Hard Portuguese Words: 31 Brazilian Words Learners Struggle With

Hard Portuguese words aren't always the long ones. A lot of the time they're short words like "colher", "cadê" or "embora" that look easy on paper but sound, spell, or work in ways you don't expect. In the video below, people from all over the world share the Portuguese word that gave them the most trouble.

Here you'll find 30 difficult Portuguese words from Brazil, each with its meaning, example sentences the way we actually say them in Brazil, and audio of my own pronunciation. That way they won't take you months to get right, which is exactly what happens to a lot of my students.

And watch out for weird Portuguese words that look familiar: "esquisito" doesn't mean exquisite, it means strange, and "raro" simply means rare or uncommon. Some of them are also Portuguese words that are hard to pronounce, especially if you try to read them like English. How many do you already know? Write down the tricky ones and start using them as soon as you can.

Video: Hard Portuguese Words

In this video, people from different countries share which Portuguese word was the hardest for them to learn. You'll notice the problem is almost never the meaning: what really trips people up is the pronunciation or a word that looks like one they already know but means something else.

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Now that you've watched so many people share their words, you probably don't know what all of them mean. That's why I put together this list with example sentences, so you can understand each word in a more intuitive way.

Hard Portuguese words mentioned in the video

A website I recommend for learning how Brazilian Portuguese words are pronounced is FORVO.

How to Pronounce These Words

These are Portuguese words that are hard to pronounce because they use sounds English doesn't have in the same way: the "nh" in "conhecer" (close to the "ny" in "canyon"), the nasal ending "ção" in "instituição", or the stress in "réptil", which in Brazil falls on the first syllable. Listen to the audio and repeat each one out loud.

SEGUINTE

ENGENHEIRO / ENGENHARIA

CONHECER

INSTITUIÇÃO

RÉPTIL

CARALHO

DIFÍCIL

RECONHECER

13 Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation tips

BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE SENTENCES USING THESE WORDS

Here are the hard Portuguese words from the video, each with example sentences just the way we say them in Brazil. Learning the meaning from context is the fastest way to make a strange Portuguese word actually stick.

Explanation

REVEZAR

Revezar means to take turns or to alternate with someone. It looks a lot like "revisar" (to review), but in Brazil we use it all the time: at the gym, at work, or when we take turns driving on a long road trip.

Quando você quer fazer um exercício na academia no mesmo equipamento que outra pessoa está usando você pede pra revezar. (você faz uma série e a outra pessoa faz outra série depois, alternando)

The difference between Revezar, Revisar, Revistar and Rever in Portuguese

ESTUPRAR

Estuprar means to rape, in the sense of sexual assault. It's a heavy word you'll see a lot in the news, and here's the catch: in Portuguese, "violar" is mostly used for violating laws, rules, or rights.

Um homem tentou estuprar uma mulher que estava caminhando sozinha na rua às 2 da manhã, por sorte passou um carro da polícia e a mulher gritou pedindo ajuda.

PREGUIÇOSO

Preguiçoso means lazy and comes from "preguiça" (laziness). The tricky part is the "ç", which sounds like a soft "s", as in "sun". In Brazil we also say someone "tá com preguiça" when they don't feel like doing anything.

Tenho um amigo na universidade que é muito preguiçoso, nunca quer fazer nada, sempre inventa uma desculpa pra não ajudar o pessoal do grupo.

GARÇOM / GARÇONETE

Garçom and garçonete mean waiter and waitress. The word comes from the French "garçon", which explains the "ç" and the nasal "om" ending that confuse so many beginners. Quick tip: that final "m" isn't pronounced like an English "m", it just makes the vowel nasal.

Quando você está em um restaurante você prefere ser atendido por um garçom ou garçonete?

ENCORAJAR

Encorajar means to encourage someone, to give them the courage to do something that scares them. Look at the form "encorajá-la": in Portuguese the object pronoun is attached with a hyphen and the verb drops its final "r".

Ela tá com medo de pular de Bungee Jumping, fala com ela e vê se consegue encorajá-la.

COLHER

Colher means spoon, but it's also the verb to harvest. The difference is all in the pronunciation: the spoon has an open "e", like in "bed" (colhér), and the verb has a closed "e", closer to the "e" in "they" (colhêr). This one trips up even advanced students.

Geralmente as pessoas tomam sopa com uma colher.

Portuguese words with the same spelling but different pronunciation

MERGULHAR

Mergulhar means to dive, and the noun is "mergulho". As you can see in the examples, "dar um mergulho" can be a quick dip in the pool or a real dive with gear to see the fish.

• Vou dar um mergulho na piscina. (saltar)
• Vou viajar pra uma ilha e fazer um mergulho de 30 minutos pra ver os peixes. (com cilindro de oxigênio)

CADÊ

Cadê is the informal way to ask "where is it?" in Brazil. It's a very Brazilian word that hardly shows up in textbooks, but you'll hear it every day at home, on the street, and in telenovelas.

• Cadê as chaves do carro, não estou encontrando! tá com você?

How to use Cadê and Onde está in Portuguese

TRAVESSEIRO / POLTRONA

Travesseiro is the pillow you rest your head on to sleep, and poltrona is your seat on a plane, a bus, or at the movies, as well as an armchair. Heads up: "almofada" in Portuguese is a sofa cushion, not a pillow.

