LANGUAGE
From written signs to everyday conversation.
Mandarin Chinese / Taiwan
Bopomofo / Zhuyin
注音符號A set of phonetic symbols used to show Mandarin pronunciation. Syllables are assembled from an initial, a medial or final, and a tone.
The first version was created in 1913 and released in 1918. It remains a practical reading, dictionary, and keyboard tool in Taiwan.
- SYMBOLS
- 37
- TONES
- 5
- ALSO CALLED
- Zhuyin / Zhuyin Fuhao
Initials
21Medials
3Finals
13Tones
5PORTUGUESE / FOUNDATIONS
Português · Brasil
Start with the words you need.
Build your own sentences.
The words for everyday life.
Find a situation, read the phrase, or show the native text. Learn common replies as well as questions.
Pronunciation & how to use these phrases
Start with the writing charts, then listen to complete words. Device speech depends on installed voices and may use a different regional accent. Spelling and sound do not match one-to-one.
Obrigado is conventionally used by a male speaker, obrigada by a female speaker. These are alternatives, not a phrase to say together. Learning path: recognise words and phrases → build simple sentences → practise questions and replies → expand tense and connected speech → read and discuss longer texts. These foundation lessons are available now; later stages will grow with the collection.
24 phrases
Basics
Communication
Bathrooms
Food & ordering
Shops & payment
Taxi & transport
Airport
Help
Listen for
Reply
Hotels
PORTUGUESE / GRAMMAR REFERENCE
8 chaptersForms, rules & structure
Brazilian Portuguese foundations, with standard written forms. Everyday address and clitic placement vary by region.
Grammar terminology
- Noun
- A word used to name or classify an entity: person, place, object, substance, idea.
- Adjective
- A word that describes a property; its form and position depend on the language.
- Pronoun
- A form used to refer to a participant or entity without repeating a full noun phrase.
- Determiner
- A word such as an article, demonstrative or possessive that helps specify a noun phrase.
- Verb
- A word heading a predicate, often describing an action, event or state.
- Conjugation
- A pattern of verb forms expressing grammatical distinctions such as person, tense or mood.
- Declension
- A pattern of noun, pronoun or adjective forms, often marking case, number and gender.
- Case
- A distinction marking a noun phrase’s grammatical role or its relationship to a governing word.
- Gender
- A grammatical classification of nouns; it need not match sex or have a transparent meaning.
- Agreement
- A form changes to match features of another expression, such as person, number, gender or case.
- Tense
- A grammatical way of locating a situation relative to a time of reference.
- Aspect
- How a situation is viewed: for example ongoing, habitual, completed or prior to a reference point.
- Mood
- A grammatical distinction associated with assertion, possibility, commands, wishes or other clause functions.
- Finite form
- A verb form that can serve as a clause’s main inflected verb, contrasting with infinitives and participles. The precise criteria vary by language.
- Participle
- A verb-derived form used in constructions such as modifiers, compound tenses or passives; its roles vary by language.
- Infinitive
- A nonfinite verb form in languages that have one; it is not automatically equivalent to English “to + verb”.
- Subject / object
- Grammatical relations in a clause, not universal synonyms for “doer” and “receiver”.
- Clitic
- A short grammatical form that depends phonologically on a neighboring word.
- Transitive
- Describes a verb construction that takes a direct object.
- Register
- A variety of expression associated with context, relationship or level of formality.
Nouns, gender & number
- Nouns are masculine or feminine and articles agree: o/a, os/as; um/uma, uns/umas. Gender must be learned rather than inferred from the ending alone.
- Many plurals add -s. Endings such as -m, -l and -ão have special patterns; -ão plurals are partly lexical.
| Pattern | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| regular masculine | o livro | os livros |
| regular feminine | a casa | as casas |
| -m | o homem | os homens |
| -l | o papel | os papéis |
| -ão variants | o pão / a mão / a nação | os pães / as mãos / as nações |
Worked examples
As mãos estão frias.
The hands are cold.
How it works: Mãos is feminine plural, so both article and adjective agree.
Requests
Posso + infinitive asks if I may do something.
Posso pagar com cartão?Can I pay by card?
Read the model, complete the gap, then change one word and explain what changes.
Try it yourself
1 / 1 · 0 correctComplete the model using the rule.
Posso ___ com cartão?
All words · vocabulary quiz
1 / 20 · 0 correctChoose the English meaning.
água
águawater
águawater
comidafood
comidafood
leitemilk
leitemilk
pãobread
pãobread
cafécoffee
cafécoffee
chátea
chátea
arrozrice
arrozrice
banheirobathroom
banheirobathroom
aeroportoairport
aeroportoairport
estaçãostation
estaçãostation
passagemticket
passagemticket
saídaexit
saídaexit
esquerdaleft
esquerdaleft
direitaright
direitaright
hojetoday
hojetoday
amanhãtomorrow
amanhãtomorrow
umone
umone
doistwo
doistwo
trêsthree
trêsthree
ajudahelp
ajudahelp
Between the words
This section uses Brazilian vocabulary: banheiro, sacola, and common você-context verb forms. In Portugal, casa de banho is common for bathroom.
Olá.
Brazilian starting pointThis section uses Brazilian vocabulary: banheiro, sacola, and common você-context verb forms. In Portugal, casa de banho is common for bathroom.
Olá.
Obrigado is conventionally used by a male speaker, obrigada by a female speaker. These are alternatives, not a phrase to say together.
Read the situation
1 / 1 · 0 correctRecall the opening greeting from this collection.
Practice scores last for this visit.Portuguese audio is unavailable on this device. All exercises work without audio.