Master the rules of European Portuguese with lessons covering grammar. Lessons cover verbs, tenses, pronouns, articles, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and sentence structures. This category is designed for learners at all levels who want to build a strong foundation and improve accuracy. Communicate effectively in both written and spoken Portuguese. Explore clear explanations, examples, and exercises that make complex grammar easy to understand and apply in real-life situations.
In this post, we’re looking at the Possessives Portuguese. They are used to show ownership. They indicate who the owner of a specific thing is or indicate a relationship between two people (and things too). There are actually two grammatical classifications for these words: pronouns and determiners and then another group of possessives. In this … Read more
When using Adjectives in Portuguese, there are more things to consider. Unlike in English, they almost always come after the thing they are describing (noun). And they also need to agree with the gender and the number of the noun. So next, I will walk you through all that, and afterwards, we’ll look at how … Read more
To refer to a past within the past present or future we can use Pretérito Perfeito Composto do Conjuntivo. What that means is that this tense is used to express the anteriority of action in relation to another action either: in the past; that is ongoing at the moment; that will happen in the future; … Read more
In complex sentences, we use the Conjuntivo mood in Portuguese to refer to uncertain or doubtful facts, possibilities, hypothetical scenarios or desires. And this is also usually done through certain “trigger words”. This mood comprises three main tenses having both a simple and compound form. So that’s 6 tenses in total: Presente do Conjuntivo, Pretérito … Read more
Welcome to the Present Tense in Portuguese – Part 3! As we saw in the first lesson here, the verbs in Portuguese can be cumbersome to learn, for those who don’t have this in their native language – like in English for instance. The reason for this part 3 is that there are a few … Read more
The Present Subjunctive in Portuguese (Presente do Conjuntivo) is used in complex sentences and after the linking word “que”* and is dependent on the main clause. This main clause will always express a wish, doubt, emotion, uncertainty or belief. *(there is a handful that doesn’t use “que“) Lesson How to Conjugate the Present Subjunctive in … Read more
What are the impersonal expressions in Portuguese? If you’re learning the language and have progressed beyond the beginner stages, you’ve no doubt come across this term already. These are the expressions used with some of the subjunctive tenses and the personal infinitive tenses. They are easy to spot because they start off the sentence with … Read more
In very simple and layman’s terms, the past participle in Portuguese is equivalent to the “ed” form in English (think: closed, worried, cancelled, etc). It’s also a descriptive word, describing the end result of the action. We use it in compound and passive tenses. A particular feature of a participle is that when on its … Read more
Congratulations on reaching the past imperfect in Portuguese! This tense will open up many more sentences and allow you to express many more ideas and tell stories. This tense will allow you to say things like “I used to” or “When we were kids, we would…” The best way to learn this tense is to … Read more
You may have heard me say before that Portuguese is a Null-Subject Language. But what does that mean? This means that Portuguese grammar allows us to create a full sentence without an explicit subject (doer) even though it follows the SVO sequence. This is not possible in English, as we always need to include who … Read more