Intermediate B1

This intensive course is for language learners striving toward the B1 level.

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My suggestion* for these two weeks is to focus on:

  • perfeito vs. imperfeito / subjunctive mood intro
  • reading and listening comprehension
  • conversation

*There's always room to adjust the course according to the group's preferences:

After this course, you'll have come closer to the B1 level and have the tools and strategies to get there and beyond.

Not sure if you should enroll in the A2 or B1 course?

Clean Slate A0

Geared toward Absolute Beginners, this course gives you a solid start and foundation to build upon.

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This is an introductory course to the Portuguese language as spoken in Portugal. Throughout the course, we will focus on the Portuguese sound system and basic Portuguese grammar.

You will also learn how to introduce yourself and day-to-day, useful phrases. Finally, we will discuss learning resources and strategies to support your learning journey.

After the course, you will have a basic understanding of European Portuguese pronunciation and grammar. You will also be capable of engaging in simple, short oral interactions. Last but not least, you will be aware of a variety of learning resources and strategies to help you succeed at learning the language.

Portuguese short story for beginners - de maos dadas - Portuguesepedia
Easy Reads for Portuguese Lanugage Learners - Entre a Felicidade e a Tristeza - by Portuguesepedia

I will keep you updated on upcoming course seasons

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Beginners A2

This intensive course is for language learners striving toward the A2 level.

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My suggestion* for these two weeks is to focus on:

  • prepositions
  • past tense: perfeito vs. imperfeito
  • listening comprehension and conversation

*There's always room to adjust the course according to the group's preferences:

After this course, you'll have come closer to the A2 level and have the tools and strategies to get there and beyond.

Not sure if you should enroll in the A2 or B1 course?

Beginners A1

This intensive course is for language learners striving toward the A1 level.

If you have just started your learning journey, you may find this course too challenging. Consider enrolling for the Clean Slate A0 instead (if available).

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This is an all-round course, meaning that we’ll work on all aspects of language learning (at the A1 level):

  • pronunciation
  • listening comprehension
  • reading comprehension
  • conversation
  • grammar

After this course, you'll have come closer to the A1 level and have the tools and strategies to get there and beyond.

Not sure if you should enroll in the A1 or A2 course?

There are plenty of interesting options for our accommodation. It will most likely be a countryside house near Tavira.

I haven't booked it yet because I want to get a better idea of the group's composition (how many couples/singles) and your preferences before I do so. That will for instance help me understand how big a house we might need.

I look forward to soon talking to you about this and much more. Até breve, p

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Numbers in Portuguese – Counting from 1 to 1000 and Beyond

Learning to say the numbers in Portuguese is one of those things you want to achieve as soon as possible in your language-learning journey.

You see, numbers pop up all the time in everyday life conversations and you’ll often need to recall them on the fly when talking to people. If you’re not able to do that, your conversational flow will suffer.

Here’s the first glance at Portuguese numbers:

1 – um/uma12 – doze[…]
2 – dois/duas13 – treze30 – trinta
3 – três14 – catorze40 – quarenta
4 – quatro15 – quinze50 – cinquenta
5 – cinco16 – dezasseis60 – sessenta
6 – seis17 – dezassete70 – setenta
7 – sete18 – dezoito80 – oitenta
8 – oito19 – dezanove90 – noventa
9 – nove20 – vinte100 – cem
10 – dez21 – vinte e um1.000 – mil
11 – onze22 – vinte e dois1.000.000 – milhão

In what follows, I will walk you through the logic behind counting in Portuguese and, of course, will make sure that you pronounce the numbers correctly.

Drilling numerals into our heads

It is one thing to know the Portuguese numbers. It is another to be able to recall them at will. The best way to develop such readiness is to practice saying Portuguese numbers as you go through your day (in-context practice).

You see, even intermediate-level students already acquainted with Portuguese numbers still struggle to recall them in conversation.

