Blog | Practice Portuguese

Say these words out loud: queque, bife, lanche. Do they sound oddly familiar? Cake? Beef? Lunch? Portuguese has borrowed plenty of words from English. Many recent arrivals, like smartphone or online, kept their English spelling when they moved to Portugal. Others adapted to their new home with a Portuguese makeover: a new accent, a new […]

In Portugal, autumn is the time for ! Across the Alentejo, Trás-os-Montes, and the Beiras, it’s already well under way. The harvest usually runs through November and December, but this year the hot summer ripened the fruit ahead of schedule. That’s not bad news, however. Olivum, the growers’ association, expects about 10% more than last […]

If you’ve spent any time in Portugal, you’ve probably met at least one Silva already. It’s not a coincidence: roughly 3% of the country carries that surname, with Santos, Ferreira, Pereira, and Costa not far behind. Names from the land Many of the most common surnames come from the land people lived on: Costa – […]