Portuguese carries a feature almost no other major language has in living use — the personal infinitive — alongside a full subjunctive with a future form. These are structural facts that do not survive casual exposure; they need to be retrieved on a schedule to become automatic. Vocabulary overlaps heavily with Spanish, which helps and hurts: the false friends are the ones worth putting on cards.
Why spaced repetition suits Portuguese
What English speakers find hard about Portuguese
- Nasal vowels and diphthongs (ão, ões) with no English counterpart.
- European and Brazilian pronunciation diverge enough to affect listening comprehension considerably.
- The personal infinitive, which conjugates a form that most languages leave unconjugated.
- False friends with Spanish that trip up transfer learners constantly.
Cards you might meet
Generated from whatever theme you name — these are the kind of thing that comes back.
a saudade
the ache of missing something absent
The famous one, and genuinely hard to translate.
o jeitinho
an informal workaround for an obstacle
cadê
where is…? (Brazilian, colloquial)
aproveitar
to make the most of
combinar
to arrange to meet; to match
Portuguese conjugation drills
Name a verb, pick the tenses, and get five fill-in-the-blank sentences with every answer marked — including near-misses where only an accent is wrong. Available tenses:
PresentePretérito PerfeitoPretérito ImperfeitoPretérito Mais-que-PerfeitoFuturo do PresenteFuturo do PretéritoSubjuntivo PresenteImperativo
What you get
- SM-2 scheduling with four grades and keyboard shortcuts
- Generated Portuguese vocabulary on any theme you name
- Pronunciation for every card
- Conjugation drills across 8 tenses
- Writing feedback on your own sentences
- Photo vocabulary — name what is in front of you
Popular Portuguese themes
everyday lifemusic & culturefoodtravelwork
Portuguese questions
- Does Language Flash teach Brazilian or European Portuguese?
- Cards default to widely understood usage. Naming "Brazilian Portuguese" or "European Portuguese" in your theme steers the generator toward that variety, including its distinctive vocabulary.
- I already speak Spanish. Is Portuguese easy?
- Reading transfers almost immediately; listening does not, because the vowel and nasal systems differ sharply. The highest-value cards for a Spanish speaker are the false friends and the sound differences, not the shared core.
- Which Portuguese tenses does the drill cover?
- Presente, pretérito perfeito, pretérito imperfeito, pretérito mais-que-perfeito, futuro do presente, futuro do pretérito, subjuntivo presente and imperativo.