Imagine the following situation. You’re learning Portuguese and you’re brave enough to approach people in your target language. You say Hi! and introduce yourself. The other person replies and the conversation is flowing well until …

Well, until you want to mention, say, your age! You go, Uh uh, you get stuck there.  Has that ever happened to you?

It probably has. And that’s in part a positive thing because it means that you’ve been daring to talk in Portuguese, well done!

But at the same time, it is a pity that your conversational flow systematically gets interrupted whenever you need to mention your age or recall any numeral for any other reason.

Here’s the thing – you must go beyond learning the numbers. You’ve got to etch them on your brain so that you’ll have them at hand.

How do we achieve that? Practice. Daily practice.

Integrate it into your day-to-day life. Maybe you’re playing a board game or cards and you need to keep score – well, do it in Portuguese then. Or maybe you’re killing some time doing sudoku – say those numbers aloud in Portuguese as you go through it.

There are certainly several other everyday life situations where you can drill Portuguese numbers. Just keep tapping into those daily opportunities and, before you know it, Portuguese numbers will be second nature to you.

Reading tips! Daily practice is a vital principle of language learning in general. Here’re a couple of articles on must-know learning strategies:

1. Mindsets and Strategies to Learn Portuguese the Best
2. Here’s How to Push Through Your Portuguese Speaking Skills

Counting in Portuguese

As far as logic is concerned, counting in Portuguese is quite similar to counting in English. You learn the basic blocks – the units, tens, hundreds, and so on – and everything else builds on that.

Let’s take a closer look at it.

Numbers 0 – 10

0zero
1um/uma
2dois/duas
3três
4quatro
5cinco
6seis
7sete
8oito
9nove
10dez

Gender in numbers!

The numbers 1 and 2 take different endings according to gender.

Um agrees with masculine nouns, whereas uma agrees with feminine nouns. The same goes for dois and duas, that is, they agree with masculine and feminine nouns respectively.

Further reading! As you may have noticed, the gender dimension is very pervasive in Portuguese. Learn more about it in this article: Disentangling Gender with Portuguese Masculine-to-Feminine Spelling Patterns.

Spelling-pronunciation patterns

Note the nasal sound in um! All Portuguese words ending with the letter m produce that nasal sound. So, make sure that the air flows out through your nose when you say um.

Numbers 2, 3, and 6 end with the letter s. That means that you’ll pronounce those last syllables with a sh-sound, as in sheep. The same applies to the number 10 that ends with the consonant z. All Portuguese words ending with either s or z produce that same sh-sound.

Now listen carefully to numbers 7 and 9. Did you notice that you hardly hear that e at the end? It is almost mute, right? That’s the case for most Portuguese words ending with the vowel e.

Numbers 11 – 20

11onze
12doze
13treze
14catorze
15quinze
16dezasseis
17dezassete
18dezoito
19dezanove
20vinte

Spelling-pronunciation patterns

Again, you can barely hear that last vowel e in the numbers 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, and 20.

And what about the double-s on 16 and 17? In Portuguese, whenever the s gets trapped in between vowels (take the word casa for example), it will produce a voiced sound, as in zebra or these. The double-s, however, always renders an unvoiced s-sound, as in simple.

Pay attention to how we pronounce 15. You don’t hear the u-sound when you say quinze, do you? In general, we don’t pronounce the u on qui-syllables. The same applies to que-syllables. But! We pronounce u on qua-syllables, as in quatro.

Further reading! Learn more about Portuguese phonology and spelling-sound patterns: Portuguese Pronunciation: A Helpful Guide to Portuguese Basic Sounds and Spelling Patterns.

Numbers 21 – 100

21vinte e um/uma
22vinte e dois/duas
23vinte e três
. . .. . .
30trinta
40quarenta
50cinquenta
60sessenta
70setenta
80oitenta
90noventa
100cem

After 20

After twenty, we just go on counting, easy! We put together the tens and the units. Mind that we always write and pronounce that little e (and) between the tens and units.

And of course, you’ll need to learn the tens (10 and its multiples) all the way up to 100.

