The Cactus Course Outlines provide a learning framework for the Cactus Foreign Language Evening Courses. They are designed to provide you with a good idea of what you might cover over a 10-week period, and include typical themes, grammar and vocabulary fields. They are flexible rather than prescriptive, in that our teachers may decide to adapt their learning plans to the specific level, aims and interests of their classes. Use the tabs below to view the relevant Portuguese course outline for your level.
Portuguese Beginner 1
Topics & Vocabulary:
- Introductions and greetings: olá, como estás~como está, Chamo-me Manuela~Me chamo Manuela, Bom dia, Tudo bem?
- Names, nationalities
- Professions, colleagues, relatives…
- Please & thank you
- Likes & dislikes: Gosto de feijoada mas gosto muito mais de caipirinha.
- Eating & drinking: Vamos comer uma feijoada no domingo?
- Numbers
- Alphabet
- Directions
- Hotels and Travel
- Making phone calls (ex: to book a hotel)
- Time – hours, days, months, time phrases (today, tomorrow… )
- Daily life – routines, free time
- Making arrangements
- Home – rooms, house accessories
- Places – shops, important buildings and celebrations: O Carnaval do Rio de Janeiro e muito bonito e famoso.
- The weather
Grammar:
- Pronouns – subject, possessive + the form a gente
- To be (ser versus estar)
- Masculine and feminine with nouns
- Articles + junction with prepositions de (da, do…) and em (no, na…)
- Present – simple (1st, 2nd and 3rd conjugations) /continuous
- Definite Future : ir + infinitive (“going to”)
- Singular vs. Plural
- Demonstrative pronouns
- Question words – who, what, how, how much
- Verb gostar (de) – affirmative, negative and interrogative
- Verbos morar, ficar, ter…
Cultural Content:
- Basic notions of culture and celebrations
- Interesting sites
Skills Work:
- Lots of speaking/active practice
- Role-plays
- Lots of listening
- Pronunciation – key sounds
Portuguese Beginner 2
Topics & Vocabulary:
- Likes & dislikes: Gosto de feijoada mas gosto muito mais de caipirinha.
- Talking about self & others: O Roberto viajou para os Estados Unidos e comprou muitos presentes para toda a familia.
- Restaurants, bars, food & drink, eating & drinking
- Asking for things and information
- Giving instructions/ directions
- Showing appreciation, giving opinions & advice
- Invitations/arrangements : Vamos comer uma feijoada no domingo?
- Holidays, festivals, work and free time: leisure activities and cultural habits
- Everyday life
- Booking hotel, restaurants, etc.
- Making phones calls & meetings
- Expressing wishes & preferences
- Clothing and accessories
- Problems with service
- Numbers to 1 billion
- Family
- Describing people
- Health & illness
Grammar:
- Review & practice previous level grammar (eg. through mixed tense work – present/past/future “going to”)
- Who/which/what/how/when/where/how much/many
- Main link words: but, and, then…
- Prepositions (de, em + articles)
- Articles
- Main verbs, ir, fazer, preferir, ficar, ver, pôr, vestir, trazer ….
- Possessives
- Object pronouns: o, a, lo, la, lhe, lhes
- Comparisons, comparatives & superlatives
- Demonstratives (na, da, naquela…)
- Imperatives
- Past (perfeito) explore in depth
- Past – perfeito (irregular verbs from beginner: ser, estar, poder, ir, querer, fazer, ter, dar…)
- Verb ter de (have to)
Cultural Content:
- Traditional festivals, food and drinks
- Eating & drinking, eating out – the feijoada
- Hotels
- Capital cities
Skills Work:
- Lots of speaking/active practice
- Role-plays
- Lots of listening
- Pronunciation – key sounds
Portuguese Beginner 3
Topics & Vocabulary:
- Review & practice previous level vocab
- Home – rooms, house accessories: Minha casa tem duas salas, dois quartos de casal, dois banheiros e, claro, uma churrasqueira no jardim!
- Places – shops, important buildings and celebrations: O Carnaval do Rio de Janeiro e muito bonito e famoso.
