A free, fast, mobile-friendly grammar and vocabulary reference for learners of European Portuguese at A1/A2 level. Built alongside a PLA (Português Língua de Acolhimento) course in Lisbon.
🔗 Live site: purple-hill-04b8ac910.6.azurestaticapps.net
| Section | Contents | Session |
|---|---|---|
| Alphabet | All 26 letters with names, phonetic sounds and key rules — H (silent), R (guttural), S (3 sounds), X, LH, NH | 1 |
| Pronunciation | Vowel and consonant sound tables with English translations. Why EU Portuguese sounds "swallowed". Listening tips. | 1–3 |
| Pronouns | Personal pronouns, tu vs você vs o senhor, formal/informal address rules | 2 |
| Prepositions & Articles | 10 core prepositions with examples; POR vs PARA; EM vs A; definite/indefinite articles; mandatory contractions | 3 |
| Location Expressions | Locuções de lugar — em cima de / debaixo de, dentro / fora, à frente / atrás, perto / longe, ao lado, entre; asking/answering Onde fica?; Preposições de Movimento detailed breakdown (a / para / por / de / em); transport prepositions (ir de carro vs no carro do João); ir a pé | 7–8 |
| Gender | Noun gender rules by ending (-o, -a, -ção, -dade, -ema trap), exceptions | 1–3 |
| Singular/Plural | Plural formation rules; -ão grouped into 3 patterns (-ãos: mão/irmão/corrimão; -ões: avião/canção/coração — most common; -ães: pão/cão/alemão — rarest); irregular gender pairs (rei/rainha, pai/mãe, homem/mulher, ator/atriz); adjective agreement | 3 & UFCD 6453 S5 |
| Possessives | Full possessive table (meu/minha/nosso…), SEU/SUA ambiguity, DELE/DELA fix, determiner vs pronoun | 5 |
| Demonstratives | ESTE/ESSE/AQUELE by distance + paired adverbs (aqui/aí/ali); o outro/a outra; neutro forms ISTO/ISSO/AQUILO; pronoun use to avoid repetition; ESTE vs ISTO rule; full contraction table (neste, naquele, daquele, daquelas, daquilo, àquela…) | 5 & UFCD 6453 S3 |
| Questions | All 9 interrogative pronouns with examples; É QUE construction; affirmative/negative/interrogative structure | 4 |
| Muito / Pouco | Agreement rules: before a noun → agree in gender+number (muito/muita/muitos/muitas; pouco/pouca/poucos/poucas); after a verb → invariable (trabalha muito, estudar pouco); decision rule; 9 worked examples from class exercises | UFCD 6453 S5 |
| Comparatives | Grau comparativo — superiority (mais + adj + do que), equality (tão + adj + como), inferiority (menos + adj + do que); irregular forms: melhor/pior/maior/menor; corrected examples; superlativo relativo | UFCD 6453 S2 |
| Section | Contents | Session |
|---|---|---|
| Ser vs Estar | Full present and past conjugations, when to use each, tricky cases, FOI explained | 2–3 |
| Estar Patterns | ESTAR + em, + adjetivo, + COM + nome (fome/sede/sono/calor/frio/medo…), ESTAR A + infinitivo, TER DE/QUE + infinitivo | 5 |
| Verb Patterns | -AR/-ER/-IR conjugation families; affirmative/negative/interrogative structure | 4 |
| Core Verbs | 16 essential verbs with full conjugations and examples: ter, ir, falar, morar, gostar, querer, poder, chamar-se, tomar, almoçar, jantar, costumar, apanhar, começar, voltar | 2–7 |
| Reflexive Verbs | Pronoun position rules; NÓS -s drop rule; 13 reflexive verbs: chamar-se, levantar-se, deitar-se, vestir-se, lavar-se, pentear-se, barbear-se, sentir-se, lembrar-se, esquecer-se, acordar-se, preparar-se, enganar-se | 6–7 |
| Irregular Verbs | 11 high-frequency irregular verbs: ir, vir, ver, ler, sair, dormir, haver, dar, trazer, dizer, ouvir | 6 |
| Future Plans | IR + infinitivo for future plans; full conjugation table with example sentences per person; 10 time expressions (amanhã, na próxima semana, no próximo mês…); IR+inf vs COSTUMAR+inf — future plan vs recurring habit | UFCD 6453 S5 |
| Section | Contents | Session |
|---|---|---|
| Numbers | 0–20; tens 30–90 (invariable); hundreds 100–900 with full gender table; ordinals; compound construction | 2 & 6 |
| Days, Time & Seasons | Weekday numbering system; months; four seasons; parts of the day; clock-reading; Preposições de Tempo (A / DE / EM / DE…A / POR VOLTA DE) with typed examples; habitual vs specific day-of-week rule (À/Aos vs No/Na); frequency adverbials scale (sempre → nunca); depois / a seguir / antes | 2, 5 & 8 |
| Identity | Personal ID vocabulary; marital status; daily routine check-in; countries with nationalities (m/f) and languages | 2 |
| Family | Nuclear, extended and reconstituted family; all masculine/feminine pairs; model sentences | 4 |
| House & Home | Rooms, exterior, floor numbering (rés do chão vs 1º andar) | 4 |
| Description | Physical appearance; personality adjectives; adjective agreement rules | 3 |
| Money & Prices | Euro; reading prices aloud; comma/period decimal/thousands note; key phrases; multibanco | 6 |
| Transport | Vehicles (comboio, autocarro, elétrico, camioneta, barco, avião…); stops and stations; tickets and passes; engarrafamento; essential phrases; EU vs Brazilian differences | 6–7 |
