Learn Brazilian Portuguese by speaking it

What does the Brazilian Portuguese course cover?

The course covers everyday Brazilian life from your first sounds to early B1: 36 units and 460 lessons, each unit labeled with its CEFR level. Units 1–6 are A1, 7–15 are A2, and 16–36 are B1:

• Getting started (A1): sounds and spelling, oi and tudo bem, numbers, reais and the time, ordering at a padaria or a por-quilo restaurant, getting around by metrô, ônibus and ride app, and a unit about Brazil itself: its regions, food, football, music, Carnaval and Festa Junina.
• Daily life (A2): your routine, the feira and clothing sizes, work, the farmácia, weekend plans, a trip by plane, bus and pousada, describing people, the past with “Você já…?” and how things used to be.
• Real conversations (B1): plans, WhatsApp audio messages, complaints, opinions, Pix and renting, holidays from Réveillon to Natal, job interviews, the Amazon and the Pantanal, school, Jiu-Jitsu and capoeira, cooking arroz e feijão, samba and novelas, then eight vocabulary units, from saudade to getting a signature certified at a cartório.

Each lesson mixes flashcards, multiple choice, word-bank sentences, listening and matching pairs, with recorded audio in a Brazilian accent. An exercise only ever uses words earlier lessons taught, and every mistake goes into one review queue that brings it back a few days later until you get it right. A daily Quick Practice mixes in what you've already learned.

What are the Portuguese stories like?

Each unit has two short stories or articles, 72 in all, set around Brazil and written for that unit's level, with recorded audio on every line and an English meaning for every Portuguese word, so a new word never stops you. A few questions at the end check that you understood. Four are free, among them two Canadians in Recife working out obrigado or obrigada, an Englishman learning to order at a São Paulo padaria, and an article about Brazil's five regions.

Is Brazilian Portuguese different from European Portuguese?

Yes: Brazilian and European Portuguese are the same language, but they sound noticeably different and use different words and grammar habits in everyday speech. CiaoSpeak teaches only the Brazilian forms, with the 1990 spelling agreement as Brazil uses it, and mentions Portugal's forms only where you might meet them:

The accents differ most. Brazilian Portuguese keeps far more of its vowels and turns t and d before an “ee” sound into “ch” and “j”; European Portuguese drops many unstressed vowels. If Brazil is where your partner, your coworkers or your Jiu-Jitsu coach are from, learn the Brazilian version.

How do you pronounce Brazilian Portuguese nasal vowels?

Say the vowel while letting air out through your nose as well as your mouth, and don't add an n at the end: in pão (bread) the tongue never touches the roof of your mouth. English speakers usually say “pown” or “pow”. A quick test from Unit 1: hold your nose, and if the sound changes, you're doing it right. The nasal sounds you'll practice:

• ão: the vowel of “how” through the nose, in pão, não, mão and São Paulo.
• ãe: the vowel of “my” through the nose, in mãe (mother).
• -m and -n at the end of a syllable: not a full m or n, just a nasal vowel with the lips barely closing: bom (“boh” through the nose), sim, bem, também.

Unit 1 also covers the other sounds that give English speakers away: the r of Rio, which sounds like an English h (carro, car, is KAH-hoo, while caro, expensive, has a quick tap); the l at the end of Brasil, which sounds like a w (brah-ZEEW); final o and e said as “oo” and “ee” (obrigado is o-bree-GAH-doo); tia said CHEE-ah in most of Brazil; and the open avó (grandmother) versus the closed avô (grandfather).

Você, o senhor or tu: which “you” should you learn?

Learn você first: it is the everyday “you” across Brazil, and it takes the same verb form as “he” and “she” (você fala, you speak). Then add o senhor and a senhora for older people and formal service, and vocês for any group. CiaoSpeak teaches all three in Unit 2.

• tu is common in the South, much of the North and Northeast and often in Rio, usually with the você verb (tu vai). The course teaches you to recognize it; você is understood everywhere.
• a gente is how most Brazilians say “we” in conversation (a gente vai, we're going). You learn nós in Unit 2 and a gente from Unit 7, and the speaking practice accepts both.
• obrigado or obrigada follows the person speaking, not the person you thank. The free story Obrigado ou obrigada? puts two Canadians at a juice stall in Recife to work it out.

