even if the app is more Brazilian-based - at the basic level differences are minimal between the two (and they will understand you in Portugal if you utter some Brazilian Portuguese, in case you want to continue with that app).

 

[Pelegrin]

The problem to understand Portuguese from Portugal is they don't pronounce clearly the vowels. If you pronouce clearly the vowels ( like in Spanish or Galician) they think that you are speaking " Portuñol".

 

[GuyOsborn]

My darling and I will attempt to walk the Caminho Português from Lisboa, starting westward and following the coast to Nazaré, then Fátima and getting back on the Caminho in Tomar.

We tried to study Portuguese on one of the most popular language apps, but it's Brazilian Portuguese, and we would like to learn Portuguese from Portugal. We've been listening to Portuguese news, and the language app we have used definitely does not help us understand Portuguese from Portugal.

Is there an app or a website that would allow us to practice the little we know of Portuguese?

Obrigado
Bon Caminho!

Portuguese lab and Storyglot have good stories and dialogues that I recorded (using Audacity) - I drive an hour to and from work every day and listen to these on the way. They both have transcripts, so once you've read/listened at the same time, you absorb the words quite quickly.

 

[CamisMors]

I know this is an older thread, but as a Brazilian who lived in Portugal for five years, I’d like to offer some insights that might clear up a few misconceptions.

First, there’s no such thing as "Brazilian Portuguese" in a strict linguistic sense. Thanks to an international agreement among Portuguese-speaking countries in 1990, the grammar has been officially unified between all Portuguese speaking countries (Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cabo Verde, and more that I forget now). In theory, there is only one Portuguese language. The distinction between PT-BR and PT-EU is more of a cultural difference than a formal one.

It’s also worth noting that Brazilian media—music, movies, soap operas, and more—has a strong presence in Portugal today, especially with the growing Brazilian immigrant community. Portuguese people are very familiar with our accent, though the reverse tends to be more challenging for Brazilians. In fact, a few years ago, there was even a media controversy because many children in Portugal were picking up Brazilian slang and expressions from YouTube channels, which concerned more conservative groups at the time.

The main differences are in accent and vocabulary, similar to the way American and British English differ and I never saw anyone worried about learning British English to visit the UK. It's English, simple as that.
In Portugal, speech tends to be much faster, and vowels are often "swallowed," which can make it difficult even for Brazilians to understand at first. That’s why apps and resources focused on Brazilian Portuguese might be easier for beginners, though both variants share the same fundamental grammar and basic sentences.

In everyday interactions on the Camino, whether you’re speaking PT-BR or PT-EU, the essential phrases will be identical, and locals likely won’t bother to second guess which variant you're trying to use. In any case, as a non-native speaker, you're most likely to have an accent that doesn’t fit into either category.

Just one crucial thing to remember: never assume that Portuguese and Spanish are the same language. That’s a big no-no! Gracias = Obrigada!

 

[Pelegrin]

I know this is an older thread, but as a Brazilian who lived in Portugal for five years, I’d like to offer some insights that might clear up a few misconceptions.

First, there’s no such thing as "Brazilian Portuguese" in a strict linguistic sense. Thanks to an international agreement among Portuguese-speaking countries in 1990, the grammar has been officially unified between all Portuguese speaking countries (Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cabo Verde, and more that I forget now). In theory, there is only one Portuguese language. The distinction between PT-BR and PT-EU is more of a cultural difference than a formal one.

It’s also worth noting that Brazilian media—music, movies, soap operas, and more—has a strong presence in Portugal today, especially with the growing Brazilian immigrant community. Portuguese people are very familiar with our accent, though the reverse tends to be more challenging for Brazilians. In fact, a few years ago, there was even a media controversy because many children in Portugal were picking up Brazilian slang and expressions from YouTube channels, which concerned more conservative groups at the time.

The main differences are in accent and vocabulary, similar to the way American and British English differ and I never saw anyone worried about learning British English to visit the UK. It's English, simple as that.
In Portugal, speech tends to be much faster, and vowels are often "swallowed," which can make it difficult even for Brazilians to understand at first. That’s why apps and resources focused on Brazilian Portuguese might be easier for beginners, though both variants share the same fundamental grammar and basic sentences.

I think that "swallowing the vowels" is the "Portugues padrão" and those who did it think that they don't have accent. There are still some villages in the north ( Castro Laboreiro, Lamas de Mouro, etc) where still pronounce all the vowels what makes it easier to understand.