15 Resources to Learn Portuguese with Videos
Watching videos can transport you to other realities.
If you watch a video on how to paint, you probably feel like you could totally paint those happy little trees.
If you watch a video of the Amazon rainforest, you may feel like you’ve traveled to the rainforest (without so much need for bug spray).
But if you watch Portuguese videos, will you feel like you can speak Portuguese?
Actually, you don’t have to just feel that way: You can definitely learn Portuguese with videos and make your dream a reality.
There are tons of great resources to help Portuguese students improve their skills by watching videos.
Check out our 15 top choices to create a reality where your Portuguese skills are on point.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
How to Select the Right Portuguese Learning Videos for You
There are so many videos out there for Portuguese learners, that choosing a resource to use can be a daunting task. We’ve made it a bit easier by breaking down what to look for in a Portuguese learning video!
Decide what regional dialect you want to focus on.
Portuguese is spoken in a number of different countries. Even within countries, there could be regional variations. Knowing which Portuguese dialect you hope to focus on can help you select videos appropriate for your learning needs.
Know what skills you want to improve.
Portuguese learning videos target a wide variety of skills. You might find videos that focus on vocabulary, grammar, listening, speaking, reading, writing or maybe even something else entirely.
Because videos are so targeted, knowing precisely what skills you want to work on can make it easier to select the right video resource for you. Otherwise, you might be overwhelmed by the sheer variety.
Pay attention to level.
There are Portuguese videos available for every learning level, from complete beginner to expert speaker, so you’ll need to pay attention to video levels and find the right option for you.
Attempting videos that are too challenging could be overwhelming and demotivating. However, watching videos that are too easy could result in slower progress than you’d like. It’s important to find that middle ground in order to maximize learning.
Look for videos you enjoy.
When you’re studying something, it can be easy to ignore the fun factor, but it really does matter!
Selecting videos you enjoy will make you more likely to keep watching. And since watching can help you learn Portuguese, the more you watch, the better!
There’s no reason to suffer through learning Portuguese. There are enough options available that you should be able to find some videos that you actually like watching.
How to Learn with Portuguese Videos
Okay, so you’ve found the perfect video resource that’s just right for you. Now what?
Target specific skills.
Since you can target specific skills with videos, you should take advantage of the opportunity!
Find your weak points. Maybe it’s a particular verb conjugation or grammar rule. Then, seek out videos that focus on that weak point.
This is a great way to fill in any gaps in your skill set.
When you find a good video, look for more from that resource.
Most video makers aren’t one-hit wonders. Usually, if a resource provides one good video, it offers multiple good videos.
So when you find a video you like, look for other videos from that same provider. There’s a strong chance you’ll find more great options that you’ll want to watch.
Give videos your full attention.
It can be easy to tune out when watching videos. After all, we’re so used to watching videos for fun that it can be hard to remember to focus.
When watching videos to learn Portuguese, though, it’s important to give the video as much of your focus as possible. This’ll help you understand the video and ensure that you extract the maximum amount of learning from it.
Engage with the videos.
If you’re not careful, a video can be very one-sided: It talks, you listen. However, engaging more actively with the content can help you work on more skills, more effectively.
Try speaking back to the video, or summarizing it out loud after you watch it. Not only will this help reinforce what you learned, but it can also provide additional speaking practice.
You might also consider taking notes. Better yet, take notes in Portuguese for some writing practice. However, regardless of how you take notes, the act of writing things down can make them easier to remember. Plus, you’ll have a handy reference if you ever want to refer back to something you learned from a video!
Incorporate viewings into your daily schedule.
Not practicing your Portuguese skills every day could lead to backsliding, which means you may lose some of the skills you worked so hard to gain. Watching learning videos every day is a convenient way to work Portuguese study into your daily life.
Plus, if you get in the habit of watching at the same time every day, it won’t be as easy to forget to study.
Learn Portuguese with Videos: 15 Happy Little Resources
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any Bob Ross in Portuguese (yes, we tried). But we did find 15 other amazing resources for learning Portuguese with videos.
Tune in—you won’t want to miss these!
Memrise
Memrise is best known as a language-learning app. It offers vocabulary quizzes, pronunciation guides, interactive games and more activities that are great for beginning Portuguese students.
