Português do Brasil

A written theory reference. Not a speaking course.

How this handbook works

1. Every chapter is Grammar then Examples. The grammar section gives the rule and the table. The examples section gives you the rule in short sentences. Nothing else.

2. Every example uses the same small set of words. Chapter 02 fixes a core list — 30 verbs, ~60 nouns, ~24 adjectives, and the function words. Almost every example sentence in every later chapter is built only from that list. This is deliberate: you meet conta, chave, pegar, perto hundreds of times across twenty chapters instead of once each. The grammar changes; the words repeat.

When a chapter needs a word outside the core list, it is marked [+].

3. Every Portuguese word is translated. No Portuguese appears anywhere without an English meaning. Where a phrase is idiomatic — Espera aí, Dá pra, Me vê — the literal word-for-word sense is given too, because the literal sense is what lets you re-use the pieces elsewhere.

4. Every Portuguese line has a respelling. The gap between Brazilian spelling and Brazilian sound is wide enough that reading the book without one would teach you a language nobody speaks. See the key below and chapter 01.

5. Every example has a literal gloss where the machinery differs from English. So you can build new sentences, not just recall old ones.

Respelling key

The respelling is a reading aid, not a phonetic transcription. It gets you close enough to recognise the word when you hear it.

Chapters

Foundation - 01 Pronunciation and the sound–spelling gap - 02 Core vocabulary — the words every example uses

Core grammar - 03 Pronouns and forms of address - 04 ser / estar / ficar / ter - 05 Gender, articles, plurals - 06 Contractions - 07 Present tense - 08 Negation - 09 Questions - 10 Modals and verbs that need a preposition - 11 Numbers, time, money - 12 Prepositions and directions - 13 Reflexives, gostar de, tem - 14 Past — pretérito perfeito - 15 Past — imperfeito, and choosing between the two - 16 Future and plans - 17 Requests and imperatives - 18 Connectors - 19 Subjunctive by trigger - 20 Adjectives and comparison - 21 Diminutives

Use - 22 Repair phrases - 23 Situation frames - 24 Medical - 25 Small talk scripts - 26 False friends and habitual errors - 27 What this handbook leaves out

Reference - 28 Verb tables — all thirty core verbs, every tense

Reading order

Straight through 01 → 21. Chapter 01 and 02 are not optional preamble; the rest of the book is unreadable without them.

Chapters 22–25 are self-contained and can be pulled forward at any time.

Chapter 28 is a lookup table, not a chapter to read. Go there whenever a verb form escapes you.