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The questions thread. Have a question? Feel free to ask it here.


Ricardo187

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Hello everybody. I decided to create this thread so you can post your questions about Portuguese language, which I'll be more than pleased to answer to. I've seen we're at least two Portugueses here, me and Caparica, so you'll surely have a good and correct answer. :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Hi! I speak English, mandarin and a little french. I'm pretty serious with a Brazilian girl, and her whole family speaks Portugese. I really want to learn Portugese to impress them! Can you tell me where I should start, and approximately how long it'll take for me to be able to engage in light table-talk?

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Hello Simmyao. Unfortunately Portuguese can be very tricky to learn if you don't have some background in Latin-based languages. French shares a similar grammar, but it's not one of the closest related relatives of Portuguese, so I'm not sure how much help that will be - you'd probably do better starting from scratch. I don't mean to get your spirit down, but I have tutored English native speakers in the past, some of them with a background training of Spanish, and after a year's dedication to learning Portuguese at a Portuguese university they still couldn't converse at light table-talk level without resorting to English or Spanish phrasing often.

My advice is to try and focus on grammar and vocabulary, forget pronunciation, as that takes years to get even close. Read a lot of Portuguese before trying to speak it. When in doubt, have your girlfriend help you and explain the different meanings of the words and the sense, as Portuguese is often filled with metaphor and metonymy. After you get aquainted with the written word, then it's time to speak it and hear as often as you can. Humour is always a good way to test your progress: watch Portuguese and Brazilian comedy videos on the Web - the faster and the more by yourself you're getting the jokes, the better you're doing. Good luck! 

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Hey there simmyao, Kotro said it all pretty much, the process of learning a language is a long one, but just the fact of you considering learning it will cause a good impression next to the family of your girlfriend. If you just say a sentence in Portuguese next to them they will surely help you.

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Ola!:)

I have just started learning Portuguese and so far, so good. I am finding it a lot easier to learn than French. However, I want to know if anyone has found a good language learning site that is free? I have a very low income and would love to join one of these sites but a lot of them require you to pay a monthly fee. Which I just don't have.

If anyone knows a good site, I would love to know which one :)

Muito Obrigado!

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I've answered you in another thread, so let me ask you this, what sentences or words can you write? Do you want to post them here that I will correct them for you? Que dizes?  :tongue:

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