The first time I came to Portugal as an adult and said I wanted to learn European Portuguese, someone handed me a textbook with a CD. It was dry, grammar-first, and boring. Plus, my laptop didn’t even have a CD player at that point, so it was already feeling very dated. I’d learned French, Spanish and German before that, and every one of them had so many more resources than European Portuguese.
That’s changed. There are far more resources now, and some are genuinely excellent. But here’s the thing I’d tell anyone starting out: a course is the backbone. I’ve watched too many people learn in scattered pieces—a class here, an app there, a language exchange, a few months of dating someone Portuguese—and end up knowing the café and the supermarket and almost nothing in between. It’s a house with no foundations, and when they finally sit down to learn it properly, they more or less start again.
I’ve worked through most of the courses below myself over the years, and every one has something going for it and something against it—so I’ve been honest about both. Where I haven’t used one yet, I say so rather than pretend.
At a glance
My quick picks
⭐ Best overall: Liz Sharma’s Portuguese Pro ↓
📱 Best app, and best for listening: Practice Portuguese ↓
🎓 All the way to C1: Mia’s European Master Course ↓
🎬 Learn through a story: The Journey ↓
🗣️ Hands-free speaking practice: Michel Thomas ↓
My one rule
Pick one course that goes as far as you need, and stick with it. Everything else (apps, tutors, podcasts) fills the gaps around it.
Where Do You Want to Start?
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The full reviews
What I like, what I don’t, and what to pair each course with.
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Just show me the comparison
Every course side by side: levels, speaking feedback, app, price.
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Just show me the free options
The government platform, Camões and the University of Coimbra.
Compare
European Portuguese Courses Compared
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Two Easy Places to Start
🆓 Free: Liz Sharma’s pronunciation training
Liz’s Portuguese Pro is my top pick overall, and her free training is the easiest first step on this page because it costs nothing. It’s also where she explains how the full course works and when enrollment next opens.
👂 Practice Portuguese: best for listening, and the best app
Whatever course I was taking, this is the one extra I’d pay for. It’s the one course here with a proper interactive app. Portugalist readers get 15% off, which brings it to €12.75 a month, and you can cancel anytime.
All the Courses Side by Side
| Course | Best for | Levels | Feedback on your speaking | App | Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portuguese Pro Video course, live workshops | The most well-rounded · passing the A2 | A1–A2 | ✔ Live workshops and recording feedback | — | Premium · apply to join | Free training |
| Practice Portuguese App and web, listening-led | Listening · everyday life in Portugal | A1–B2, some C1 | — | ✔ Full app: interactive vocab and grammar practice, saved words | €15/month · 15% off for readers (€12.75) | Get 15% off |
| European Master Course Self-study video with Mia | One teacher all the way to C1 | A1–C1 | — | — | $399 (A1–A2) · $999 (A1–C1) · 15% off with code 15PORTUGALIST | Get 15% off |
| The Journey Streaming video story | Learning through a story | Roughly A1–B2 | — | — | €29/month or €349/year | See The Journey |
| Michel Thomas Audio course: speaking drills | Hands-free speaking practice | Foundation, Intermediate | — (you learn from the other students’ mistakes) | Audio player only | ~$152 one-off | See the course |
| Pimsleur Audio course | A quick hands-free start | Level 1 (around A1) | — | Audio player only | $20.95/month | Try Pimsleur |
| Portuguese Lab Academy Online academy | Not tested by me yet | A1–B2 | — | — | $35/month or $350/year | Visit the site |
My top pick: best overall
Portuguese Pro (Talk the Streets)
Liz Sharma is behind the Talk the Streets YouTube channel, and Portuguese Pro is her full course. What makes it different is that it’s built around feedback, accountability and encouragement—you’re not just watching videos and ticking boxes. There are live pronunciation workshops, you submit recordings of your own speech, and you finish by recording a ten-minute conversation with a native speaker.
I’ve been in courses where half the room is only there because they have to be, and the whole class slows to their pace. Here you’re signing up alongside people who are genuinely committed—you actually apply to join—and being around motivated people is a huge part of why it works.