However, if you’re looking to learn Portuguese with videos, Memrise has a unique twist that can make it a good choice: It uses videos of real native speakers. Memrise does this to help you learn in a more authentic context.
This program can be a good choice for Portuguese students who enjoy watching short videos interspersed with activities.
FluentU
As we suggested above, authentic videos are great learning tools. They show you real, everyday Portuguese. However, they can also be intimidating. After all, it can be hard to understand native Portuguese speakers when they speak at a conversational rate.
FluentU bridges that gap to allow you to learn Portuguese with authentic videos without being in over your head.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Click here to check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.
Please note that our Brazilian Portuguese program is still in development, and European Portuguese is not yet available.
FluentU can even show you other videos across the site that use that same word so you can see it in different contexts.
If you want to study a word further, just add it to your vocabulary list for easy access.
And if you want to change up your next study session, try FluentU’s quizzes! Quizzes combine images, videos and example sentences into engaging flashcards and activities to reinforce what you’ve learned.
A Portuguese learning program is currently in development, so stay tuned for an immersive, authentic way to learn Portuguese, coming soon!
PortuguesePod101
PortuguesePod101 is a website that offers audio and video learning material for beginning through advanced Portuguese students. There are over 1,000 total lessons and new free lessons are released every week, so you’ll have plenty of options to choose from.
The program focuses on providing fun, engaging lessons that are culturally relevant to balance your language learning with your cultural education. Video lessons come with supplementary material to help you learn vocabulary, grammar rules, reading and more.
If you want to check out some of what PortuguesePod101 offers without registering, you can also check out the PortuguesePod101 YouTube channel. For instance, beginners to Portuguese can get started having conversations with “Top 5 Sentence Patterns for Beginners in Portuguese.”
Dino Lingo
Dino Lingo is intended for kids, but it can be just as wonderful for beginning Portuguese students of any age.
This charming program offers a variety of learning materials, including lessons, games, worksheets, flashcards, stories and more.
But if you’re in it for the learning videos, don’t worry! DinoLingo has plenty of those, too. You can enjoy animated stories, songs and other fun learning videos featuring cute dinosaurs. Since the videos are intended for kids, they’re engaging and entertaining while also teaching a lot!
If you want to enjoy some of Dino Lingo’s Portuguese videos without registering, check out the YouTube channel. Portuguese students would benefit from the “Learning Brazilian Portuguese for kids” or the “Learning European Portuguese for kids” playlists.
You can also try out a fun animated story, like “Rapunzel.”
LyricsTraining
Music lovers, listen up! You can improve your Portuguese skills while jamming out to great tunes.
LyricsTraining offers real music videos with a learning twist that turns songs into games. Just choose a song, select your difficulty level and start learning.
As the music video plays, you’ll notice that it’s captioned, but some words are missing. The more advanced the level you selected, the more words will be absent. Your task is to fill in the right words based on what you hear.
Don’t worry—if you miss any words, you can rewind and relisten until you figure them out.
If you’re studying European Portuguese, you might check out “Sou Pra Ti” (“I’m for You”). Brazilian Portuguese learners can learn with “O Sol” (“The Sun”).
Semantica
If you can’t resist a good novella, Semantica might be the perfect video resource for you.
Semantica is a website that provides novella-style dialogues to help you build vocabulary, grammar skills and sentence construction skills in a natural way. There are also additional learning materials, like grammar training, to help you build on what you’ve learned.
Semantica offers videos for beginning through advanced students, so they’re appropriate for a wide array of students.
If you don’t want to sign up for Semantica just yet, check out the Semantica YouTube channel to see some of the videos it offers. For instance, Portuguese students might enjoy “DIALOGO Compro Ferro Velho” (“DIALOGUE I Buy Old Iron”).
Polyglot Club
Polyglot Club offers dozens of videos to help you learn Portuguese. While these videos come from other sources, it can be a convenient way to access a wide array of videos from one hub.
Another added bonus is that the site lists the difficulty level of each video, so it can be easier to find a video appropriate for you.
For instance, beginning students might use Polyglot Club to find helpful options like “Office” to learn thematic vocabulary.
BRAZILPOD
BRAZILPOD is provided by a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and it’s an awesome learning resource.
The site offers a variety of brief video clips featuring native speakers in Brazil and Portugal. The clips are neatly grouped by difficulty level, ranging from beginning to superior. Students can enjoy focused, thematic content, like “Beginning 7: People’s Physical Characteristics,” which offers four different videos with native speakers.
