Best app for learning European Portuguese?

November 7, 2024 4:10 PM

I'd like to find an app that I can use to learn European Portuguese; there are some options but I don't know what's good and I don't want to pay for something that isn't good. I would appreciate suggestions!

As I say I'm specifically looking to learn European Portuguese; I spoke very good Spanish years ago but don't know that I remember much so I'm not sure how helpful that will be. Of course I need vocabulary but I would also like explicit instruction on stuff like verb tenses. I would prefer not to pay more than necessary, and I would prefer a one-time fee to a monthly fee, but am open to options if anyone has something really good to recommend. Thank you for any help you can provide!

posted by an octopus IRL to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

Memrise.
posted by msladygrey at 4:30 PM on November 7, 2024

I don't know if it's the best, but I used Duolingo before a recent trip to Portugal. I only had four months, so I was not at all fluent, but I did get complimented a couple of times. That said, some of the pronunciations appear to be Brazilian Portuguese.
posted by donpardo at 5:31 PM on November 7, 2024

Practice Portuguese for learning European Portuguese.
DeepL for translation.
posted by SJustS at 6:04 PM on November 7, 2024 [1 favorite]

Seconding Practice Portuguese.
posted by Runes at 6:31 PM on November 7, 2024

If you are looking specifically for as-spoken-in-Portugal Portuguese, Duolingo is not the one. All of Duolingo's course material is Brazilian Portuguese – it's fully intelligible in Portugal, but it's not Portugal Portuguese.
posted by spielzebub at 2:08 AM on November 8, 2024 [1 favorite]

Have you looked at Pimsleur? I would trust it much more than free products like Duolingo. The first 30 lessons cost $150 and it teaches the Lisbon dialect.
posted by oxisos at 4:30 AM on November 8, 2024 [1 favorite]

I was going to come here to say Pimsleur as well. Also, I know it’s not an app, but the Foreign Service Institute’s booklet and cassettes (that have been digitized) really help for people like you with a base of Spanish. I think it’s a mix of Brazilian and Continental accents, but for the very first step, it is super useful nonetheless. I was able to communicate a lot the moment I arrived in Brazil and before I started formal lessons because of the FSI materials.
posted by umbú at 5:18 AM on November 8, 2024