Spelling

The Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990 (Acordo Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa de 1990, a.k.a. the ) came into effect in May 2009. Its goal was to standardize the spelling of Portuguese across Portuguese-speaking countries, particularly Brazil and Portugal. However, its implementation was met with criticism and many practical challenges. First, let’s address a common […]

After learning the rules for conjugating verbs, you may have noticed that certain Portuguese verbs are not spelled the way you would expect… If a verb is spelled and spoken completely differently, this is because it’s an irregular verb. But if it’s still spoken as expected, it probably just means it’s a regular verb with […]

Learning Portuguese-English cognates is a great way to build vocabulary fast! It’s basically using what you already know to get a jump-start. Cognates are simply words that are very similar in both languages, usually due to a common root. We talked about them in our guide to European Portuguese Shortcuts, as well as our video […]

What’s the difference between European Portuguese vs Brazilian Portuguese? For starters, European Portuguese is the variant spoken in Portugal and is more similar to the dialects spoken in Africa and Asia. (It is sometimes called Continental Portuguese, or even Portuguese Portuguese! 😄  ) Given the size and population of Brazil, however, the Brazilian Portuguese set […]

This Learning Note will teach you how to spell using the letters of the European Portuguese alphabet, which will likely come in handy if you ever travel or move to Portugal. Receiving packages, making phone calls, and setting up services often require you to spell your name or other personal information, such as the name […]