501 Portuguese Verbs (Barron's 501 Portuguese Verbs) Review

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(More customer reviews)Arm yourself with verbs. The nouns will come in time,
and adjectives and adverbs are a more advanced tool that you
will naturally acquire through extensive reading and speaking.
No, to gain fluency and functionality, you need verbs.
This book is a collection of 501 Portuguese verbs, with full
conjugations listed and some very informative usage examples below each listing. Each verb takes up a page, has the English definition at the top, and lists the usage examples at the bottom.
The index at the end of the book lists verbs in English, then in Portuguese, providing an excellent method for finding your verb choice even if you are a Portueguse student learning English. Yes, I meant exactly that: in learning Portuguese, I have found it helpful and enlightening to see what English words a Portuguese-speaker might choose, as it gives me insight into what a native might feel is the best translation of an idea.
The best feature of this book, however, is the front matter. It explains each conjugation in depth, because if you are anything like me, you've forgotten exactly what a future subjunctive is. Heck, I don't even know if I've used a grammatical term there or not; good thing I bought this book though, because it'll tell me in plain terms what I need to know.
This is truly a five-star reference. A comprehensive dictionary would surpass it in coverage, but from the perspective of learning Portuguese, this book has no peer.

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Here is an ideal supplement to classroom textbooks for students learning Portuguese. The most frequently-used Portuguese verbs are presented alphabetically in table form, one verb per page. Each verb is completely conjugated in all tenses with English translations. A new index in this edition lists an additional 1,000 verbs with English translations, cross-referenced to verbs that are similarly conjugated in the main text. Language students will find additional material covering idiomatic verb usage, grammatical construction, and more.

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Basic Portuguese (Brazilian) Complete Course: Cassette/Book Package (LL(R) Complete Basic Courses) (Portuguese and English Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)Portuguese is one of the most spoken languages in the world. It's unfortunate that such a beautiful language is ignored, because people who actually want to learn it have a hard time finding a company that offers Portuguese courses. Living Language is the only company that offers cassettes in both Brasilian and Continental Portuguese. So when I decided to learn Portuguese, I bought both courses.
Unlike the dozen cassette Foreign Service Institute's Portuguese Course (which is actually in Brasilian Portuguese), the Living Language course gives the learner the basics in two cassettes. The forty lessons on the two cassettes are designed in steps. The first four lessons are about pronounciation. There is a noticable difference in the pronounciation and syntax of Brasilian and Continental Portuguese, and Living Language does a very good job in structuring both courses so that the learner is not confused.
I also like the Living Language courses because if you follow the directions, they ensure that you will learn the basics of Portuguese. Living Language offers the best variety of basic courses, and it's the only company that offers an inexpensive Portuguese course. If you want to learn Brasilian or Continental Portuguese, this is the company to pick. And remember that after you learn the basics, the best thing to do is to take a trip either to Brasil or Portugal and practice. Immersion will keep the language fresh in your head. I hope you enjoy learning Portuguese as much as I did.

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Speak Portuguese with confidence in just 6 weeks!Living Language Portuguese Complete Course is a step-by-step guide to the basics of Portuguese conversation and grammar. This revised course uses the highly effective speed-learning method developed by U.S. government experts to teach foreign languages to overseas-bound servicemen and diplomats.40 lessons on two 90-minute cassettesBegin with simple words and phrases and progress to more complex expressions. Just listen and repeat after the native speakers. Only Portuguese is spoken on the recordings, so you learn naturally, the way you learned English. The accompanying Portuguese coursebook includes the English translations.Portuguese CoursebookThe pocket-size book contains all the translated phrases from the recorded lessons, plus additional vocabulary, detailed explanations, and quizzes.The book also features verb charts with all tenses included and a comprehensive summary of Portuguese grammar.Portuguese -English/English-Portuguese DictionaryMore than 20,000 words are defined.Idiomatic expressions and common phrases show how words are used in everyday conversation. The dictionary doubles as a phrasebook.1,000 of the most frequently used words are highlighted for easy reference.The best-selling language course that really works--revised, updated, and expanded!For Beginners or Those Who Want a Thorough Review

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The Everything Learning Brazilian Portuguese Book: Speak, Write, and Understand Basic Portuguese in No Time (Everything: Language and Literature) Review

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(More customer reviews)It's nice that there actually is an affordable and effective book for a beginner to learn quite a bit of Brazilian Portuguese. I thought this book was really well organized and a solid introduction to the language. There are exercises throughout the book as well to practice what you learned. There is also an audio CD which is helpful (A native Brazilian speaker repeats words and phrases which are also written in the book). The chapters are:
1)Introducing the Portuguese Language (Why learn it, similarities to Spanish, European Portuguese vs. Brazilian Portuguese, tips on learning Portuguese, recognizing what you already know)
2)The Sounds of Portuguese (Portuguese alphabet, accent marks, listening practice, consonants, stress pattern in Portuguese, oral and nasal vowels, typing in Portuguese)
3)Beginning Conversation (Greetings, talking on the phone, saying goodbye, etc)
4)Nouns, Articles, and Contractions
5)Introducing "ser" (the verb "to be")
6)Introducing "estar" (the other verb meaning "to be")
7)Describing People and Things in Portuguese
8)The Vocabulary of Numbers
9)First Conjugation Verbs
10)Second Conjugation Verbs
11)Important Verbs to Know
12)Verb Tenses: an Overview
13)More Verbs
14)Negative Words and Constructions
15)Questions and Exclamations
16)The Future and Other Tenses
17)Imperative and Subjunctive Constructions
18)Carnaval, Samba, Feijoada, and Futebol (Brazilian culture!)
19)Means of Communication (In person, by mail, making phone calls)
20)Traveling to Samba-Land (getting papers in order, hotel reservations, currency, a bit of information about the most popular cities...)
I was mostly looking to learn the language, not the culture, and this book is indeed mostly teaching the language. I liked the bits of information about the culture though in this book and found it interesting.
I definitely recommend this as a book to start off with to anyone serious about learning the language. I went through this while going through Pimsleur lessons for Portuguese and found it to be a great supplement to my learning (In my opinion, Pimsleur goes at quite a slow pace and this book helped me learn more about grammar in a shorter amount of time, as well as expressions, etc, without going at too fast a pace). I recommend it to travelers only if they want to spend some extra time learning a bit more than they absolutely "need".

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"The Everything[registered] Learning Brazilian Portuguese Book with CD" makes Brazilian Portuguese easy to grasp. Author Fernanda L. Ferreira, Ph.D., provides readers with step-by-step instruction in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Readers learn how to: understand Portuguese grammar; improve pronunciation; and, have basic conversations when travelling, dining out, conducting business, and shopping. This helpful guide includes an audio CD with pronunciation guides, extensive vocabulary lists, and interactive exercises. Packed with dialogue examples, self-tests, and English-to-Portuguese and Portuguese-to-English dictionaries, "The Everything[registered] Learning Brazilian Portuguese Book with CD" will have readers speaking - and understanding - Portuguese in no time.

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