Brazilian Portuguese Grammar: 15 Essential Tips

If you've decided to learn Brazilian Portuguese, note that it has some distinctions from the European variety.

However, mastering Brazilian Portuguese grammar need not be a daunting task.

Explore these 15 fundamental Brazilian Portuguese grammar rules, which cover a range of topics from personal pronouns to the position of adjectives.

1. Understand Brazilian Personal Pronouns

A primary distinction between Brazilian and European Portuguese lies in how personal pronouns are used. In particular, the Portuguese word for "you" varies somewhat by dialect.

In Brazil, it's more usual to employ você (third-person singular) for "you," while in Portugal tú (second-person singular) is the preferred form.

It's worth noting that some regions of Brazil do use tú instead of você. However, Brazilians often conjugate it in the third person, similar to how they use você. For instance, they might say tú vai ao teatro (you are going to the theater) rather than the European Portuguese version, tú vais ao teatro.

Also, remember that você in Brazilian Portuguese is informal; European speakers, conversely, consider it the formal "you." To speak to someone who is older or in a position of authority (such as your employer, a judge, or a customer you wish to impress) Brazilians use o senhor ("you" masculine) or a senhora ("you" feminine).

In Brazil, a gente is also utilized as a general term for "us"—this is conjugated in the third person, just like você. Compare these two sentences, for example:

Você fez isso. — You did this.

A gente fez isso. — We did this.

As you can observe, they are both conjugated identically.

The remaining pronouns are fairly simple:

• Eu (I/me), ele (he), ela (she) are singular pronouns.
• Nós (we/us), vocês (you, informal), eles (they, masc.), elas (they, fem.) are plural pronouns.
• Os senhores (masc.) and as senhoras (fem.) are the plural forms of the formal "you."

The Language Island provides a detailed guide to the various kinds of Portuguese pronouns, enabling you to learn all the equivalents of the English pronouns you already know.

You can find more information on personal pronouns below:

2. Master Brazilian Portuguese Articles

Every article in Portuguese must match the gender of the noun it comes before.

When employing definite articles (i.e., articles that point to something specific—like "the," in English), masculine words are preceded by o; feminine words use the definite article a:

O homem — The man

A mulher — The woman

There is also a plural form of "the": os (masc.) and as (fem.):

Os homens — The men

As mulheres — The women

The same principle applies to indefinite articles (i.e., articles that indicate non-specific things):

Uma casa — A house (fem.)

In the example above, you could be referring to any house, not a particular one.

Um emprego — A job (masc.)

Again, this is quite general in nature. It could be any job.

For plural nouns, use uns (masc.) and umas (fem.):

Umas meninas — Some girls

Uns meninos — Some boys

Duolingo provides a guide to Portuguese articles. You can not only read more about them, but also listen to audio to assist with pronunciation. And if that isn't sufficient, you can even record your own voice to compare it with the provided examples.

3. Get Your Genders Right

Typically, masculine nouns conclude with -o, while feminine ones end with -a:

A cadeira — The chair (fem.)

O carro — The car (masc.)

Similarly, feminine adjectives often end in -a, and masculine adjectives often end in -o. Vermelho/vermelha (red), gordo/gorda (fat), pequeno/pequena (small) are instances of gendered adjectives. They will agree with the noun they are describing.

There are, naturally, a few exceptions:

A few adjectives, like cinza (gray), marrom (brown) and violeta (violet) are gender-neutral. They do not change their form regardless of the noun they are describing.

To examine all these rules more closely, StreetSmart Brazil enumerates several commonly used words you'll want to add to your vocabulary list. If you have ever studied Spanish, this post also contrasts some of the gender differences between the two languages.

You could also attempt the exercises on Unilang. The exercises require translation both to and from Portuguese, so you'll also pick up some vocabulary along the way.

Finally, Rio & Learn offers a very detailed analysis of different noun endings and how they relate to the word's gender. At the bottom of the page, there is also a very useful exercise that asks you to alter the gender in the sentence, which is an effective method to become more comfortable with this grammar topic.

4. Learn the Difference Between Estar and Ser

Portuguese has two versions of the verb "to be," both of which are irregular.

Estar is the form you would use when discussing a location, or other temporary characteristics.

Eu estou aqui. — I am here

O pintor está na escada. — The painter is on the ladder.

Ser refers to the inherent state of being—in other words, the things you cannot really change.

Qual é seu nome? — What is your name?

As baleias são enormes. — Whales are huge.

Besides ser and estar, you will also want to know ter / haver (to have) and fazer (to do), since these appear quite frequently.

