Learn Georgian from Brazilian Portuguese at PBC Languages
Learn Georgian from Brazilian Portuguese with native teachers in small groups, plus free 1:1 exchanges: 30 minutes in Georgian, 30 in Portuguese.
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Georgian uses its own alphabet, Mkhedruli, so from day one there are no shortcuts through Latin spelling. The vowels are actually the easy part: just five of them (a, e, i, o, u), no nasal sounds like the ones Brazilian Portuguese speakers are used to in words like 'pão' or 'mãe', and no diphthong-heavy stress patterns to memorize. What trips people up are the ejective consonants (p', t', k', ts', ch') and consonant clusters that don't exist in Portuguese at all, like the string in 'gvprtskvni' (I peel you), often cited as one of the hardest words in the language to pronounce.
The grammar is where Portuguese habits actively work against you. Georgian has no prepositions like 'de', 'em' or 'com'; instead it glues case endings onto the noun itself, with seven cases marking the role a word plays in the sentence. Verbs are polypersonal too: a single verb form can carry markers for both the subject and the object, something Portuguese conjugation never does, so the instinct to always add a separate subject pronoun has to go. Word order becomes flexible once the cases are doing the work, which feels strange coming from Portuguese's fairly fixed SVO order.
Where you gain speed fast is loanword vocabulary: Georgian borrowed plenty of modern terms from the same Greek and Latin roots Portuguese uses, so words like 'universiteti', 'telefoni' or 'muzeumi' are guessable on sight. Family vocabulary, though, is a trap: once you've learned the alphabet, spelling is fully phonetic, so at least you're never fighting silent letters on top of everything else.
Words you will actually hear
| Here | Elsewhere | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| მამა (mama) | mamãe | False friend: in Georgian 'mama' means father, not mother. |
| პაპა (papa) | papai | False friend: 'papa' is grandfather, not father, the opposite generation from what Portuguese suggests. |
| ბანანი (banani) | banana | Same word, same meaning, easy first win. |
| სუპი (supi) | sopa | Borrowed sound-alike, both mean soup. |
| მუზეუმი (muzeumi) | museu | Shared Greek root, recognizable at a glance. |
| უნივერსიტეტი (universiteti) | universidade | Long but guessable, same Latin root. |
| ტელეფონი (telefoni) | telefone | Near-identical, safe to guess in conversation. |
| პროფესორი (profesori) | professor | Same root, minor spelling shift. |
| ბიბლიოთეკა (biblioteka) | biblioteca | Shared root, easy to read once you know the alphabet. |
| სტუდენტი (studenti) | estudante | Recognizable, but note the consonant cluster 'st-' at the start with no vowel before it, unlike Portuguese. |
How it works here
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Sign up and say your level
Two minutes. If you do not know your level, we place you in the first class.
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Pick a class or an exchange
Classes are led by a native teacher. An exchange is with another member: half the time in their language, half in yours.
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From your phone or your computer. If you cannot make it, cancel and get your place back.
Questions about this
How long does it take to get comfortable in Georgian starting from Portuguese?
There's no fixed number we can promise. The alphabet itself is learnable in a couple of weeks of steady practice since spelling is phonetic. The case system and polypersonal verbs take longer than most things a Portuguese speaker has tackled before, simply because Portuguese has neither, so plan for a longer runway on grammar than on reading.
Is the 1:1 exchange really free?
Yes. You give thirty minutes helping someone practice Portuguese and get thirty minutes of Georgian practice with a native in return. No payment involved, just the reciprocity of the exchange itself.
What level do I need to join?
For the small group classes with native teachers, no prior level is required, they're structured so beginners and more advanced learners both get taught. For the 1:1 exchanges, having some basic vocabulary helps because the conversation isn't scripted by a teacher, it's guided by both people talking.
How exactly is the hour split in the exchange?
Thirty minutes in Georgian, thirty minutes in Portuguese, back to back in the same session. You and your exchange partner decide together which half goes first.
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