It’s also the most well-rounded course on this page. As well as speaking and pronunciation feedback, you get feedback on your writing and a mock exam, and that’s exactly what most people learning Portuguese want: to pass the A2. That’s why it’s the one I’d put first.
Portuguese Pro at a glance
📶 Levels: A1–A2
🎥 Type: Video course with weekly live workshops and community
🗣️ Feedback: Speaking, pronunciation and writing, plus a mock exam
📜 Certification: No. It prepares you for the CIPLE A2, but you still book and sit the exam yourself
💶 Cost: Premium
📝 Enrollment: Opens in windows, and you apply
😊 What I like
It starts with pronunciation, which is the right call for European Portuguese, and Liz learned the language as a foreigner herself, so she knows exactly where English speakers get stuck. The live correction, the writing feedback, the mock exam and the recorded-conversation milestone make it the closest thing to real CIPLE prep I’ve seen.
😢 What I don’t like
It only goes to A2, and when you find a good course, you want it to go further.
🤝
Pair it with
Practice Portuguese for listening, and iTalki or some other way of getting more conversational speaking practice.
Best for listening and everyday Portuguese
Practice Portuguese
Whatever course I was taking, this is the one thing I’d keep in my arsenal for learning European Portuguese. I’d pay for it on top of Portuguese Pro. I first came across Practice Portuguese back in 2012, when it was more of a podcast; today it’s a full platform—website and app—built entirely for European Portuguese, and I still use it.
It’s a big stew of things—audio, reading, some video, podcasting, all mixed together—run by Rui, a native speaker, and Joel, a Canadian who learned the language from scratch. That pairing is genuinely useful: Joel makes the mistakes the rest of us make, and Rui answers as a local. It’s also the one course here with a proper app.
That’s a big selling point. A lot of people would rather learn with an app than sit through video lessons, and interactivity matters: once you’re interacting, you’re actually learning. Practice Portuguese has a Duolingo- or Memrise-style interface for practicing vocabulary and grammar, you can save words as you go, and they come with you on your phone to drill while you walk the dog or sit on the treadmill. The audio is easy to use from the app too.
It’s audio-based, like Michel Thomas, but a different kind of audio. Michel Thomas gets you speaking. Practice Portuguese is about listening: getting your ear used to how Portuguese people actually talk.
Practice Portuguese at a glance
📶 Levels: A1, A2, B1, B2, plus some C1
🎧 Type: Website and app, listening-led
📱 App: Yes, with Duolingo-style vocabulary and grammar practice, and your saved words on the go
💶 Cost: €15/month, cancel anytime
🏷️ Reader discount: 15% off through this link, which brings it to €12.75 a month
😊 What I like
The audio. The “Shorties”—hundreds of short dialogues with native speakers, every word clickable and playable slowly—are the best European Portuguese listening content I’ve found anywhere. The practical units (Setting Up Utilities, Talking with Neighbours) are things you actually need here and no tourist-phrase course teaches. And at €12.75 a month for Portugalist readers, it’s the cheapest serious option on this page.
😢 What I don’t like
It’s hard to navigate at first. It’s also thin on speaking and writing practice, and the B2 section is lighter than A1–B1.
🤝
Pair it with
A tutor on iTalki or Preply for the speaking it doesn’t give you—even once a month helps—and some separate writing practice if you’re heading for the CIPLE exam. As this is one of the few interactive apps and websites for European Portuguese, I would actually pair it with most of the other courses on this page if I was taking another course as well.
Goes all the way to C1
European Master Course (Learn Portuguese with Mia)
The thing I love about Mia’s course is that it goes all the way to C1. Most courses tap out at A2 or scrape into B1 or B2, but with this you can stay with one teacher from complete beginner right up to the fluency threshold. That solves the single most common problem people hit: starting on a course that leaves them stranded.
Mia is from Porto, has a Master’s in teaching Portuguese as a second language, and it shows. It feels like a proper Portuguese class—strong on grammar, traditional in approach—with her charm on top.
