The Language Lover's Guide to Learning Portuguese

Excellent book, highly recommend for beginners to advanced level. It is hard to find anything other than Brazilian Portuguese learning books, so this was a great find.

I have to say this book is really useful for those who are learning the language by themselves. Everything is explained in plain English which is perfect and it helps to clear the doubts towards some of the most confusing concepts. However, I could not rate this book a full 5 stars for there are quite a number of spelling mistakes which were difficult to neglect when I was reading the kindle version. Overall, for those who are learning Portuguese, it is worth reading.

I'm a native English speaker studying Portuguese in a non-Portuguese speaking country. If you've ever tried learning a language, you know that makes it tough right off. This book has been a terrific tool. I've used some language learning apps & have several other Portuguese language learning & grammer books but this one is by far the best. I had a spot of trouble (as many native English speakers do) with reflexive verbs & the subjunctive mood but the way this author describes the way these work in Portuguese made total sense to me. Additionally, if your aim is to learn European Portuguese as opposed to Brazilian Portuguese you will find it difficult to find resources. This book is a must have if you're in that boat. Thank you so much!

Clear explanations of grammar points. Useful exercises with answers included to enable self-checking.

An excellent start to Portuguese. Very clear and to the point.

I especially liked the accompanying online pronunciation examples.

Great book for learning Portuguese.

it is a good book, and does a nice job of explaining the tenses. I am looking for something more advanced to teak my learning to the next level.

Muito legal!It's an amazing introductory textbook, I finished it in a week, and I was able to say some basic sentences with my Brazilian friend. Is it comprehensive? No. I needed to supplement it with a more detailed grammar book afterwards, but as an INTRODUCTION, it is highly HIGHLY recommended. (I am a Spanish speaker though so my review on the ease of learning is a bit biased)

Sowohl Russell Walker als auch Rafael Tavares betreiben (englischsprachige) Webseiten für Portugiesischlernende, und es ist klar, dass viele Inhalte dieser Webseiten sich in ihrem Buch wiederfinden. Dennoch fand ich es hilfreich, diese gesammelten Erkenntnisse in Buchform vorliegen zu haben, zumal das Buch im angenehmen Gesprächston - ohne all zuviel "Fachchinesisch" - die Aussprache und die (aus deutscher Sicht recht einfache) Grammatik der portugiesischen Sprache sowohl für Anfänger als auch, zumindest in den späteren Kapiteln, für Fortgeschrittene erläutern. Hier gibt es zahlreiche Tabellen mit Überblicken, klar, auch unregelmäßige Verben im Überblick, aber auch Erörterungen zu verzwickten Themen wie dem persönlichen Infinitiv, einer Eigenart des Portugiesischen. Der Werbetext auf dem Cover lässt den Inhalt etwas zu einfach erscheinen - auch Portugiesisch lernen erfordert viel Arbeit und Mühe, wie bei jeder neuen Sprache, die man sich aneignet, aber im Großen und Ganzen müsste jeder, der sich um das europäische Portugiesisch bemüht, hier zufrieden sein. Nur wer Brasilianisch lernen möchte, kommt hier nicht auf seine Kosten.

This is a tremendous achievement given that this is basically a detailed grammar book. What could be more boring? But it isn't. The authors write in an engaging style and are clearly fascinated by their subject. They explain what the various bits of grammar are for as well as explaining how the Portuguese do things, and contrast this with familiar English oddities where this would help.You can't do without grammar to learn a language. Learning to spout tourist phrases parrot fashion won't get you far. What happens when people talk back to you in their weird foreign lingo? The authors start with an excellent detailed description of Portuguese pronunciation which really helps. It's not enough just to listen to Portuguese - it is difficult to really grasp what you are hearing without knowing what to listen out for.Portuguese, especially as spoken in Portugal, does have the deserved reputation of being very difficult to hear. This barrier puts people off from learning the language. Understanding what the Portuguese are saying is notoriously difficult not just if you are starting from English, but even for Spanish people - and sometimes even Brazilians! It's because the language uses more vowel sounds to convey meaning than we are used to. And in European Portuguese whole syllables can be unstressed to the point of disappearing. So at first the sound seems to have little resemblance to what the language looks like written on the page.The book comes with an accompanying web site - in fact two as both authors have their own. These have sound files you can access for free, including all of the examples in the pronunciation guide, which is very useful. I found the sound works best in Chrome rather than my usual browser. Like the book, the main emphasis is on Portuguese as spoken in Europe and Africa, but Brazilian alternatives are also discussed and given. The book by the way is still worth getting. I started on Russell Walker's learningportuguese co uk web site, but ended up buying the paper book as it's just more convenient for reference and for reading the continuous passages of explanation.The book has lots of exercises to help you grasp grammatical points and vocabulary. Basically it's intended to be used as a learning text as much as a reference. The balance over its 325 pages is about two thirds explanation and exercises, and one third reference.Like other Latin-based languages Portuguese is more highly inflected than English, so verbs have different endings to convey person, tense and mood. Some of these ultimately have to be learned, or looked up as you come across them. Rather than try to mindlessly simplify, this book is a true help because it doesn't dodge this complexity. It includes a large set of well-organised verb reference tables.I bought this book two years ago and still find myself going back to it to look something up, or read whole sections of the explanatory text again. It really is very good. It probably helps that it is NOT part of a series. The authors, one Portuguese and one British, seem genuinely interested in how their two home languages relate. This makes it a pleasure to read.

This book has certainly been of great help in learning Portuguese. The easy reading format is terrific I'd recommend it for all learners and those who want a good review.

I originally bought the kindle version but found it awkward to do the exercises so bought a copy in book form.It is an excellent book for the beginner and I suspect for other levels also, well written in a non complicated manner with all grammar well explained. We have found it an invaluable asset to aid our European Portuguese lessons,we have several books on the subject and this is among the best