Learn Portuguese for Free: German Speakers at PBC Languages
Swap German for Portuguese with a native, 30 minutes each way, at PBC Languages. No fee for the exchange, just showing up and talking.
Create your free accountNo card needed. Exchanges between members are always free.
German gives you a head start on Portuguese vocabulary you don't expect: both languages borrowed the same Latin and Greek roots for anything formal or technical. Atual matches aktuell, eventual matches eventuell, concorrência matches Konkurrenz, sensível matches sensibel. If you already use the German version of these words correctly, you can often guess the Portuguese one on the first try.
What trips up German speakers is the sound system. Nasal vowels like não, mão and põe don't exist in German at all, and the instinct is to pronounce them as oral vowels plus an n, which native speakers will hear immediately as foreign. The lh in mulher and the nh in amanhã are new mouth positions too. European Portuguese also swallows unstressed vowels - obrigado comes out closer to 'brigad' in fast speech - while German trains you to pronounce every syllable clearly, so listening comprehension lags behind reading for a while.
The other trap is false friends that look too safe to check. Aula in Portuguese just means a class or lesson, not the assembly hall a German Aula refers to. Firma usually means a signature, not a Firma in the business sense. Ginásio is a gym for working out, not a Gymnasium school. None of these will stop a conversation, but they're the kind of mistake that sticks around for years if nobody corrects it in real time, which is exactly what an exchange partner does.
Words you will actually hear
| Here | Elsewhere | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| aula | Aula | False friend. Portuguese aula means a class or lesson; German Aula is a school assembly hall. |
| firma | Firma | False friend. Portuguese firma commonly means a signature; German Firma means a company. |
| ginásio | Gymnasium | False friend. Portuguese ginásio is a gym for working out; German Gymnasium is an academic secondary school. |
| atual | aktuell | True match. Both mean current or present-day, spelled almost the same way you'd expect. |
| eventual | eventuell | True match. Both mean possible or occasional, not 'eventual' in the English sense. |
| chefe | Chef | True match. Both mean boss, not a cook - useful shortcut, no correction needed. |
| concorrência | Konkurrenz | True match. Both mean competition in the business sense. |
| sensível | sensibel | True match. Both mean sensitive or perceptive, same shade of meaning. |
| novela | Novelle | False friend. Portuguese novela means a TV soap opera; German Novelle is a short literary work. |
| bilhete | Billett | Old cognate. Billett is dated in standard German but still used in Swiss and Austrian German for ticket, same as bilhete. |
Classes coming up
Times in your own time zone. This list changes every day.
Exchanges looking for a partner
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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Join by video, nothing to install
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 a German speaker to hold a real conversation in Portuguese?
There's no fixed number, it depends on how often you show up. German speakers who do a couple of exchanges a week, plus some structured input from a teacher, usually manage basic conversations within a few months, partly because so much formal vocabulary already overlaps with German. What matters is hours spent actually talking, not a calendar date.
Is the 1:1 exchange really free, or is there a catch?
It's really free. Thirty minutes you help someone with their German, thirty minutes they help you with Portuguese - nobody pays for that time. The small-group classes with native teachers are a separate paid part of PBC Languages, but the exchange itself never has a price attached.
What level of Portuguese do I need before joining an exchange?
You don't need to be fluent, but arriving at zero makes half an hour hard to fill. A1/A2 - enough to introduce yourself, ask simple questions, and follow slow speech - is a realistic starting point. If you're at zero, a few weeks in a small group class first will make the exchanges much more useful.
How exactly is the time split during an exchange?
Thirty minutes in Portuguese, thirty minutes in German, back to back in the same call. You agree on the switch point before you start, and most pairs just set a timer. It's two clear halves, not a language mixed mid-sentence.
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