(The top image link is for Brazilian Portuguese. The second links to the European Portuguese product.)

Talk Now! Learn Portuguese offers a software package that trains individual learners to speak basic Portuguese words and phrases from a home computer. These lessons include audio files that read the phrases out loud, games & activities for each topic, and progress tracking. The program supports a microphone or headset for recordings.

You can purchase Talk Now! for either Brazilian Portuguese or European Portuguese (which is just labeled “Portuguese” on the software’s cover).

Since I haven’t acquired a copy to review, I haven’t rated this course. If you would like to recommend this product to others, please post your comments below or contact us send a copy to this site for review.

Cons:
listen & repeat approach to learning phrases may tire students; exercises are routine and simplistic; juggling both Brazilian and European in one course can be trouble for some learners; long vocabulary and phrase lists to memorize; organization and pacing is only so-so; audio only reads parts of the book, and all in Brazilian (only a con for learners of European Portuguese)

Living Language’s Portuguese Complete Course offers a book and CD package for beginners. The repetition-heavy lessons stress conversational words and phrases, then ramp up to tougher reading, listening and understanding skills.

The pronunciation guide in lessons 1-4 reads through a series of words. The rest of the lessons focus on introducing more and more vocabulary and phrases in lists. By lesson 30 or so, you begin to read fuller sentences.

The book explains chunks of grammar along the way, and gives more information about how to pronounce Portuguese throughout the lessons. Explanations of grammar and short exercises break up the flow of progressively harder vocabulary in later lessons.

Small practice exercises test your skill allong the way, but are rather simple (often “fill in the blank”). For all the material covered, sections tend to repeat lists of words and phrases or embed them in basic dialogues. The organization of material is haphazard enough to make some sections a real challenge or a real bore. In the end, most students will have a gone through lots of material, but still struggle to understand the big picture, especially when it comes to grammar.

The CD reads straight through in Brazilian Portuguese (even though the book tackles both European and Continental dialects), and at a normal speed. It’s meant to be used alongside the book, allowing you to hear what’s written there. The audio portion doesn’t last long, which means that auditory learners won’t get much repetition or well-paced help.

A couple of extras round out this lesson course. The appendix has a summary of grammar, complete with verb tables and overviews of key points. There are also examples of written letters and e-mail in Portuguese. In addition, the set comes with a separate Portuguese & English vocab dictionary. I have already reviewed that dictionary on this site.

I enjoyed the free-flowing and complementary nature of the audio CD-book that build on each other. I like the progression from reading words to phrases to dialogues and letters in Portuguese. I’m curious to see if such a barrage of exposure to progressively tougher Portuguese could be turned into a more immersive, less cumbersome experience.

As it is, the Portuguese Complete Course is too scattered to give you a really organized understanding of beginning Portuguese, but it does cover a good chunk of material in the written guide, and manages to provide a full introduction to spoken and written Portuguese. Few basic courses cover this much territory. Still, auditory learners will get more from Pimsleur’s Brazilian Portuguese (they offer a separate European version, too). If you want to stick with a Living Language product, I prefer the structure of Ultimate Portuguese.

Cons:
includes Brazilian words but is published in and focused on Portugal; must know Portuguese to get full use; many versions are older (I referenced one from the eighties); price; size (if need to use on the go); some potentially confusing variants still missing keyword cues

As you might have guessed by their names, the Dicionário Inglês-Português and Dicionário Português-Inglês are dictionaries published in O Porto, Portugal for Portuguese speakers. Because of that (and their large size and depth), let’s establish something before moving towards a review: intermediate and advanced learners of European Portuguese are the target audience, and should read on to see why I’ll recommend this dictionary. If you know enough Portuguese, this dictionary “não requer instruções prévias especiais”.

The English-Portuguese and Portuguese-English translations are split between two volumes. Each book is well over 1,000 pages, and almost every one of those 1,000+ pages is devoted to doing what a language dictionary should: they offer you translated words to look up.

Entries are in bold type, and set apart from the rest of the text by a reverse-indent. IPA phonetic spelling is listed to the right of each entry. Parts of speech are given as well, in abbreviated form (vt for transitive verb, s for sustantivo (noun), etc.).

Each word is covered by a robust number of translations, including variants. Where unclear, variants are accompanied by key terms in parentheses. For example, the use of dub includes the translation “dobrar (um filme)”, specific to dubbing a movie.

