Basics I
Let’s learn Portuguese!
Oi!
Hi!
Did you know that Portuguese is spoken by 280 million people around the world, in 10 countries, across 4 continents? Imagine all the places you can go to practice it!
Menino or menina?
In Portuguese, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. Generally, nouns end in ‑o if they're masculine and ‑a if they're feminine.
um menino
a boy
uma menina
a girl
Protip: We use um if the word is masculine and uma if the word is feminine.
Missing person
In English, you pretty much always need to use words like I, he, and she before a verb. But in Portuguese, you can say Eu sou uma mulher, or you can drop that eu and just say Sou uma mulher!
Eu sou um homem.
I am a man.
Sou um homem.
I am a man.
Eu como, eu bebo...
In English, verb forms generally don't change much. For example, we say I eat and she eats. But in Portuguese, you’ll see forms changing a lot more.
So here’s the first tip to help you figure these forms out: when using eu, verbs generally end in ‑o.
comer → Eu como pão.
beber → Eu bebo água.
ter → Eu tenho um carro.
beber → Eu bebo água.
ter → Eu tenho um carro.
Did you notice that ter is kind of different? The r becomes nh. Don’t worry — this only happens with a few special verbs.