| Typical Dishes | 20 bacalhau recipes with descriptions; carne dishes (cozido à portuguesa, leitão, francesinha, chanfana, alheiras…); sopas (caldo-verde, canja, sopa da pedra, gaspacho); sobremesas (pastéis de Belém, arroz-doce, bolo-rei, sericaia…); secções do supermercado (19 sections) | UFCD 6453 S2 |
| Kitchen & Table | Equipamentos (micro-ondas, frigorífico, torradeira, máquina de café, lavar louça, lavar roupa); utensílios (faca, garfo, colher de pau, concha, escumadeira, espátula, cutelo, ralador, rolo da massa, tábua, varinha, luva, avental, saca-rolhas, faqueiro); tachos e panelas (frigideira, panela, tacho, caçarola, chaleira, fervedor); louça (pratos, chávena, pires, caneca, tigela, bule, jarro, copo, travessa, saladeira, tabuleiro); talheres e mesa (colheres de sopa/sobremesa/café, facas e garfos de carne/peixe, saleiro, pimenteiro, guardanapo, toalha de mesa) — all with emoji icons | UFCD 6453 S3 |
| Food & Meals | Five meals with times and verbs; IR A + shop with contraction table (ao/à/aos/às); food shops (talho, padaria, pastelaria, peixaria, frutaria, mercearia); GOSTAR/PREFERIR/COMER/BEBER with full conjugations; 14 cooking verbs (cozer, assar, grelhar, fritar, estufar, refogar…); food adjectives — taste (doce, azedo, picante…), texture (crocante, mastigável, suculento…), ripeness (maduro, passado, fresco…); physical state (com fome, com sede, cheio); DEVER + infinitivo for food advice; COSTUMAR for habits; example menu | 7 & UFCD 6453 |
| Leisure & Free Time | Rural vs urban zones; rural activities (acampar, pescar, caminhadas…); urban activities (ir às compras, ginásio, cinema, teatro, concerto, discoteca…); general leisure (dançar, viajar, ouvir música, ler…); key phrases including COSTUMAR/IR + infinitivo | UFCD 6453 S5 |
| Expressions | Agreement/disagreement, opinions, emotions, connectors (mas, porque, então…), café vocabulary | 1–3 |
| Survival Phrases | Greetings, classroom phrases, politeness | 1 |
| Idioms | 10 food and everyday idioms with literal translation and example: estar feito ao bife, não vai ser pera doce, canja de galinha, dar água pela barba, engolir o sapo, não há bela sem senão, custar os olhos da cara, meter os pés pelas mãos, and more | UFCD 6453 S3 |
| Social Etiquette | QUERIA rule (imperfect for polite requests vs direct QUERO); 6 worked restaurant dialogues showing QUERIA/DESEJO/IMPORTA-SE/POSSO in context; 9 meal phrases; 6 mesa expressions (pôr a mesa, estar à mesa, conhecer a boa mesa…) | UFCD 6453 S3 |
Write-in questions to practise self-introduction in Portuguese.
- 🔊 Listen button — every Portuguese word and phrase has a 🔊 button. Uses the browser's built-in Web Speech API with European Portuguese (
pt-PT) voice. Falls back to Brazilian Portuguese with a notice if EU voice is not installed. No API key, works offline. - 🔍 Full-text search — searches all sections simultaneously with match highlighting, results grouped by section
- 📱 Mobile-friendly — sidebar on desktop, hamburger drawer on mobile, responsive throughout
- ⚡ Instant load — pure HTML/CSS/JS, no frameworks, no blank-screen delay, works offline
- 🔗 Deep links — every section has its own URL hash (
#food,#location,#irregular-verbs) - 🇵🇹 Portuguese flag favicon — SVG embedded directly, works in all browsers including Windows Chrome
- 🖨️ Print-friendly — sidebar hides automatically when printing
Built alongside a PLA — Português Língua de Acolhimento (A1/A2) course at NIALP — Associação Intercultural Lisboa. The course runs for 150 hours across 7 units and concludes with an official A2 certificate.
Nível A1
- UFCD 6452 — Eu e a minha rotina diária (Sessions 1–8 covered)
- UFCD 6453 — Hábitos alimentares, cultura e lazer (Sessions 1–5 covered: food shops, cooking verbs, food adjectives, IR a + shop, pratos típicos, secções do supermercado, comparativos, utensílios de cozinha/louça/talheres, idiomas, fórmulas de cortesia, demonstrativos, muito/pouco agreement, IR + infinitivo (future plans), leisure vocabulary)
- UFCD 6453 — Hábitos alimentares, cultura e lazer
- UFCD 6454 — O corpo humano, saúde e serviços
Nível A2
- UFCD 6455 — Eu e o mundo do trabalho
- UFCD 6456 — O meu passado e o meu presente
- UFCD 6457 — Comunicação e vida em sociedade
Content is updated after each session. All pronunciation is given in phonetic brackets [like this]. Examples always include English translations.
This reference focuses specifically on European Portuguese. Key differences highlighted throughout:
- Pronunciation: EU Portuguese swallows unstressed vowels; Brazilian opens them wide
- Ongoing actions: EU uses estar a + infinitivo ("estou a estudar"); BR uses gerund ("estou estudando")
- Transport: EU comboio (BR trem), EU autocarro (BR ônibus), EU paragem (BR parada), EU sumo (BR suco)
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