WordVale
Portuguese and English share enough Latin vocabulary to make a Brazilian learner fast at reading and slow at trusting their instincts. The shared words are exactly where the traps are, and the sound system does the rest.
False friends, which cost the most
These are the errors that survive into advanced English, because nothing feels wrong when you make them.
| You mean | You say | It actually means |
|---|---|---|
| Actually (na verdade) | Actually | correct — but atualmente is "currently" |
| Pretend (fingir) | Pretend | correct — but pretender is "to intend" |
| Push (empurrar) | Puxar | puxar is pull — the opposite |
| Attend (assistir) | Assist | assist is "to help" |
| Realise (perceber) | Perceive | perceive is closer to "sense" |
| Eventually (por fim) | Eventually | eventualmente means "occasionally" |
The fix is not a list — it's noticing. When a word looks identical in both languages, that's the moment to check rather than the moment to relax.
The vowel at the end
Brazilian Portuguese doesn't end syllables with most consonants, so one appears: hot dog becomes "hot dogui", Facebook becomes "Facebookee", help becomes "helpi".
English final consonants are often barely released at all — you stop the airflow rather than complete the sound. Practise with the following word attached: "help me" flows as one unit and gives the /p/ somewhere to go.
The -ed ending has three sounds, not one
It's never "ed" as a full syllable unless the verb already ends in /t/ or /d/.
- /t/ after voiceless sounds: worked → "workt", stopped → "stopt"
- /d/ after voiced sounds: played → "playd", lived → "livd"
- /ɪd/ only after t or d: wanted, needed
Getting this wrong is the single most audible marker of a Brazilian accent in otherwise fluent English, and it's mechanical enough to fix in a week.
The missing subject, and the extra one
Portuguese drops subjects because the verb ending carries the person: Está chovendo. English cannot: "Is raining" needs a dummy subject — "It is raining." Likewise Tem três pessoas becomes "There are three people."
The opposite error also happens. Portuguese a gente is grammatically singular but means "we", which produces "the people is" or "we is" under pressure.
TH, which Portuguese does not have
Both English th sounds are absent from Portuguese, so they become /t/, /d/, /f/ or /s/: think → "tink" or "fink", this → "dis". The tongue tip genuinely goes between the teeth. It feels ridiculous and looks wrong; it is neither.
What to do
Read English written for adults, and save the phrases where your instinct would have chosen a cognate. Those moments are where your English actually improves — the unfamiliar words are easy by comparison. The routine is here.