Course description

This course takes you from your first Portuguese word to real everyday conversations: greeting people, introducing yourself, ordering in a café, finding your way, shopping, staying in a hotel, coping at the pharmacy, talking about your family and your day, and saying what you did and what you're going to do. It teaches the Portuguese of Portugal, with a clear In Brazil note wherever Brazilian Portuguese is different, so you can understand both.

Every lesson is written in plain English for UK adults, with phrase and word tables, a simple respelling for every new Portuguese word, short dialogues, sentences to read aloud and a practical task. Grammar is explained step by step, with careful attention to the parts that trip learners up, such as ser and estar, and allergy, health and emergency phrases come with the facts from GOV.UK and the NHS that matter.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Shelagh, a hospital ward clerk from Reading, as she learns Portuguese for a week in Lisbon, Sintra and Porto, practises with a language exchange partner in Porto, and gets ready to meet her Brazilian daughter-in-law's parents. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, an answer key, extra practice with answers, word lists as text and spreadsheets, phrase cards, dialogue scripts and flashcards, plus a pronunciation guide, verb tables, grammar sheets, a menu reader, an allergy card, an emergency phrase card, a Portugal and Brazil comparison sheet and a printable phrase sheet where they help. The course ends with a final project: a self-introduction and an account of a day out, written in Portuguese, with model answers.

What you'll learn

• Sounds and spelling: the vowels and the reduced vowels of Portugal, nasal sounds such as ão and ãe, the consonants that surprise English speakers, stress and every accent mark, with a simple respelling for every new word.
• Greetings and first conversations: hello and goodbye, please and thank you, when to use tu, você and o senhor or a senhora, introducing yourself, and rescue phrases for when you don't understand.
• Building sentences: gender, articles and plurals, describing words that agree, and a careful guide to ser and estar, ter and há.
• Numbers, prices, dates and time: numbers to a thousand, prices in euros, telling the time, days, months and dates, ages, phone numbers and booking by phone.
• Everyday verbs and questions: the present tense of regular verbs, key irregular verbs such as ir, fazer, poder and querer, asking questions, saying no, and what you're doing right now.
• Food and drink: food and drink words, ordering in a café, eating in a restaurant, explaining a food allergy or a diet, and shopping at a market.
• Shopping, getting around and places to stay: shops and sizes, directions, trains, buses, trams and taxis, what to say when travel goes wrong, and checking in and sorting out problems where you stay.
• Health, help and everyday life: the body and saying what's wrong, the pharmacy and the doctor's, emergencies, family and describing people, and your daily routine, home and town.
• The past, the future and real conversations: the pretérito perfeito of regular and irregular verbs, the near future with ir, phone calls, messages and small talk, and Portugal and Brazil side by side.
• Review and final project: a grammar and phrase review, your own self-introduction and an account of a day out written in Portuguese with model answers, and how to keep learning.

Who it's for

Adults starting Portuguese from scratch: if you're planning a holiday in Portugal, thinking about moving there, or want to talk with Portuguese-speaking family, friends or colleagues, from Portugal or from Brazil. No Portuguese is needed, and it suits anyone who knows only a few words.

What this course is, and isn't

This is a text-based course with no audio or video: pronunciation is taught with simple written respellings. It covers roughly CEFR level A1 but doesn't lead to a qualification. It gives language rather than medical, legal or immigration advice, and it doesn't recommend any apps, books or brands. The story and characters are fictional.

What will I learn?

• Pronounce Portuguese clearly enough to be understood, including nasal and reduced vowels, using simple written respellings
• Greet people and introduce yourself, choosing between tu, você and o senhor or a senhora
• Use numbers, prices, times and dates, and book a table or a room
• Choose correctly between ser and estar, and use ter and há, articles, gender and plurals
• Use the present tense of regular and key irregular verbs, ask questions and say no
• Order in a café and a restaurant, explain a food allergy or a diet, and shop at a market
• Shop, ask the way, use trains, buses and taxis, and sort out problems where you stay
• Cope at the pharmacy and the doctor, and call for help in an emergency
• Talk about your family, your daily routine, what you did and what you're going to do
• Recognise the main differences between the Portuguese of Portugal and of Brazil, and write a self-introduction and an account of a day out

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