The top of each page includes page numbers and the first three letters of the first and last words on the page. Pages are divided into two columns, and the font is small enough to bother weaker eyes, but standard for a dictionary.

The sheer number of terms covered is unmatched by foreigner-targeted Portuguese dicitonaries, at least any that I’ve seen. The drawbacks I noticed in the copy I reviewed included its awkward size, its older date (1980s) and its lower relevance if you’re dealing with Brazil. If you need a serious European Portuguese and English language dictionary, these dicionários are my best recommendation so far.

Cons:
sense of progress marred by ambiguous presnetation of material; explanations get dense or problematic at times; too tough for beginners, but many sections just review for intermediate learners; questionable organization of material; a bad course for fresh beginners and students who can’t find their own way without extra guidance

The author of Teach Yourself Brazilian Portuguese flexes her grammatical muscles in this attempt to present Portuguese grammar to self-taught learners pursuing a “complete understanding” of the language.

Teach Yourself Portuguese Grammar begins with a glossary of grammar terms (noun, verb, etc… all in English with English examples). Then, there are some notes about Portuguese spelling, punctuation, accent marks and stress.

Beyond that point, the book is taken up with a thorough presentation of all the basic and intermediate points of Portuguese grammar and sentence structure. It even manages to cover some advanced topics. As a learner, I know your next question without you asking: but how well does the book teach Portuguese grammar?

Over the course of 45 lessons (46 total minus the spelling unit mentioned above), you will read and reread sections that explain a range of grammar topics. Some topics deal with specific words (like por and para), while others focus on general patterns (like the inflected infinitive of verbs).

Within each chapter, topics are explained in the “grammar in focus” section. These explanations can be dry, dense and textbook-like. What’s more, they may leave out crucial material that beginners. Despite the book’s coverage of both Brazilian and European Portuguese, examples of the two aren’t always distinguished carefully, and some of the information (especially about those ever-tricky Portuguese verbs!) should be checked for accuracy against native speakers of each dialect.

Fortunately, the explanations are supported by well-placed Portuguese examples. Every “grammar in focus” topic has plenty of these sample sentences to digest with a Portuguese-English translation of each one. Exercises that follow offer variety and stay focused on the topics just presented. Some chapters offer a “grammar in context” activity after the exercises, which includes real-life Portuguese examples to test your understanding.

The book ends with a short list of Brazilian and European vocabulary differences, a table of regular verb endings, a table of irregular verbs (the same one found in Manuela Cook’s Teach Yourself Portuguese, and answers to the practice exercises. The book has no index, but the table of contents is thorough enough for later look-ups.

The order and choice of Portuguese grammar topics presented in each chapter is the toughest feature to accept. Related topics (such as definite articles, indefinite articles and nouns) are often grouped together, but the progression between chapters is ambiguous. It’s best if you make a separate learning plan for the grammar topics you need to learn or enhance, and refer to those sections in the book.

If you’re a later beginner looking to tighten your knowledge of Portuguese grammar, especially your abilities in the written language, I think you can learn a lot from this book. Its balance between explanations, examples and exercises, its coverage and variety are all commendable, even if the author’s way of organizing and explaining the material fails to impress.

Cons:
Portugal-focused, leaving out info about Brazil and some Brazilian usage; no reference page numbers in the vocabulary/dictionary (needs quick search by word or phrase); learners: this is still just a survival Portuguese phrasebook!

Berlitz Portuguese Phrase Book is a little phrasebook with glossy pages, an attractive layout and clearly defined sections. The edges of each section are marked by different colors, and the section’s topic written in the upper right of each odd page. All this makes the book visually easy to flip through.

For such a small book, the range of phrases covered is commendable. The organization and layout is also useful. For example, English phrases are on the left unless the situation calls for translation from Portuguese, like reading a menu. Portuguese examples are given in red, with Brazilian variants bracketed (like comboios [trens] for “trains”). English translations are in black.

Blue and yellow “Essential” boxes focus your attention on key Portuguese phrases you need to know. “You May See” and “You May Hear” boxes give you an instant idea of other words you’ll encounter. Color photos visually enhance some sections.

A basic pronunciation key helps you speak the phrase aloud, but you can rely on the CD to actually listen to native Portuguese speakers read every phrase in the “Essentials” boxes.