Does knowing Spanish help with Portuguese?

Knowing Spanish helps you read Portuguese much faster, but it can also make you say Spanish words with a Portuguese accent. CiaoSpeak never assumes Spanish, but where Spanish speakers usually slip, a short note says so:

• leche is o leite, and el árbol is a árvore.
• Some genders flip: el color is a cor, el viaje is a viagem.
• “Me gusta” doesn't carry over: the person who likes is the subject, eu gosto de café.
• embarazada is grávida; and there is no personal a.
• largo on a clothes tag means loose or wide, not long.

Which Portuguese words trick English speakers?

The words that trick English speakers most are false friends: they look like English but mean something else. The course teaches each one as a “which means…?” question, so the right meaning sticks:

• pretender means to intend; to pretend is fingir.
• atualmente means currently, not actually.
• parentes are relatives; your parents are os pais.
• livraria is a bookstore, not a library.
• esquisito means weird, not exquisite.
• educado means polite, not educated.

Where in Brazil are the conversations set?

The speaking scenes are set in 10 Brazilian cities, from São Paulo and Rio to Salvador, Recife and Manaus, so no single city carries the course:

• São Paulo: meeting Ana, your language-exchange partner, at a café in Vila Madalena; Seu Carlos's padaria; a busy metrô station.
• Rio de Janeiro: a ride-app car at night, your first class at a Jiu-Jitsu gym, and a barraca on the beach.
• Belo Horizonte: a pay-by-weight lunch, a new job at an office, and Sunday lunch with your coworker's mom.
• Curitiba and Florianópolis: a clothing store (and returning a shirt), an apartment viewing, a bus ticket to Florianópolis and a pousada at the end of the ride.
• Salvador and Recife: a Saturday feira, a phone repair stand, a farmácia, and your neighbor and her son on the morning of a school test.
• Brasília, Manaus and Porto Alegre: a job interview, a day trip on the river, and a cartório where you need a signature certified.

How easy is Brazilian Portuguese to learn?

For an English speaker, Brazilian Portuguese is one of the easier languages to learn: the U.S. Foreign Service Institute puts Portuguese in its easiest group and expects about 24 weeks of full-time class to reach professional working proficiency in speaking and listening (State Department, Foreign Language Training). A lot of vocabulary looks familiar to English speakers, and spelling mostly tells you how a word sounds once you know the rules.

The hard parts are the sounds above, gender on every noun (a viagem, o problema), ser versus estar, and the contractions Brazilians use all the time (em + o = no, de + a = da). Those are where the course spends its early units.

What is the best way to learn Brazilian Portuguese?

The best way to learn Brazilian Portuguese is to follow one structured course in order and say what you learn out loud from the first week, with real Brazilian situations and a real Brazilian accent. Reading and vocabulary drills alone leave most learners understanding far more than they can say. In practice:

• Get the sounds right early, because nasal vowels and the r of Rio are much harder to fix later.
• Learn the spoken language Brazilians use (você, a gente, tá, pra) alongside the textbook forms.
• Answer questions out loud every day, even short answers like “Dois, por favor.”
• Read short, easy texts at your level. The four free stories include an Englishman learning to order at a São Paulo padaria and an article about Brazil's five regions.

Free to start: what does CiaoSpeak+ add?

CiaoSpeak is free to start, and all 460 lessons stay free; CiaoSpeak+ is an optional subscription for more speaking and reading. The exact split:

CiaoSpeak+ costs US$5.99 a month or US$39.99 a year in the United States, and the yearly plan starts with a free trial for new subscribers: 3 days on the App Store, 7 days on Google Play. Your store shows your local price before you confirm.

Who makes the Brazilian Portuguese course?

CiaoSpeak is a one-person company: Robertas Gaumanas builds it; the app began as a Chinese course. Before anything ships, every lesson passes automated checks (Brazilian spelling only, no Portugal-only forms, no word in an exercise before a lesson teaches it, an English meaning for every Portuguese line). If something sounds wrong to you, email [email protected] and it gets fixed.