5. Use the Gerund

A major difference between Brazilian and European Portuguese verb conjugation involves the use of the gerund (which is the -ing form of a verb in English).

Brazilian speakers consistently use the gerund to describe an action that is happening:

Estou trabalhando. — I am working.

Meanwhile, the European Portuguese dialect prefers a different way of expressing the same thing:

Estou a trabalhar. — I am working.

In the example above, the infinitive form of the verb "to work" (trabalhar) is used in place of the gerund.

Here are a few more examples:

Creating the gerund in Portuguese is relatively simple. The rules are consistent with verb endings, irrespective of whether you are dealing with regular or irregular verbs.

First, you need to take the present tense of the verb estar and add the verb that will have the gerund ending applied to it.

*Note that ser is an irregular verb.

And if you have ever encountered the irregular verb ir (to go), you are in luck: It follows the same gerund rule as other -ir verbs.

Eu estou indo. — I am going.

Você está indo. — You are going.

Nós estamos indo. — We are going.

6. Consider Gender with Demonstrative Pronouns

As with all elements that come before a noun, a demonstrative pronoun must agree with the gender of the word it is referring to.

The Portuguese demonstrative pronouns are:

7. Make Note of Possessive Pronouns

Portuguese possessive pronouns have feminine, masculine, singular and plural forms:

8. Place Adjectives After the Noun

Similar to English, Portuguese generally follows the subject-verb-object (SVO) sentence structure. The main distinction lies in where adjectives are placed. For example, consider this:

A criança feliz gosta de seus presentes. The happy child enjoys his presents. Literal translation: The child happy enjoys his presents.

As you can see, the descriptive word usually comes after the subject it describes. Here are a few more examples:

Um livro interessante — An interesting book (livro — book; interessante — interesting)

Essa camisa azul — That blue shirt (camisa — shirt; azul — blue)

A menina criativa — The creative girl (menina — girl; criativa — creative)

While most adjectives must agree in gender with the nouns they modify, some remain unchanged:

Um homem inteligente / Uma mulher inteligente — An intelligent man/An intelligent woman

Um menino forte / Uma menina forte — A strong boy/A strong girl

O diretor idealista / A diretora idealista — The idealist director/principal (diretor is masculine; diretora is feminine)

Meu amigo comunista / Minha amiga comunista — My communist friend (amigo is a masculine "friend"; amiga is a feminine "friend")

Brazilians refer to these as adjetivos uniformes (uniform adjectives). If you have a dictionary available, review a list of uniform adjectives compiled for native speakers.

That said, there are always exceptions to the rule, so you will certainly find cases where native speakers place the adjective first:

• Mal/má (bad), grande (big) and bom/boa (good) are the most common adjectives you may see preceding nouns, and their placement there can even alter the meaning of the sentence. For example, when placed before the noun, grande often means "great" but when placed after the noun, it is more likely to mean "big."
• Similarly, the placement of bom/boa can significantly change a sentence's meaning. For instance, "ela é uma mulher boa" will be understood as "she's a good woman." However, "ela é uma boa mulher" might be interpreted as "she's a hot woman."

If you are seeking places to practice adjective placement and Portuguese word order in general, look at this guide from Learn Portuguese with Rafa. You could also utilize the word order activities on the gamified language learning app Duolingo.

9. Remember the Rules for Plurals

As in English, some Portuguese nouns can be made plural by simply adding -s at the end. However, other words have more complex pluralization rules.

Here are some general guidelines:

Additionally, once you have pluralized nouns, you will also need to pluralize any accompanying adjectives to match those nouns. Adjectives follow the same basic pluralization rules as nouns. For instance, azul (blue) becomes azuis (blues) in the plural form.

You can locate a comprehensive guide to pluralizing nouns here, which also includes numerous examples demonstrating how different word endings can influence the way a noun is pluralized.

And if you believe your pluralization skills are proficient, try this fun Quia quiz that you can play alone or with a friend. The setup resembles Jeopardy: Select a category, receive a word to pluralize and earn points for every correct answer.

10. Start with the Simple Present Tense

If you are just beginning Portuguese verb conjugations, try to concentrate on the simple present tense first. This way, even if you are not being completely grammatically accurate, you can still communicate your point.

As mentioned earlier, Portuguese verbs end in -ar, -er or -ir. How you conjugate them depends on the ending. Let's examine one set of simple present tense conjugations for each type of verb ending:

It is important that you thoroughly master basic verb tenses before progressing to more complex constructions.

