Thalita Alves
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11 Handy Resources with Exercises for Portuguese Grammar Practice
Communicating well in Portuguese, regardless of which dialect you’re trying to master, requires a good understanding of vocab and core language rules.
You already know that there’s a myriad of resources around for all kinds of authentic learning, from books to movies and even the odd TV series.
Whenever you need to shift your focus to grammar, though, you can always count on this handy list of grammar exercise materials.
Contents
- First, Some Portuguese Grammar Review
- Apps to Help You Become a Portuguese Grammar Pro
- Where to Find Portuguese Grammar Exercises About Verbs
- Grammar Workbooks to Supplement Your Learning
- Quizzes to Put Your Portuguese Grammar Skills to the Test
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
First, Some Portuguese Grammar Review
If you need a little refresher before getting to the nitty-gritty of grammar practice, we’ve got some websites you need to bookmark.
These websites also include worksheets and reference pages you can print for your studies. So, if you like having printable handouts and worksheets to refer back to, these are some of the best websites to browse through.
BBC Active
BBC Active has a great selection of vocab and grammar-based worksheets that anyone can download for free. These are broken into basic unit modules numbered from one to ten and even include some teaching guides for group-based activities. The content is geared more towards the bare essentials, making this a good starting point for beginners.
Language Tutorial
Language Tutorial has a small selection of grammar-based worksheets available that offer a run-through of present verb conjugations and everyday vocabulary terms. The website also consists of free tutorials covering all your language essentials in case you need any extra reference material.
University of Arizona’s Critical Language Series
Wander through the archival pages of the University of Arizona’s Critical Language Series to find a collection of Portuguese worksheets on practical vocabulary topics (like food and eating habits), as well as essential information on basic grammar rules.
Apps to Help You Become a Portuguese Grammar Pro
Learning works best when you’re genuinely engaged. Great tech finds are abundant in the world of language study and practice, and there are lots of good apps around for those wanting to hone their Portuguese grammar skills. Here are some of our top picks to get you started.
Mondly Languages
Mondly Languages was specially designed to teach grammar to both Brazilian and European Portuguese learners. It works under the philosophy that grammar shouldn’t be a boring subject and features a series of interactive exercises and lessons that’ll definitely keep things interesting.
The exercises are divided into almost 10 lessons, taking approximately five minutes to complete. You’ll listen to native speakers having real-life conversations before being prompted to answer some questions.
FluentU
This app boosts your grammar skills through authentic Portuguese videos. Since you can listen to real Portuguese being spoken in various contexts, like movie clips, news segments and inspirational talks, you can pick up new grammar concepts in context. The Portuguese subtitles also help, allowing you to hover your mouse over any word to see a contextual definition, as well as its grammar information.
Every piece of native Portuguese language content is paired with a series of exercises that will give you practical experience seeing all your new nouns, verbs and other words in use.
Busuu
Busuu is another social-networking app for learning languages. While the free version only offers users the ability to train with flashcards, a premium monthly subscription (which is actually not that expensive) comes with grammar exercises and enough content to quickly get you through the equivalent of a college semester’s worth of study.
There’s also an offline mode that allows you to take your learning with you wherever you go. Grammar units are designed to help you work on sentence building and in-app conversation exchanges will get you practicing everything in a more authentic manner.
Where to Find Portuguese Grammar Exercises About Verbs
Here’s the thing: even native Portuguese speakers get confounded by their verbs from time to time. After all, there are quite a few rules, irregularities and tenses to digest.
We’re not saying that to discourage you—think of it as motivation to truly impress the locals with your knowledge and skills. In order to really nail this grammatical component, try these interactive study aides.
verbos-portugueses.info
Verbos-portugueses.info is a website that works as a verb conjugator (which, like a good dictionary, will be incredibly useful when you’re practicing your writing) and also consists of supplementary exercises that will help learners hone their own conjugation skills. If you’re an advanced speaker looking for an additional challenge, see how you fare against the platform’s randomized verb test.
Conjuguemos
Conjuguemos features a list of verb-based activities, organized according to tenses, moods and regular vs. irregular conjugations. There’s also an “all tenses” activity for those wanting to widen the scope a bit. Choose between a graded test mode or opt for some flashcard-based practice.
ListeningPractice.org
ListeningPractice.org is equally suited for Brazilian and European Portuguese learners alike, across all skill levels. The website contains a comprehensive list of interactive verb practice exercises ranging from beginner to advanced modules. You can narrow your practice to specific tenses, singular or plural clauses, plus first-, second- and third-person conjugations.
Grammar Workbooks to Supplement Your Learning
You might already have your own textbooks and reference guides to help you with those grammar rules. A good workbook is a great complement to that—not only will you be able to apply your knowledge in a practical manner, noting things down can also help you retain all the information you’ve been gathering from your academic resources.
Here are a few options specifically geared towards grammar proficiency.
“Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar Workbook”
This is a good option for beginner-intermediate Brazilian Portuguese learners who could benefit from a bit of structure. “Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar Workbook” is divided into two parts, the first focusing on essential grammatical structures while the second applies these in everyday situations like asking questions and social interactions at large.
The book can be used as stand-alone practice or in conjunction with another workbook in the series.
“Basic Portuguese: A Grammar Workbook”
A nice resource for beginner European Portuguese learners, this resource offers a good balance between reference material and related exercises to test your skills. The book is made up of 20 different units with grammar points, examples and accompanying practice questions that will get you through everything you’d typically learn within a year of language instruction.
“Practice Makes Perfect: Basic Portuguese”
If you’re looking for something more comprehensive, “Practice Makes Perfect: Basic Portuguese” might just do the trick. This workbook comes with a series of bite-sized lessons and exercises that’ll guide you through simple Portuguese grammar structures and vocabulary. Key components of the book aim to help students familiarize themselves with verb tenses, adjectives, superlative nouns and sentence structure.
Quizzes to Put Your Portuguese Grammar Skills to the Test
Why not add a few online quizzes into the mix? Not only can these help you identify where you’re at with your knowledge (and, obviously, what areas you need to work on) they’ll also bring in plenty of grammar practice to get your brain into gear. See for yourself!
Transparent Language Brazilian Portuguese Proficiency Test
If you’re in the mood for a challenge, the Transparent Language Brazilian Portuguese Proficiency Test is going to be right up your alley. The entire quiz comes with two full sections on grammar, plus one vocab module and a reading comprehension component.
This test is ideal for intermediate-advanced learners who already have a good knowledge of grammar rules under their belt. There’s a total of 30 multiple-choice grammatical questions to go through, while the last two sections are comprised of 10 questions each.
Portuguese Language Guide
Here’s an option that’s suited for both Brazilian and European Portuguese learners. The Portuguese Language Guide features three tests for beginner, intermediate and advanced speakers. Each of these has 10 questions primarily focused on grammar, with small bits of vocab testing thrown in between.
See? There are lots of opportunities, online or otherwise, to get those grammar rules right. Now you’ve got all these tools to play with, it’s time to get to work!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
