This deck, the Frequency Dictionary of Portuguese, contains most of the Portuguese words that you will ever need, sorted by frequency. With that at hand, you can start out practicing the most common words, and learn as few or as many as you find useful.
Every aspect has been designed with ease of memorization in mind. This includes:
• Avoiding cluttering the flashcards with long explanations and example sentences. Where a word has a number of different meanings, only the most important are stated. Figurative meanings have in general been left out.
• Making the most out of the linguistic relationship between English and Portuguese words. At least 75% of Portuguese words have shared origin, etymology, with English words. While this connection might not always be obvious, it can be a great help in memorization.
• Where considered a help to memorization: Having synonyms on the same flashcard. The reason being, that often it is easier to learn words in groups. It also means that you can chose which of the synonyms you wish to make part of your active vocabulary. Since the synonyms mean more or less the same, you don’t have to actively be able to use all.
Before you start, here are some examples to clarify how the English translations on the flash cards are construed.
Example 1:
• finalizar = to finalise, finish
In this case the translation “finalise” has been chosen in favour of other options like “to complete”, since it not only means the same as the Portuguese “finalizar”, but it also clearly has the same (Latin) root. This makes it much easier to remember, in particular when practicing active vocabulary.
Example 2:
• o âmbito = ambition (etm.), scope, range
Similar to example 1, the Portuguese “âmbito” and the English “ambition” has the same Latin root. But in English the meaning has shifted to mean “desire”. That there is a common etymology, but a shift in meaning, is indicated by “(etm.)”, followed by the current Portuguese meaning, “scope, range”.
Example 3:
• afundar = 'go to the bottom', sink, capsize, keel over
In this example, “afundar” has no good etymological equivalent in English. Instead, it might be useful to understand that it is constructed by “a-“, meaning “to” and “fundo”, meaning the bottom of say a sea or a lake. Hence the “go to the bottom” in the English explanation.
Example 4:
• alfaiate = taylor
This example, “alfaiate”, belongs to the group of words that are most difficult to remember. There is no common root with any English words, and the word cannot be explained as construed by other Portuguese or Latin words. This means, that there is no shortcut to the learning the word, and that it can be really tough. Incidentally, this example is one of about a hundred words in the dictionary, that have come into Portuguese from Arab.
The most important of the abbreviations used in the dictionary are:
• aj = adjective
• av = adverb
• bp = Brazilian Portuguese
• ep = European Portuguese
• etm. = etymological (as mentioned above)
• o.m. = one meaning
• v = verb
I have striven to have the deck cover Brazilian as well as European Portuguese. Where they differ, both spellings are given. The same with meaning of words, where I am aware of any differences. I am, however, a student of European Portuguese, and I apologize in advance for any bias this has created.
The above explanations should be all you need to get started. Happy learning, Soren Terp, Valença, March 2022.
PS:
Any comments, questions or suggestions, feel free to me contact me on
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Should you wish to know more about how the deck was compiled, visit my FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/Sorens-Portuguese-Language-Resources-108018031819847.