Plus, across all the tenses, there are also some irregular verbs, the most common of which can be found at ielanguages.com and learningportuguese.co.uk.

And if you require more Portuguese verb conjugation practice, you can visit Conjuguemos, which is filled with exercises and activities. Likewise, ListeningPractice.org presents dozens of methods to conjugate Portuguese verbs based on frequency, tense, number and person.

Here is a little more about Portuguese conjugations:

11. Don’t Forget the Adverbs

Similar to their English equivalents, Portuguese adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs, typically answering questions like "how," "at what time" and "to what degree."

When a modifying word has the suffix -mente, like rapidamente (quickly, rapidly), there is usually a strong likelihood that the word is an adverb. Consider it the counterpart of the English -ly.

Of course, not all Portuguese adverbs end in -mente. Consider these:

• Aqui — Here
• Menos — Less/Minus
• Quando — When

12. Prepositions Matter, Too

Portuguese prepositions indicate the relationship between objects in time and space. They include words like:

• Desde — Since
• Antes — Before
• Por — For
• Sem — Without

For more on Portuguese prepositions, read this post:

13. Add Color to Your Speech with Interjections

Also known as exclamations, Portuguese interjections are used to express emotion, as in:

• Ai — Ouch
• Hein — Huh
• Graças a Deus — Thank God

Although interjections are not required for grammatical correctness, they can make you sound more like a native speaker when you use them.

14. Be More Natural with Contractions

Just as English has words like "can't" or "they're," Portuguese often combines words. Unlike English, where contractions are frequently optional, many Portuguese contractions are necessary for grammatical correctness.

Some Portuguese examples include:

• Num / Numa — In/On some
• Destes / Destas — Of these
• Nos / Nas — On the

Find more Portuguese contractions here:

15. It’s Okay to Use Negation

Forming negative sentences in Portuguese is quite simple. Just place a negative word like não (not) or nunca (never) before the verb that is not being done:

Eu não entendo. — I don't understand.

Nunca vou esquecer o dia em que nos conhecemos. — I will never forget the day we met.

Tips to Make Brazilian Portuguese Grammar Stick

Tailoring your studies is the most effective way to address complex topics like grammar.

Consider this your signal to combine various study strategies and resources—you will only discover what works best by trying out different learning styles.

Here are a few ideas you can experiment with:

Make use of other learning media

Still in the realm of technology, open online courses (known as MOOCs), educational podcasts and online video classes will also instruct you in those essential grammar rules. They can also assist you in contextualizing them with practice drills and examples of daily usage.

Go Offline

Of course, you should not disregard traditional methods. Think about investing in a good grammar textbook and/or workbook so that you can master the theoretical aspect. If you need assistance finding one, stay tuned—that is a point I will address shortly.

Do not forget to take notes in a notebook as you progress—and definitely dedicate some time to constructing sentences. Not only will this help you remember the concepts you have been learning, it will also incorporate some much-needed Brazilian Portuguese spelling practice.

Apply the rules to real-life examples

Finally, as you become more confident, observe how different grammar rules apply to the material you have been reading, listening to and watching (whether it's movies, TV dramas or even cooking shows).

Here is an example from our YouTube team that includes the grammar structures you can learn through Portuguese-dubbed media, like "How I Met Your Mother":

If you would like some additional language learning support while immersing yourself in the language, you could try using Lingflix. Each video comes with interactive subtitles that you can use to quickly find the meaning of a word or see more examples of a term in use. Lingflix takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and transforms them into personalized language learning lessons. You can try Lingflix for free for 2 weeks. Click here to check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

Context is crucial, after all, and content originating directly from native Brazilian speakers is certain to make things more interesting—and more authentic.

Portuguese Study Resources to Get You Started

Need assistance finding some good study aids? Don't worry, I'm here to help you!

For a well-rounded reference guide, try "Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar: A Practical Guide." Divided into two parts, this book covers all the traditional rules beginner to advanced learners need to know by illustrating them with practical examples of how they are used in contemporary Brazil. Look into the accompanying workbook if you want to put these conventions into practice.

If you need to review your verbs, take a look at "501 Portuguese Verbs." This reference guide features some of the most frequently used Portuguese verbs, with their corresponding English translations, conjugated in all persons and tenses.

It also includes language tips like idiomatic expressions, useful travel phrases and a few practice exercises to help you commit all this theoretical knowledge to memory.

You can also check out these online grammar exercises:

That covers everything for now! Take your time learning the above rules—we have covered a lot of material. As you delve deeper into each of these conventions, others I have not included in this post will probably arise.