Practise Portuguese with a native speaker, and give them English conversation practice in return. Roughly 236 million people speak Portuguese natively, so partners are easy to find; the useful discipline is showing up on time.
Endonym
Português
Script
Latin alphabet with ç and several diacritics
Spoken in
Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, East Timor
First thing to learn
Tudo bem? — "All good?"
US Foreign Service Institute estimate for an English speaker starting from zero
~24 weeks
Closest to English
Brazilian and European Portuguese are further apart in everyday speech than most learners expect, so the first real decision is which one you want rather than which grammar to study. Heavy nasal vowels and a fast, reduced rhythm make listening the hardest skill.
Knowing this in advance changes what you do with a partner. Grammar drills on Portuguesewill not fix a habit your first language gave you — only producing the sentence out loud and being corrected will. That is the specific thing an exchange gives you and an app does not.
A language exchange dies when nobody has anything to talk about. Take these into the call and you will fill the first half without silences.
Say Tudo bem? (TOO-doo beng) as your first line, then ask your partner when they would use it and when they would choose something more formal.
Ask your partner to write your own name in Português, then explain which sounds in your name do not exist in Portuguese.
Talk for two minutes about what you imagine daily life is like in Brazil. Have your partner correct the parts you got wrong - in Portuguese first, then again in English.
Talk for two minutes about what you imagine daily life is like in Portugal. Have your partner correct the parts you got wrong - in Portuguese first, then again in English.
Ask your partner for one sentence that exposes the hard part: Brazilian and European Portuguese are further apart in everyday speech than most learners expect, so the first real decision is which one you want rather than which grammar to study.
Switch to English and ask your partner to explain their own language's hardest feature to you. This is the half where you pay for the practice, so take it as seriously as your own turn.
You are not here to improve your English — you already have it. Practise Portuguese with someone who speaks it natively, and pay for it by answering their English questions properly. Fluent English speakers are the scarcest resource on an exchange, which is why you will match quickly.
Brazil alone has one of the world’s largest English-learning populations, and Brazilian Portuguese speakers are usually looking for exactly the informal, spoken practice this platform offers.
24 weeks of full-time study to working proficiency, on the US Foreign Service Institute scale - closest to english. Brazilian and European Portuguese are further apart in everyday speech than most learners expect, so the first real decision is which one you want rather than which grammar to study. Heavy nasal vowels and a fast, reduced rhythm make listening the hardest skill.
Around 236 million native speakers, concentrated in Brazil, Portugal, Angola. English has already borrowed piranha, tapioca, cobra from it, so you are not starting from nothing.
Latin alphabet with ç and several diacritics. The alphabet will look familiar, which is exactly the trap - the letters are the same while the sounds behind them are not, so reading fluently is not the same as pronouncing accurately.
Tudo bem? (TOO-doo beng) - "All good?". Olá is neutral and safe. Tudo bem? doubles as both the question and the standard answer to it, which surprises most learners the first time they hear it.
piranha, tapioca, cobra, marmalade, breeze and mango all reached English from Portuguese - 6 words you can use on day one.
Free matching, free voice calls, free video calls. One twenty-minute call is enough to know whether it works for you.
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