Last week, I purchased a Collins bilingual Portuguese/English dictionary from a charity shop. Buying a physical dictionary felt a bit like going back in time to when I was at school in the 1990s. Until now, I’ve been using Google Translate to translate words and phrases from Portuguese into English. I’ve used bilingual dictionaries in […]
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This post gives an overview of money in Brazil as well as related Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary. The currency of Brazil is the real (which sounds like “hey-al”), symbolised as R$. The plural of real is reais (which sounds like “hey-ice”). Introduced in July 1994 as part of the Plano Real to stabilise the economy after
This week, Brazilians around the world have been celebrating Carnival. Carnival is the most popular holiday in Brazil taking place in February or March in the run-up to Lent and is a time for people to dress up in colourful costumes, party and to celebrate Brazil’s unique culture and traditions. Events are put on in
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This post talks about holidaying in Brazil and offers some key vocabulary, which you may find useful for your own trip. Travelling to Brazil is the type of holiday that many Brits dream about – in 2018, 154,586 UK nationals visited the country. Despite the distance, Brazil is an easy place to travel to with flights
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This post outlines the history of the Brazilian Portuguese language. For more information about learning Brazilian Portuguese, check out the resources page. In 1494, Portugal and Spain divided the New World between them in the Treaty of Tordesillas, which gave Portugal the rights to lands that now constitute the eastern quarter of Brazil. Then in
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When visiting Brazil, it’s clear that food markets and street fairs play a big role in Brazilian life. Food markets in Brazil are a sight to behold because they’re full of exotic fruit (frutas) and veg (vegetais) that you just don’t see in the UK. One of the delights of shopping at food markets in
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I’m not very good at learning languages. That’s not to say I’m bad at languages – the kid who sat next to me in French classes at school did well out of copying my answers and I can remember the words to Alouette by heart. However, the prospect of learning languages has never really captured
