Skip to content

A1

Portuguese A1: Beginner

At this level the language covers everything the first few days ask for: your name, where you are from, what you do, your family, numbers, the time, food and drink.

Sentences are short and stand on their own. Anyone who gets this far can say what is, what they have and what they want — not yet what happened yesterday.

Alphabet and pronunciation5

Alphabet and pronunciation

5

A1The alphabetTwenty-six letters, their names, and how to spell a name out loud.A1The vowelsStressed, they sound full; unstressed, hardly at all.A1Nasal vowels: ã, õ, ãoThe vowel goes through the nose — with no n to be heard.A1Consonants: s, z, r, lh, nh, chThe letters that do not sound the way English reads them.A1Stress and accentsWhere the stress falls — and when an accent shows it.

Tenses and if-sentences5

The present tense

3

A1Present tense: -ar verbsYour only ending is an -s on « he » — and here the -s belongs to « you ».A1Present tense: -er, -ir verbsTwo groups, and they part company in exactly one form.A1Irregular verbs in the presentSix verbs — and one of them, with its own family, has the only infinitives in the language ending in -or.

The past

1

A1Simple past (pretérito perfeito)No auxiliary at all — there is nothing to choose and nothing to put in front.

The future

1

A1Going to: ir + infinitiveGoing to, minus the to.

Verbs: ser, estar, subjunctive6

ser, estar, ter and há

5

A1ser — being what staysSix forms, none regular — and no article in front of your job.A1estar — being what passesestar a plus the infinitive is your -ing form, built out of a preposition.A1ser or estar« The soup is cold » is either a recipe or a complaint, and here you have to say which.A1Expressions with terYou are twenty; here you have twenty years.A1há — there is« There is » and « there are » are the same word, and it never goes plural.

Can, want, must

1

A1poder and querer: can, wantThese conjugate all the way through; « can » cannot even manage a participle.

Articles, nouns and pronouns10

The article

3

A1Definite article: o, a, os, asFour forms, and nothing about the next word decides which — only the noun's own gender.A1Contractions: do, na, ao, peloFour prepositions swallow the article — almost always.A1The indefinite article« She is a doctor » loses its article — and an adjective brings it back.

The noun

3

A1Masculine or feminineEnglish has no gender to transfer — but four words in five say theirs out loud.A1The pluralAdding -s is the reflex, and it fails on animal, homem and hotel.A1Numbers, the time and the dateNumbers have a gender, and the time of day is plural.

The adjective

1

A1Adjective agreementFour forms if it ends in -o, two if it does not — and a two-word colour has one.

The pronouns

1

A1Possessives: meu, teu, seuseu is not « his » — it is « your », and « his » goes behind the noun.

The prepositions

2

A1Place and direction: a, para, emYour single « to » is two here, and the difference is whether you come back.A1The prepositions a, em, deThe fusion is compulsory: there is no de o, no em o, no a o.

Sentence structure3

Questions and negation

3

A1Asking a questionThe voice goes up and the sentence stays as it is.A1Negation with nãoOne word before the verb — and « yes » is answered with the verb itself.A1The question words« What is your name? » asks with « which » here.

Politeness, style, fine points2

Formal and informal you

2

A1Forms of address: tu, vocêThree ways of saying « you », and the polite one conjugates like « he ».A1Everyday polite phrases« Thank you » changes with who is speaking, not with who is thanked.

Word lists at level A1

Lists: 13 · words: 661

Reading texts at level A1

Sentences from this level’s topics

Como se escreve o teu apelido?How do you spell your surname?

A minha avó tem oitenta anos.My grandmother is eighty years old.

Não, obrigado.No, thank you.

A chave está na porta.The key is in the door.

Practise level A1 only