• Uma cama para duas pessoas tem 2 travesseiros pra colocar a cabeça em cima na hora de dormir.
• Quando você viaja de avião você pede sua poltrona no corredor ou na janela?

NOJENTO

Nojento means disgusting or gross and comes from "nojo" (disgust). A lot of learners guess it means "annoyed" or "angry", but it has nothing to do with that: when someone is mad, in Brazil we say they're "bravo" or "com raiva".

• As pessoas acham as baratas (inseto) muito nojentas mas na verdade as moscas são piores. (asqueroso)

SAUDÁVEL

Saudável means healthy and comes from "saúde" (health). The hard part is the "au" and the accent on the "á", which shows where the stress goes: sau-DÁ-vel.

• Você se considera uma pessoa saudável? (muita saúde)

O LEITE

In Portuguese, milk is masculine: o leite. Since English nouns have no gender, the best trick is to always learn it together with its article. The example also includes "morno", which means lukewarm, so "leite morno" is just warm milk.

• Você quer tomar o leite quente, frio ou morno?

CHACOALHAR

Chacoalhar means to shake something, like a yogurt or a bottle before you open it. It's an informal, very Brazilian word; in more formal writing you can also use "agitar" or "sacudir".

• Antes de tomar iogurte é recomendado CHACOALHAR bem (agitar)

FAZER

Fazer means to do or to make, and it's tricky because it's an irregular verb: in the past tense it becomes "fiz" (I did) and "fez" (he or she did). Since we use it for almost everything in Brazil, it's worth mastering early on.

• Ontem eu fiz uma torta de chocolate pra o pessoal comer na sobremesa.
• O cara fez suco de laranja tão bom que todo mundo pediu mais.
• Você vai fazer o que amanhã à noite? a gente poderia dar uma saída pra conhecer a cidade.

CONOSCO

Conosco means "with us", just like "comigo" means with me and "contigo" means with you. In everyday conversation in Brazil, we also say "com a gente" a lot.

• Você quer viajar conosco ou prefere viajar sozinho?

ABACAXI

Abacaxi means pineapple, and in Brazil we use this word much more than "ananás". On top of that, "descascar um abacaxi" means to deal with a messy problem, one of the many fruit expressions we use every day.

• Abacaxi é uma fruta, já viu Bob Esponja? pois é, ele vive dentro de um abacaxi. =D

10 fruit expressions in Portuguese

Fruits in Portuguese

CHATEADO

Chateado means upset, annoyed, or hurt about something that happened. It comes from "chato" (boring, annoying), and in Brazil we use it a lot when someone gets offended by a comment or an attitude.

• Por que você tá tão sério comigo? ficou chateado por conta do comentário que eu fiz?

Brazilian Portuguese texting slang (WhatsApp)

CONSTRANGER

Constranger means to embarrass someone or put them in an awkward situation. It looks like "constrain", but it's all about embarrassment. The noun is "constrangimento", and we use it for those moments when you wish the ground would swallow you up.

• Se você fizer isso aqui na frente das pessoas você vai me constranger. (deixar com vergonha, momento incômodo)

TER

Ter means to have, but its irregular forms are confusing: "tive", "teve", and the future subjunctive "tiver". Also, in casual conversation in Brazil we use "tem" instead of "há" to say "there is" or "there are".

• Tenho que ter mais paciência com certas pessoas.
• Ontem eu tive uma reunião muito boa com o pessoal da empresa.
• Você já teve alguém muito apaixonado por você?
• Se você tiver uma oportunidade de viajar pra o Brasil não perca tempo, VIAJE!

How to use "TER" and "HAVER" in Portuguese

ESQUISITO

Esquisito means weird or strange, not "exquisite". It's one of the most famous false friends among weird Portuguese words: if the food is exquisite, in Brazil we say it's "deliciosa" or "gostosa".

• Esse cara se veste de forma muito esquisita. (estranho)
• Muito esquisito, Jorge sempre chega no mesmo horário e hoje está atrasado 40 minutos, será que aconteceu alguma coisa? (algo incomum)

TIRAR

Tirar in Portuguese means to take off or to remove, not to throw. When you want to throw something away, in Brazil we say "jogar no lixo", and mixing these two up leads to some pretty funny moments.

• Vou tirar essa camisa porque já tô suando com tanto calor.
• O guarda quase colocou uma multa no meu carro, por sorte eu vi de longe e tirei o carro que estava estacionado num local proibido.

15 expressions with the verb TIRAR in Portuguese

EMBORA

Embora has two uses: on its own it means "although" and takes the subjunctive, as in the examples; with the verb ir, "ir embora" means to leave. That's why it's one of the hard Portuguese words I get the most questions about.

• Embora muitas pessoas tenham o sonho de viajar pelo mundo são poucas as que realmente o fazem.
• Embora eu esteja muito cansado tenho que trabalhar amanhã pela manhã logo cedo.

How to use Porém, Embora and Ir Embora

The Longest Word in Portuguese

The longest word in Portuguese is "pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconiótico", with 46 letters. It describes a person with a lung disease caused by breathing in very fine volcanic ash, and even though nobody uses it in real life, it's a fun challenge to pronounce.

Once you've got these words down, the next level is idioms. Check out the hardest Portuguese expressions according to foreigners, because there the challenge isn't pronunciation anymore, it's understanding the context.

I hope this made these hard Brazilian Portuguese words super clear, since so many people take a long time to learn them. The key is always to put them into practice so you don't forget them.