Speaking Portuguese for Real Life
Unlock real conversations in Portuguese from your very first phrases to nuanced native banter. Build the confidence to speak, joke, and share stories naturally with friends across the Lusophone world.
Like Duolingo, but for Speaking Portuguese for Real Life. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
91 levels across 8 sections, about 182 minutes end to end, roughly 36 days at five minutes a day. It moves through First Words and Real Connection; Navigating Daily Life and Socializing; The Core Engine of Portuguese Sentences; Time, Movement, and Daily Routine; Telling Stories: The Past and the Future; Making Conversational Portuguese Sound Natural; Expressing Feelings, Doubts, and Wishes; and Listening, Banter, and Cultural Fluency. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Speaking Portuguese for Real Life
- 'Oi' paired with 'tudo bem?' or 'beleza?' is the standard natural greeting among friends in Brazil
- Formal greetings like 'Como vai você?' or 'Bom dia, senhor' sound overly stiff for casual social settings
- 'Beleza' literally means 'beauty' but is used colloquially as 'cool', 'good', or 'what's up?'
- 'Tudo bem?' with rising intonation asks 'How are you?' or 'All good?'
- 'Tudo bem' with falling intonation serves as a complete, natural answer meaning 'All good' or 'Everything's fine'
- Portuguese conversations often mirror the exact phrase back rather than needing a separate response formula
- Native Portuguese speakers naturally say 'yes' by echoing the main verb conjugated for the first person ('eu')
- Answering with just 'sim' sounds clinical or abrupt compared to verb repetition
- Echoing the verb immediately affirms the specific action asked about
- 'Valeu' is a ubiquitous casual sign-off meaning 'thanks' or 'cheers'
- 'Até mais' is standard for 'see you later'
- Thanking matches the speaker's gender: 'obrigado' for male speakers, 'obrigada' for female speakers, regardless of who is being addressed
- 'Como se diz [word]?' is the essential phrase to get vocabulary help without switching languages
- 'Como' means 'how' and 'se diz' means 'one says' or 'is said'
- Staying in Portuguese using 'Como se diz' keeps the conversational flow going
- Nasal vowels require sending air through the nose while keeping the mouth open
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Speaking Portuguese for Real Life the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
You bump into a Brazilian friend at a café. What greeting sounds most natural?
Get it right to open this lesson and 90 more in the app.
Where Speaking Portuguese for Real Life takes you
- 1
First Words and Real Connection
- Quick-Start Conversational Hooks
- Pronouncing Sounds That Don't Exist in English
- Essential Survival Exchanges and Keeping Flow
- 2
Navigating Daily Life and Socializing
- Ordering Food and Street-Level Socializing
- Describing People, Vibes, and Things
- Talking About Family, Friends, and Relationships
- 3
The Core Engine of Portuguese Sentences
- Mastering the Two 'To Be's: Ser vs. Estar
- Everyday Actions with Regular Present Tense
- Essential Irregular Power Verbs: Ir, Ter, Fazer, Poder
- 4
Time, Movement, and Daily Routine
- Telling Time, Schedules, and Frequency
- Directions, Locations, and Navigating Physical Space
- Reflexive Verbs and the Rhythm of Daily Routines
- 5
Telling Stories: The Past and the Future
- What Happened: The Immediate Past (Pretérito Perfeito)
- How Things Used to Be: The Descriptive Past (Pretérito Imperfeito)
- Looking Ahead: Talking About the Future Simply
- 6
Making Conversational Portuguese Sound Natural
- Connecting Thoughts: Fillers, Connectors, and Flow
- Brazilian vs. European Portuguese: Deciphering the Differences
- Little Words That Change Everything: Pronouns and Contractions
- 7
Expressing Feelings, Doubts, and Wishes
- Nuance and Polite Requests: Giving Advice and Asking Favors
- The Present Subjunctive: Hopes, Doubts, and Uncertainties
- Idiomatic Expressions and Informal Texting Slang
- 8
Listening, Banter, and Cultural Fluency
- Decoding Rapid Native Speech and Swallowed Syllables
- Humor, Affection, and Diminutives in Social Connection
8 sections · 23 units · 91 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Speaking Portuguese for Real Life is taught in the Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Speaking Portuguese for Real Life today.
Download Tomo, search Speaking Portuguese for Real Life, and play your first lesson in under a minute.