A Portuguese Vocabulary List For Learners
If you don’t know where to start learning Portuguese, we made a Portuguese vocabulary list for you. You can use this as your personal list for vocabulary recap every week. The Portuguese words are listed by how often they are used. We also provide you with detailed grammatical information, and part of speech. We also provide you with IPA phonetic spelling, so you always know how to pronounce words correctly. Each entry comes with a bilingual sample sentence, so you can see them being used in context. They also provide you with bilingual reading practice.
MostUsedWords Frequency Dictionaries can be downloaded as ebooks from our website. They are also available as paperbacks on Amazon. These dictionaries provide vocabulary in various levels of fluency: beginners, intermediates, advanced, and near-fluent vocabulary for learners. These links above are affiliate links. Meaning, we might get a small commission if you make a purchase through these links, at no extra cost to you.
How Many Words Should You Know To Achieve Fluency At Different Levels?
Beginner – 250 to 500 words should suffice if you are just beginning to learn a language. You'll be able to hold basic conversations and navigate in tourist situations after just one week of studying. 500 words is enough to get you through everyday life in most languages.
Conversational – With only 1,000 to 3,000 words, you can communicate in almost all languages. You can then ask people about their day and tell them how you are doing.
Advanced – You will become more fluent in a language by learning between 4,000 and 10,000 words. This will allow you to use more specific vocabulary to discuss professional topics, current events, opinions and other complex topics. The 5000 most common Portuguese words bundle will allow you to take your language skills up a notch.
Fluent – With around 10,000 words in your vocabulary, you can speak about almost any topic with ease. Additionally, you can recognize unfamiliar words with enough knowledge. Save even more and get a bigger discount if you order the 10,000 most common Portuguese words at once.
Native – Word counts in different languages are not the same, so it can be difficult to estimate how many words native speakers know. An estimate of the number of words a native English speaker could know ranges between 10,000 and 65,000+
Portuguese Vocabulary List
The Foundation
These are the most commonly used words you can find in the Portuguese vocabulary. This is the key on how you can construct the most basic sentences or answers to basic questions.
sim means “yes”
não means “no”
voce entende? means “do you understand?”
Eu não entendo means “I don’t understand”
Não sei means “I don’t know”
Estou perdido means “I'm lost”
Eu não faço ideia means “I have no idea”
Não falo português means “I don’t speak Portuguese”
Introduce Yourself
Maybe you found yourself in a situation where you need to meet and chat with someone you don’t know. Here are some ways to introduce yourself to them:
meu nome é… means “my name is…”
Eu estou… means “I’m…”
qual é o seu nome? means “what is your name?”
Eu sou de… means “I am from…”
What’s Up
These are ways to ask someone what’s going on with their lives or a specific situation. You can use these Portuguese words and phrases to start small talks:
Como você está? means “how are you?”
e aí? means “what’s up?”
como tá indo? means “how‘s it going?”
o que você está fazendo? means “what are you doing?”
o que está acontecendo? means “what is happening?”
Etiquette Words
Etiquette can bring you to places around the world! Learn these polite Portuguese words:
de nada! means “you’re welcome!”
por favor means “please”
desculpe-me means “excuse me”
desculpe means “sorry”
obrigada means “thank you”
saúde means “bless you”
Essential Questions
These are the key questions you might use any time to any context:
que? means “what?”
quem? means “who?”
quando? means “when?”
onde? means “where?”
porque? means “why?”
que? means “which?”
quão? means “how?”
Portuguese Pronouns
Pronouns are essential to make our sentences clearer, less awkward, and smoother. It is important to consider the gender of the noun to address them accordingly:
EU means “I”
vocês means “you”
ele means “he”
ela means “she”
nós means “we”
elas means “they”
Greetings
It’s a nice thing to know how to greet other people. You can start with a simple olá!:
olá means “hello”
bom Dia means “good morning”
boa tarde means “good afternoon”
boa noite means “good evening” or “good night”
Saying Goodbye
It is polite to say "goodbye" and let the other person know you are leaving before you go:
adeus means “goodbye”
até logo means “see you later”
vê você means “see you”
vejo você amanhã means “see you tomorrow”
cuidar! means “take care!”
tenha um bom dia! means “have a nice day!”
vejo você em breve! means “see you soon!”
tenha uma boa viagem! means “have a good trip!”
Days of the Week
Talking about specific times or dates, you should know how to say the days of the week:
Domingo means “Sunday”
Segunda-feira means “Monday”
Terça-feira means “Tuesday”
Quarta-feira means “Wednesday”
Quinta-feira means “Thursday”
Sexta-feira means “Friday”
Sábado means “Saturday”
Other Time Words
Of course you can’t miss the general terms used to address the time! Here are some:
anteontem means “day before yesterday”
ontem means “yesterday”
ano means “year”
dia means “day”
mês means “month”
século means “century”
hora means “hour”
hoje means “today”
semana means “week”
alvorecer means “dawn”
amanhã means “tomorrow”
manhã means “morning”
meia-noite means “midnight”
meio-dia means “noon”
minuto means “minute”
noite means “night”
dia depois de Amanhã means “day after tomorrow”
segundos means “seconds”
tarde means “afternoon”
Nuclear Family
Addressing your family member is necessary, isn't it? You should know how to address them in your target language so that when you speak to them or talk about them with others, they would know who you are talking about:
pai means “father”
papai means “dad”
mãe means “mother”
mamãe means “mom”
irmão means “brother”
irmã means “sister”
filho means “son”
filha means “daughter”
Família próxima means “close family”
Personality and Emotions
With these Portuguese words, you can describe your feelings and other people’s character:
alegre means “joyful”
engraçado means “funny”
sério means “serious”
tímido means “shy”
corajoso means “brave”
louco means “crazy”
a satisfação means “content”
feliz means “happy”
preocupado means “worried”
nervoso means “nervous”
tranquilo means “tranquil”
calma means “calm”
animado means “excited”
Start Learning Today!
Although we provided you with a general Portuguese vocabulary list in this article, it isn’t enough to achieve a level of actual fluency in the language. Learn more with MostUsedWords Frequency Dictionaries! Each dictionary follows the same layout. The only thing that differs is the range of vocabulary. You can download them as ebooks on our website, or as paperbacks on Amazon.
Each of the dictionaries contains English translations of the Portuguese words, accompanied by example sentences to know the right use of words in context. Each word also has IPA phonetic spelling as pronunciation guide, as well as a detailed part of speech information!
- 2500 Most Common Portuguese Words for Beginners
- 2501-5000 Most Common Portuguese Words for Intermediates
- 5001-7500 Most Common Portuguese Words for Advanced Students
- 7501-10,000 Most Common Portuguese Words for Near-Fluent Learners
You can expand your vocabulary by learning new words through context. Reading can help you to understand the flow and grammar since this mimics natural language learning and will help you learn new vocabulary by allowing you to use context. You'll be able to retain words quicker if you are exposed to them repeatedly.