Btw! Do you remember what I’ve just said above about how to pronounce qui and que syllables? Well, there is no rule without an exception – the number 50, cinquenta, is one such exception where we pronounce that u.

Numbers 101 – 1000

101cento e um/uma
102cento e dois/duas
103cento e três
110cento e dez
145cento e quarenta e cinco
. . .. . .
200duzentos
300trezentos
400quatrocentos
500quinhentos
600seiscentos
700setecentos
800oitocentos
900novecentos
1000mil

There’s cem”, and there’s “cento”

We go on through the hundreds (100 and its multiples) until we reach 1000. Note that after cem (100), you’ll switch over to cento. Again, don’t forget that e between the tens and units, and the hundreds and tens.

One more thing to keep in mind! The hundreds (200 and upwards) change endings according to gender. We say duzentas casas (a casa), but we say duzentos carros (o carro).

Towards infinity

1001mil e um/uma
1020mil e vinte
1200mil e duzentos
1215mil duzentos e quinze
1900mil e novecentos
1981mil novecentos e oitenta e um/uma
2000dois mil
10 000dez mil
25 000vinte e cinco mil
300 000trezentos mil
555 500quinhentos e cinquenta e cinco mil e quinhentos
555 555quinhentos e cinquenta e cinco mil quinhentos e cinquenta e cinco
106um milhão
109mil milhões
1012um bilião
1015mil biliões
1018um trilião
. . .. . .
infinito

Keep adding up

After 1000, we basically apply the same logic as before. Still, there are a few things to keep in mind.

First off, we don’t say that e between thousands and hundreds, as in 1981. But! We do say e with plain multiples of 100, as in 1200 or 1900 (see the table above).

Also, we say e between thousands and tens, or between thousands and units, as in 1020 and 1001 respectively.

When counting in thousands, we say e as we normally do between hundreds and tens, and tens and units, as in 555 5555.

European vs Brazilian! Both bilião and trilião is European spelling, whereas bilhão and trilhão is Brazilian. Most importantly, they mean different things. Bilião corresponds to one million million in Portugal, whereas bilhão in Brazil corresponds to a thousand million. Trilião amounts to one million billion in Portugal, whereas trilhão in Brazil equals a thousand billion.

Learn more about how the European and Brazilian standards compare: European vs. Brazilian Portuguese – How Different Are They, Really?

Portuguese ordinal numbers

The ordinal numbers in Portuguese take different endings according to gender and number:

1stprimeiro(s)
primeira(s)
2ndsegundo(s)
segunda(s)
3rdterceiro(s)
terceira(s)
4thquarto(s)
quarta(s)
5thquinto(s)
quinta(s)
6thsexto(s)
sexta(s)
7thsétimo(s)
sétima(s)
8thoitavo(s)
oitava(s)
9thnono(s)
nona(s)
10thdécimo(s)
décima(s)
11thdécimo-primeiro(s)
décima-primeira(s)
12thdécimo-segundo(s)
décima-segunda(s)
. . .. . .
20thvigésimo(s)
vigésima(s)
21stvigésimo-primeiro(s)
vigésima-primeira(s)
22ndvigésimo-segundo(s)
vigésima-segundo(s)
. . .. . .
30thtrigésimo(s)
trigésima(s)
40thquadragésimo(s)
quadragésima(s)
50thquinquagésimo(s)
quinquagésima(s)
. . .. . .

When do we use them?

As in English, we use ordinal numbers when we rank something.

But! Unlike English, we use the “normal” numbers to refer to the days in the month. For instance, we say vinte e cinco de maio (25th of May). Accordingly, the sentence he turns 25 on the second of April translates to ele faz 25 anos a dois de abril.

Reading tips! Learn more about the similarities and differences between Portuguese and English grammar: Portuguese Grammar Compared to English.

Perfect vs. Imperfect

Break Free from the Tyranny of the Present Tense

Portuguese Bad Words

Master Portuguese Strong Language and Swear Like a Native.

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