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Learn Portuguese: 55 Words to Boost Your Vocabulary – with Video

Learn Portuguese: 55 Words to Boost Your Vocabulary – with Video

posted on November 7, 2009

Learn Portuguese: 55 Words to Boost Your Vocabulary - with Video

I have talked about patterns between English and Portuguese in previous posts.  I gave you a list of cognates — words that are very similar — and I listed ninety words that are easy to memorize.

Today I will give you a list of 55 words with the following pattern:

  • Words that end in -AL in English end in -AL in Portuguese, too.

Here is the best part: Many of these words have the exact same spelling in English and in Portuguese. The pronunciation is different, of course. This is a great opportunity to observe those differences and transfer them to other words in your learning journey.

I will divide the words in two lists: nouns and adjectives. For the nouns, you will see the indication of their gender. The adjectives have only one form for both feminine and masculine.

In the video I pronounce the words for you. Notice that the stress syllable is the last one. The English words are in alphabetical order.

Nouns:

Portuguese English
O animal Animal
O canal Canal
O carnaval Carnival
A catedral Cathedral
O cereal Cereal
O cristal Crystal
O festival Festival
O hospital Hopital
O potencial Potential
O sinal Signal
O total Total

Adjectives

Portuguese English
Acidental Accidental
Adicional Addtional
Artificial Artificial
Audiovisual Audiovisual
Banal Banal
Casual Casual
Central Central
Coloquial Colloquial
Colonial Colonial
Comercial Commercial
Confidencial Confidential
Cordial Cordial
Crucial Crucial
Cultural Cultural
Digital Digital
Emocional Emotional
Igual Equal
Essencial Essential
Existencial Existential
Facial Facial
Global Global
Gradual Gradual
Habitual Habitual
Individual Individual
Informal Informal
Irracional Irrational
Literal Literal
Nacional National
Natural Natural
Normal Normal
Original Original
Parcial Partial
Radical Radical
Regional Regional
Residencial Residential
Sensacional Sensational
Social Social
Especial Special
Espiritual Spiritual
Tradicional Traditional
Tropical Tropical
Usual Usual
Virtual Virtual
Vital Vital

I hope you have fun using your new vocabulary.

This list is from the book Instant Brazilian Portuguese Vocabulary Builder, by Tom Means.

For similar vocabulary videos, check out these posts:

  • 40 Easy Words to Learn: Use Patterns to Your Benefit – with video
  • 90 New Words that You Will Have No Trouble Memorizing – with Video
  • Quick Vocabulary Building – Cognates – with Video

Valeu!

Photo by Jeff Belmonte on Flickr’s Creative Commons

Related Posts:

  • Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: Words beginning in PS
  • My Favorite Online Dictionaries to Learn Portuguese
  • 4 language learning hacks for your Portuguese

About Luciana Lage

I’m Luciana, founder of Street Smart Brazil. I am so happy to be able to help you in your Portuguese speaking journey! Teaching Portuguese as a foreign language was one of the best things that could have happened in my life. I’ve had the privilege of teaching Portuguese at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of San Francisco. Now I am fully dedicated to the Street Smart Brazil community.

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