This is clearly intended to be used as a survival travel phrasebook, not a way to learn Portuguese. In that light, it’s best suited to travelers heading to Portugal. Brazilian variants render the book multi-dialectal, but coverage of Brazil and Brazilianisms isn’t watertight by any means. It would be even more convenient to have audio examples for every phrase, but what’s here is enough to start getting by in Portuguese.

Cons:
too compact to cover some of the more difficult aspects of many topics; explanations focus on formation over real-life usage; index not quite as robust as I’d like for a reference guide

Harrap’s Pocket Portuguese Grammar offers students a colorful and well organized on-the-go grammar reference guide for both Brazilian and European Portuguese.

Chapters are divided up between the major players of Portuguese grammar – articles, pronouns, nouns, verbs, etc. The topic (like VERBS) is always listed at the upper, outer corner of each page to make this reference easy to flip through.

Within each chapter, sections explain and give examples of how to build and use a certain part of speech – compound tenses of verbs, for example. Explanations are short and to the point. Portuguese examples are also short, but relevant and plentiful. They’re also easy to spot: Portuguese phrases are in bold, and the part of the phrase relevant to the topic at hand is in bold blue.

This guide is easy to compare to Prista’s Essential Portuguese Grammar in length, scope and intended audience. Harrap has produced a reference guide focused on formal grammar topics, while the Essential Portuguese Grammar leans a bit more towards function. Harrap’s Pocket Portuguese, for example, introduces the word que in verbal contexts where it’s used, while the other has a short section on que that distinguishes its basic functions in its own right. Honestly, in a reference grammar that I’ll search through on the go, I prefer Harrap’s focus.

This grammar is fairly complete if you’re a beginner or early intermediate student of Portuguese. It even has a handy seven page reference index. If you’re more advanced, you’ll find what’s lacking fairly quickly. The guide only lists certain irregular verbs it considers “common”, for instance.

I can’t argue with the setup, coloring and organization of this guide. Portuguese students trying to keep all the basics of grammar straight would do well the buy this pocket-sized guide and keep it nearby. If you’re a more experienced learner, you might try searching for a more comprehensive grammar, but you may still find enough coverage here to merit your consideration.

This audio CD-based program contains three discs, two of which focus on Brazilian or European Portuguese conversational skills. The third CD presents a listening comprehension and phrases selection.

A small booklet accompanies the course, and includes a transcription of the dialogues, a list of listening skills survival phrases, and a very brief Portuguese to English and English to Portuguese word list, along with an index.

The phrases and conversations covered seem relevant and realistic, but were shorter and less in-depth than other audio methods available. Also, I enjoy buying courses that take a bit more time breaking down troublesome phrases rather than repeating along with whole dialogs, but this course has little room for bite-sized learning. Unless you like to press stop, rewind and play repeatedly.

A complete lack of grammar coverage may turn some students off, but this tack is situation normal when learning a language through an audio-heavy program. On the other hand, very little here even eases the student into an understanding of the language’s structure.

If you like audio methods, such as Pimsleur’s, but don’t want a large price tag on your purchase, this skim overview of Portuguese conversation will help get your pronunciation and listening skills up to par, provided you are willing to listen to the same dialogues over and again.

Barron’s 501 Verbs books are certainly abundant and popular. They cover every conceivable verb a beginning language student might need to conjugate in any form (in Portuguese, this means all tenses and moods for all persons and numbers). Each page in the body of the book focuses on a single verb, with all forms listed in easy-to-read columns. Each tense-mood is easy to pick out at a glance (e.g. Present Indicative or Imperfect Subjunctive). At the bottom of a page, a handful of examples illustrate some of the most common and distinct uses of that particular verb.

The Portuguese entry in this series doesn’t disappoint. The introduction spotlights some of the trickier issues for learners tackling Portuguese verbs, including reflexive verbs, pronouns with verbs, the passive voice, compound verbs and verbs with irregular and multiple past participles. An English to Portuguese and Portuguese to English index lists all 501 verbs covered in the book.

The authors decided to put verb forms with open “e” and “o” in italics. While not part of the Portuguese spelling system, this decision helps students pronounce the tricky feature of open or closed stressed “e” and “o” consistently. The book explains this in more depth.

Learning Portuguese grammar requires mastering the verb above all else, and having this guide at hand will bring you quite a few steps closer. You’ll have some solid linguistic backup for your verbal woes. Still, don’t expect anything like language lessons from this book. You will need a fuller course to really master Portuguese, so this should stand by your side as a reference guide.