Portuguese students should also check out Conversa Brasileira (Brazilian Conversation), which features dialogues with native speakers.
Now Speak Portuguese Part 1
If you want the convenience of learning Portuguese with videos, but with the structure of a course, check out this Udemy course. Udemy hosts tons of courses so if you finish this course or it’s not quite for you, head over to the Udemy website and give your specific topic a search.
This particular course is designed to help beginning students learn Brazilian Portuguese. It offers over 10 hours of video content you can watch whenever it’s convenient for you. The course teaches a variety of common words and phrases that you might need if you travel to Brazil.
If you like the course and want to learn more, there’s another course in the series: Now Speak Portuguese Part 2 teaches even more useful phrases with over four more hours of video content.
Portuguese Lab
Portuguese Lab is a website that offers learning content for beginning through upper-intermediate students learning European Portuguese. The site offers podcasts, e-courses and more.
But don’t worry! Portuguese Lab also offers plenty of free videos you can enjoy on the Portuguese Lab YouTube channel. You can find dialogues, stories, vocabulary, grammar and more.
For instance, beginning Portuguese students might check out lesson 30 of the “Learn European Portuguese (Portugal)” series.
Portuguese with Carla
Portuguese with Carla is a Portuguese learning YouTube channel with many awesome options for beginning through intermediate students. The channel uses European Portuguese, so it’s an invaluable tool if you want to learn this regional dialect.
Beginning Portuguese students might jump-start their vocabulary learning with “100 Common Expressions in European Portuguese.”
Peppa Pig
Peppa Pig isn’t technically made for language learners. Instead, it’s a TV show designed for children to watch, enjoy and learn from. But while it’s intended for children, it’s also a great option for Brazilian Portuguese students.
That’s because Peppa Pig uses relatively simple vocabulary. The animations can also help you understand what’s happening if you don’t catch every word. Plus, it’s super cute!
To get started, you might enjoy “Peppa Pig Português Brasil — O DIA INTERNACIONAL” (“Peppa Pig Portuguese Brazil — The International Day”) to learn country names and related vocabulary.
Portuguese Today
Portuguese Today is a YouTube channel that aims to help students learn Brazilian Portuguese, fast. The videos are generally most appropriate for beginning-level students and range from one to five minutes in length. The short length makes it easy to fit a little extra Portuguese study time into your day!
Videos cover vocabulary, grammar, culture and more. For instance, beginning students might benefit from conjugation videos, like “Let’s Conjugate: To Speak (Falar) in Portuguese,” for a quick look at common conjugations.
Português com Marcia Macedo
Using a Portuguese learning channel on YouTube can be super helpful. Using one where instruction is provided in Portuguese can take your learning to the next level.
Português com Marcia Macedo (Portuguese with Marcia Macedo) is a YouTube channel that teaches Brazilian Portuguese and it’s presented entirely in Portuguese. But don’t be too intimidated! Videos often offer subtitles in Portuguese, as well, so you can read along.
If your Portuguese skills aren’t quite strong enough to read along, you could also use YouTube’s auto-translate feature to convert them into English. While these translations aren’t perfect, they can give you the extra help you need to understand the language better.
Videos usually cover beginning- or intermediate-level topics, like vocabulary and verb conjugations. However, since the videos use exclusively Portuguese, they’re also great for advanced students.
For instance, Portuguese students might benefit from options like “Português | Sons Nasais ‘ão,’ ‘õe,’ ‘ãs'” (“Portuguese | Nasal Sounds ‘ão,’ ‘ôs,’ ‘ã'”), which can help you nail down some tricky pronunciations.
WikiTongues
WikiTongues isn’t exclusively dedicated to Portuguese. However, if you’re interested in learning more about regional variations of Portuguese, it can be one of the best resources available.
That’s because this YouTube channel features videos of people all around the world speaking their native languages. That means you can find videos of speakers from a variety of regions that speak Portuguese.
Some videos are also captioned in English, so they can be appropriate for beginning through advanced Portuguese students.
To see an example, check out “Stéfane speaking Angolan Portuguese” and listen to some African Portuguese.
Try these resources to learn Portuguese with videos and watch your way toward fluency!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
