Is Portuguese hard to learn? An honest answer for English speakers

How long does it take to learn the Portuguese language?

The U.S. Foreign Service Institute expects an English speaker to need about 24 weeks of full-time study to reach professional working proficiency in Portuguese, the same as Italian or Dutch. That's FSI's Category I, “languages close to English” (State Department, Foreign Language Training).

Two things to know about that number. “Full-time” at FSI means a typical week of 23 hours in class and 17 hours of self-study, and the goal is a high level: a score of 3 in speaking and listening on the government's ILR scale, enough to work in the language. Studying a little every day takes far longer to get there, but you can handle the basics (greetings, ordering, directions, small talk) long before that.

What makes Portuguese easy for English speakers?

Portuguese is easy for English speakers in three ways: thousands of words look like English, the basic word order is the same as in English, and everyday Brazilian speech uses fewer verb forms than the textbooks list.

• Familiar words. Many Portuguese words share a Latin root with English ones, and the -ção ending usually matches English “-tion”: a estação is the station.
• Familiar word order. Subject, verb, object, as in English: Eu gosto de café (I like coffee). Portuguese can drop the eu, since the verb ending already says who: Gosto de café.
• Fewer verb forms in speech. Brazilians use você for “you” and a gente for “we”, and both take the same verb form as “he” and “she”: você fala, ele fala, a gente fala.
• A familiar alphabet, and spelling with rules. Once you know the rules, the spelling mostly tells you how a word sounds, and the accent marks show you the stress: música, ônibus.

What makes Portuguese hard for English speakers?

The hardest part of Portuguese for English speakers is pronunciation: nasal vowels, two different r sounds, vowels that change when they aren't stressed, and t and d that turn into “ch” and “j”. These are the sounds that give English speakers away, and each one can change a word's meaning:

The second hard part is the gap between written and spoken Brazilian Portuguese. People say tô for estou (I am), tá for está, pra for para, a gente for nós (we), and often cê for você. Learning only the textbook forms leaves you understanding far less than you'd expect.

Is Portuguese grammar hard?

Portuguese grammar is moderately hard for English speakers: verbs change for person and tense, every noun has a gender, and there are two verbs for “to be”. None of it is unusual for a European language, and you need only part of it to start speaking.

• Two verbs for “to be”. ser for what something is, estar for how or where it is right now: Sou estudante (I'm a student), but Estou cansado (I'm tired) and Estou no hotel (I'm at the hotel).
• Gender on every noun, and it isn't always obvious: o problema is masculine, a viagem (the trip) is feminine.
• Little words that merge. em + o is no, de + o is do: perto do hotel (near the hotel).
• The subjunctive. It's real and you'll need it at intermediate level, after phrases like espero que (I hope that). CiaoSpeak's course introduces it in Unit 19, at B1, once the everyday tenses are in place.

Do you need to learn tu in Brazilian Portuguese?

No: you can talk to anyone in Brazil with você, plus o senhor or a senhora when you want to be polite. Tu is common in parts of Brazil, such as the South, much of the North and Northeast, and often Rio, often with the você verb (tu vai), so it's worth recognizing but not essential to use. One “you” less to learn is part of why Brazilian Portuguese is easy to start.

Is Portuguese harder than Spanish?

Most learners find Portuguese a bit harder than Spanish to pronounce and to understand by ear, and about the same for grammar. It isn't harder overall on FSI's timelines: the current list gives Portuguese 24 weeks and Spanish 30 weeks of full-time study, both in Category I.

• Sounds. Spanish has five vowel sounds and spelling that matches speech closely. Portuguese has more vowel sounds, including nasal ones, and reduces unstressed vowels, so it's harder to catch by ear.
• Grammar. Both have gender, two verbs for “to be” and a subjunctive. Portuguese adds merged little words (no, da, pelo) everywhere.
• Resources. There are far more courses, shows and teachers for Spanish, which makes Spanish easier to find practice for.

Portuguese vs Spanish: how similar are they?

Portuguese and Spanish are close in writing, so a Spanish speaker can follow much of a Portuguese text, but they sound very different and many everyday words differ. Knowing one helps you read the other much faster; speaking it is another matter.

Some words look the same in both languages and mean different things, which trips up Spanish speakers learning Portuguese:

• esquisito means weird in Portuguese; Spanish exquisito means delicious.
• polvo is an octopus in Portuguese; in Spanish, polvo is dust.
• borracha is rubber or an eraser in Portuguese; in Spanish, borracha means drunk (a woman).
• cena is a scene in Portuguese; in Spanish, cena is dinner (in Portuguese, o jantar).

If you already speak Spanish, the Brazilian Portuguese course page lists more of the differences CiaoSpeak's lessons point out.

How can you make Portuguese easier to learn?

Make Portuguese easier by getting the sounds right early, learning the spoken forms along with the written ones, and saying what you learn out loud every day, even in short answers. In practice:

• Start with pronunciation: nasal vowels and the r are much harder to fix later.
• Learn você, a gente, tá and pra alongside the textbook forms, so you understand real Brazilians.
• Follow one course in order, so each lesson builds on words you already know.
• Answer real questions out loud. A two-word answer that a person understands beats a perfect sentence you never say.