How to Increase my Portuguese Vocabulary?

Portuguese owes its importance—as the second Romance language (after Spanish) in terms of numbers of speakers—largely to its position as the language of Brazil, wherein the early 21st century some 187 million people spoke it. Portuguese and English have words that mean the same and are similar as well. The words came from the same languages (usually Latin, Greek or French). Some English words come from Portuguese, such as tank (tanque), cacao (cacau), marmalade (marmelada from marmelo “quince”), caramel, molasses, mosquito, cobra, breeze (brisa), albino, coconut, zebra, pagoda, Mandarin, buccaneer, fetish, tapioca and commando.

Learning European Portuguese vocabulary isn’t as daunting as it seems. While this isn’t necessarily the easiest language (or dialect) to study, as long as you have the right approach, you’ll whiz right through to fluency. We want to help you brush up on your vocab in the most efficient and productive manner. This is why we’re going to guide you through different strategies for increasing your word knowledge. Whatever technique is working for you in your quest to master the language, there is no getting around the fact that when it comes to Portuguese vocabulary, the more the better.

1. Write all the time: Whenever you come across a new word, write a contextualized sentence with it. As you listen to and read authentic material or material for learners, taking notes can be a powerful memory aid and can help you fine-tune your spelling skills.
2. Learn prefixes and suffixes: Almost every language has words made up of a ‘root’ word and prefixes and suffixes. For example, the suffix -mente makes adverbs in Portuguese: rápido (quick) –> rapidamente (quickly), lento (slow) –> lentamente (slowly). There are several Latin and Greek prefixes in Portuguese that you can also find in English, so it makes your reading easier and you will learn more words. 
3. Readout loud: If you’re listening to a lesson and reading along, read out loud. Then re-read and speed up your tempo. Do this again and again until you can speak faster. Try your best to pronounce the words correctly, but don’t obsess about it. Read swiftly, emote and put some inflection on the sentences. Reading aloud helps to train the muscles of your mouth and diaphragm to produce unfamiliar words and sounds.
4. Listen to podcasts: Many podcasts for learners offer plenty of real-life tidbits in each episode. In order to get the most out of each podcast, you should listen to terms you’re both familiar and unfamiliar with—and make a note of them (more on this later). Double-check that you understand how each term is being used in the podcasts you’ve chosen by listening to them a couple of times.
5. Don’t skip new words: If you are reading something and there’s that one word you were going to skip, don’t do it. Learn that new word and you’ll see that it will keep popping up! Always keep a notebook or a notepad with you.
6. Avoid learning synonyms and antonyms together: One last tip about word grouping: Try to avoid listing synonyms and antonyms together. While it’s good to know your opposites, putting them side-by-side when you’re still trying to verse yourself with what they mean could actually work against you.

Of course, watching Portuguese TV series or listening to Brazilian music will help you learn complete sentences in Portuguese. Now that you have plenty of ways to boost your vocab knowledge, it’s up to you to put them into practice!

Have fun exploring these new resources as you master European Portuguese words, sentences and conversation.

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