The European Master Course at a glance
📶 Levels: A1–C1
🎥 Type: Self-study video with PDFs, exercises and quizzes
💶 Cost: A1–A2 bundle $399 (about €347); full A1–C1 All-In-One $999
🏷️ Reader discount: 15% off with code 15PORTUGALIST, roughly €295 and $849. One-off payment, lifetime access
Read my full Mia Esmeriz Academy review → · learn-portuguese.org →
😊 What I like
One teacher, beginner to C1, with excellent English for explaining why ser and estar aren’t interchangeable. She genuinely answers emails, it’s a one-off payment with lifetime access, and her YouTube channel is a huge free listening resource on top.
😢 What I don’t like
The lectures are dense, with little interactivity—a simple quiz at the end and not much else to keep you clicking. She puts timestamps under the videos so you can break them into chunks, but you have to do that manually.
🤝
Pair it with
Her YouTube channel for listening, a tutor for speaking, and Memrise or Anki for drilling vocabulary. Practice Portuguese could be a good option here too.
Best if you love a story
The Journey (Portuguese with Carla)
If you hate “language learning” but love a story, this is the one that sneaks Portuguese in while you follow a plot—Carla searching for a mysterious letter from her father. They’ve put an enormous amount of work into the videos, and the acting, the production and the story quality are all genuinely good.
The Journey at a glance
📶 Levels: Not stated outright, but roughly A1–B2
🎬 Type: Streaming video and quizzes
💶 Cost: €29/month or €349/year
😊 What I like
It’s a really fun way to learn. You get the immersion of the story plus lessons where Carla walks you through each point, their English is perfect, and the unlock-as-you-go structure keeps you moving.
😢 What I don’t like
That same locked structure is frustrating when you’re curious what happens next and want to jump ahead. The levels aren’t clearly stated, and it’s a subscription rather than a one-off.
🤝
Pair it with
A language exchange partner, or a tutor offering conversational Portuguese on iTalki or Preply.
Best hands-free speaking course
Michel Thomas Total Portuguese
I did Michel Thomas in French, Spanish and German, and it’s genuinely good. It’s audio, and it gets you building sentences and speaking fast, with no rote memorization. It does get you interacting, but you’re saying the words out loud rather than typing them into an app, so it works best somewhere you’re comfortable talking to yourself. The car is ideal. In fact, if I was ever to start another language, I would be looking for the CDs for this on eBay or at my local library.
I feel like the speaking-only focus isn’t enough, and at around $152, it adds up when you have to add another course on top, but it’s definitely the go-to resource I would use whenever I’m learning another language. If you’ve used Pimsleur, it’s like that, but on steroids.
A lot of people tell me they want to learn “conversational Portuguese.” They don’t want to learn grammar. You can’t learn a language without learning the grammar, but this course has no grammar memorization: you pick the grammar up by using it, and the whole focus is on being able to speak. Combine this with Practice Portuguese for the Shorties, and I think you would have the closest thing to what you’re looking for.
Total Portuguese at a glance
📶 Levels: Foundation and Intermediate
🎧 Type: Audio course: you practice speaking out loud
📱 App: Yes, but it just plays the audio, so it’s no different from logging in on the website
💶 Cost: ~$152 one-off (check your library first)
😊 What I like
It builds real speaking confidence quickly, hands-free, and it’s a great way to lay down sentence structure at the very start. Perfect for time in the car.
😢 What I don’t like
For the one-off cost, you’re really only getting speaking—very little natural, native-speed listening, and no reading or writing—which makes it hard to justify. I’d try to borrow it from the library first. It’s also recorded with a “good” and a “bad” student in a classroom, and if you’re ahead of the bad student, their mistakes can get a bit annoying.
🤝
Pair it with
Practice Portuguese, which is particularly strong on listening and grammar and is interactive. The combination of an interactive app or website and something audio-based means that you can practice Portuguese in different ways at different times. I’d add iTalki too: Michel Thomas gets you speaking, but you’re not speaking to another person. Listening to the “bad” student helps you catch some of your own mistakes, but you still need someone giving you feedback.
Quick audio start
Pimsleur’s European Portuguese
I tried Pimsleur when I first moved here and was working through every course I could find. It was something I could do at the gym—I’d get on the treadmill and run through a lesson. It helped, and it’s perfectly fine, but it’s definitely more tourist-focused Portuguese. It also didn’t teach me to construct sentences the way Michel Thomas did. I felt like I was memorizing rather than learning the sentence construction itself.
