Learning how to speak Brazilian Portuguese was nothing short of challenging even though I speak Spanish. The many Brazilian Portuguese basic expressions are quite similar to Spanish but most people don’t realize that Brazilians can understand the Spanish better than Spanish people can understand Brazilian.
In written form the words are nearly identical but the Portuguese accent is extremely difficult. Learning how to speak different languages is one of my hobbies.
As I have traveled to places like Ethiopia, Madagascar, India, and even Somalia, picking up local languages was extremely unique for me.
I would consider Brazilian Portuguese to be more difficult than even Arabic.
Learning languages as I travel has been straightforward and effortless. The feeling obtained by seeing a bright smile on the locals face when you are speaking their language is one of the great ways to get to know the local culture.
To learn how to speak Brazilian Portuguese and its basic expressions we have enlisted the Brazilian Hallie Berry to assist us.
Hope you enjoyed that.
The video above was taken in northern Brazil near the small town of Jericoacoara. The city lies a few hours away from Fortaleza. Here you will find two gorgeous fresh water lagoons that is reminiscent of paradise in the Caribbean or in Asia.
It is one of the most unique destinations that I visited while living in Brazil and I would highly recommend a visit to the small beach town.
Once acclimated to the life in Rio de Janeiro I did start to get accustomed to the local accents and began to speak a bit of Portuguese. As with many languages around the world there are many different variations of Brazilians Portuguese depending on what region you visit.
The people of Rio de Janeiro are known as Cariocas. They speak with a “sh” accent similar to the Spanish spoken in Buenos Aires. To give you an example if you wanted to say I speak Portuguese it would be the following:
Eu falo Portuguese
Local Cariocas would instead pronounce it like this:
Eu falo Portuguesh
There is also a significant amount of slang used similar to American English (video below is full basic expression video – different from above)
- Bom Dia – Good Morning:
- Pronounced – Bomb Geea
- Boa Tarde – Good Afternoon
- Pronounced – Bow Ah Tahgge
- Boa noite – Good evening! / Good night!
- Pronounced – Bow Ah No Eech
- Oi – Hello
- Pronounced – Oh Ee
- Bem-vindo – Welcome
- Pronounced – Behm Veendo
- Licença – Excuse Me
- Pronounced – Lee Cents Ee ah
- Por favor – Please
- Pronounced – Poh fah voh (similar to Spanish
- Tudo Bom/Tudo Bem – Everything alright, Whats up
- Pronounced – Too doh Bomb/Too doh behm
- Qual é seu nome? – Whats your name
- Pronounced – Quawl Eh Sou Nomee
Where do I sign up for lessons?
Bom Dia señor Marcello y señorita halle….
I love to learn language how to take lesson. So beautiful lagoons. Very good video.
Thanks for writing so good post.
Excellent !
Hey, good job with the underwater video. I don’t know about Hallie Berry though, she looks more like the type who’d show up in Mike In Brazil…
Keep up the good work and interesting videos!
Thank you so much for this.
My name is Mike and I have been to Brazil twice already and just returned for 3rd time for a total of 3 months ( staying 6 months this time). I have struggled to learn Portuguese and find it far harder then Spanish or French. When I return from Barbados on Sept 1 I am enrolling in classes. ( My Girlfriend here in Brazil has never traveled out of Brazil and 8 days in there would a good intro to an English speaking Country.) Upon hearing that a well traveled person say Portuguese is difficult makes me feel less like an idiot…