- Daily life – routines, free time, every day activities
- Talking about self & others
- Talk about the past and experiences
- Jobs, working, professional qualities
- The weather
- Planning a party
- Giving instructions
- Invitation, offer, suggestion, requests, informal advice
Grammar:
- Review & practice previous level grammar
- Simple Past (passado perfeito):more verbs
- Past (Preterito perfeito): explore through exercises and dialogue creation
- More irregular verbs (suggestion: trazer, saber, dizer…)
- Past (perfeito)
- Passive particle se
- Indefinite pronouns (alguém, ninguém, algo, todo…)
- Augmentative & diminutive
Cultural Content:
- Society
- Daily life routine
Skills Work:
- Lots of speaking/active practice
- Lots of listening
- Pronunciation – key sounds
Portuguese Elementary 1
Topics & Vocabulary:
- Review & practice previous level vocab
- Leisure activities
- Entertainment: TV, cinema, music
- Future predictions
- Superstitions
- Weather, nature
Grammar:
- Review & practice previous level grammar (eg. through mixed tense/aspect work – present/past/future – simple/continuous)
- Past Perfect (Preterito Imperfeito)
- Irregular verbs (review from previous levels + new ones)
- Past participle
- Verb haver (impersonal form)
- Personal & impersonal infinitive
- Indefinite pronouns
Cultural Content:
- Weather in different regions
Skills Work:
- Lots of speaking/active practice
- Role-plays
- Lots of listening
- Lots of writing
- Pronunciation – key sounds
Portuguese Elementary 2
Topics & Vocabulary:
- Restaurants, eating out
- Food & drink
- Identifying different types of written text
- Learning and understanding press articles
- Expressing basic information about health problems
- Making appointments to be checked by a doctor
- Sport
- National traditions/ customs & culture, superstitions
- Literature (inc. reading a short tale)
- Common similes (Feio como o diabo…)
Grammar:
- Review & practice previous level grammar (eg. through mixed tense/ aspect work – present/past/future simple/ continuous/ compound)
- Compound Past (perfeito composto do indicative)
- Passive (with ser and with se)
- Double negative (review)
- Double past participles
- Main relative pronouns, Reduced clauses – from infinitive, gerund and participle
- Reported speech – and main verbs that introduce it
Cultural content:
- Portuguese society and social classes
Skills Work:
- Lots of speaking/active practice
- Role-plays
- Lots of listening
- Lots of writing
- Pronunciation – key sounds
Portuguese Elementary 3
Topics & Vocabulary:
- Buying and shopping
- Commercial goods and services
- Professions
- Countries where Portuguese European is spoken (e.g. Rio de Janeiro, Cabo Verde, comparisons)
- The use of Brazilian voce contrasted with formal and informal use in Portugal
- Structural differences between Portuguese Brasilian and Portuguese European
- Cultural differences and similarities
Grammar:
- Complex sentence structures
- Personal Infinitive (Ele nos convidou para nós conhecermos sua casa.)
- Passive voice and active voice
- Gerund versus Past participle: Ele estava a trabalhar vs Ele estava trabalhando.
- Ir + gerund
- Complex relative pronouns
- Collective nouns: a manada, o exercito…
Cultural Content:
- Basic notions of Portuguese language literature
- Christmas season and consumerism
- Open air traditional markets and tropical fruits
- Brazilian natural resources and richness: pau-brasil, cafe and açucar
- Traffic Laws
Skills Work:
- Lots of speaking/active practice
- Role-plays
- Lots of listening
- Lots of writing
- Pronunciation – key sounds
Portuguese Advanced
Topics & Vocabulary:
- Daily life
- Colloquial language and fixed expressions
- Formal speech
- How to express your opinion
- Pronunciation: words in – x (peixe, exemplo, excelente, táxi…)
- Erudite adjectives
- Racial prejudice
- How children were educated in the past and how they are educated nowadays)
- Synonyms and antonyms
Grammar:
- Verbs ser, estar and ficar
- Prefixes and suffixes
- Compound words and their plurals
- Accent, stress and intonation
- Verbs + prepositions
- Imperfect of subjunctive
- Linking words + subjunctive
- Reflexive verbs
- Masculine x feminine words
- Different kinds of superlatives
- Future of subjunctive + linking words
- Subjunctive + clauses
- Contraction of prepositions
- Todo vs tudo
- Verbs ended in -ter and -ver
- Collective nouns
- Verb acabar
- Expressions with the word conta
- Indefinite pronouns (muitos, todos, nada, cada um, certo, algum, alguém, ninguém…)
- Verbs: trazer, levar; ir, vir
- Relative pronouns (que, quem, onde, o qual…)
- Verbs ended in -vir, -pôr
Cultural Content:
- The natural world
- Traditional parties
- Capital cities
- Flora and fauna
Skills Work:
- Lots of speaking/active practice
- Role-plays
- Lots of listening
- Pronunciation – key sounds
Portuguese Proficiency
Topics & Vocabulary:
- Literal vs Figurative meaning
- Superstitions
- Human Evolution
- Expressions with colours
- Employment: nowadays and in the past
- Paintings and arts
- Proverbs
- How to avoid stress
Grammar:
- Fixed expressions
- Impersonal verb: fazer
- Time expressions: há – daqui a
- Adverbs
- Indirect Speech
- Grave accent: à
- Verbs ended in -dizer, -pedir, -ear, -uir, -iar
- Tu vs você
- Para mim vs para eu…
- Para vs por
- Meio vs metade
- Tornar vs tornar-se
- Different meaning of the words: já and mesmo
Cultural Content:
- Tourism
- A journey through historic cities
- How the state of Santa Catarina was formed
- New Year’s celebrations
Skills Work:
- Lots of speaking/active practice
- Role-plays
- Lots of listening