And if you’re thinking about taking the A2, there’s so much more you need to learn, particularly writing, speaking, and reading. It costs about the same as Practice Portuguese, but doesn’t come anywhere close, so it’s hard to justify the cost unless you’re willing to binge it for a month or two and then switch to something else. Use it if you can get it cheaply, or subscribe for a month or two, but I wouldn’t make it your focus.
Pimsleur at a glance
📶 Levels: Level 1 (around A1)
🎧 Type: Audio course
📱 App: Yes, but it just plays the audio, so it’s no different from logging in on the website
💶 Cost: $20.95/month
😊 What I like
Hands-free, easy to fit into a drive or a commute, and good for building a bit of early confidence. Like Michel Thomas, you answer out loud, so it suits the car better than a busy gym. If you can get it free from the library, even better.
😢 What I don’t like
It’s tourist Portuguese—around A1, memorization-heavy, and it doesn’t get you building sentences the way Michel Thomas does. It doesn’t even reach A2, so you’ll need a proper next step almost immediately.
🤝
Pair it with
iTalki or Preply for speaking practice, and Practice Portuguese for listening and grammar.
Portuguese Lab Academy
Portuguese Lab Academy is a structured online program that mixes lessons with dialogues, quizzes, vocabulary flashcards and grammar exercises, aimed at people who want a clear, systematic path rather than an app that feels like a game.
Portuguese Lab Academy at a glance
📶 Levels: A1, A2, B1, B2
💻 Type: Web app / online academy
📱 App: No
💶 Cost: $35/month or $350/year
Free and official
The Free and Official Options
Short answer
The free government platform is surprisingly complete for something free. University courses are one of the few ways to reach C1.
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Plataforma de Português Online (PPT Online)
The best-known free option: a government-backed platform covering A1 to B2. For something free, it’s surprisingly complete—but it can be slow, and sometimes it simply won’t work when you want it to. I’d treat it as a support resource alongside a paid course or a tutor rather than your only method.
📶 A1–B2 · 💶 Free
🏛️
Camões Institute e-learning
More formal and academic distance courses—some self-study, some with a tutor—including Portuguese for specific purposes (business, work-related, writing-focused). Less “modern app,” more “serious study.” I haven’t taken this one myself, so treat it as a pointer rather than a recommendation for now.
📶 A1–C1 · 💶 €180–320 per level (unverified) · 📜 No certification: you still book the exam separately
🎓
University of Coimbra distance learning
University courses are one of the few ways to reach higher-level Portuguese (especially C1), which is hard to find through mainstream apps. Coimbra’s distance options typically run during the academic year and suit people who want something more structured and classroom-like.
📶 A1, B1, B2, C1
Learning for citizenship
A Word on the Exam
Short answer
If you’re learning for citizenship, the course matters less than the calendar. Book a date well in advance and study toward it.
🗓️
Booking the exam
Where and when to sit the CIPLE, and how to get a place.
What I’d do
Where to Go From Here
The bottom line
There’s no perfect course—every one leaves a gap you fill somewhere else. But if you take one thing from this page, let it be the start: pick a backbone that goes as far as you need, and don’t learn it in scattered pieces.
Many of these courses offer a free trial, or if they’re subscription-based, you can sign up for a month or two without committing to a whole year. That’s what I do: I play around and see which one works best for me, and if I like it, I knuckle down and commit to it.
Pick a backbone
One course that goes as far as you need. Don’t learn it in scattered pieces.
Try before you commit
Many offer a free trial, or you can sign up for a month or two instead of a whole year.
Knuckle down
Once you’ve found the one that works for you, commit to it and book your exam date.
Keep Going
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Not sure how to go about it?
Start with the basics of learning the language.
Whatever you pick, the exam is a milestone, not a verdict on you. Choose a course you’ll actually stick with, book the date, and give yourself time to grow into the language rather than sprinting at it in year five. That’s when Portuguese stops being a hurdle and starts being one of the best parts of living here.
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