Learn Portuguese by reading what you love
Otto swaps a share of the words you read into Portuguese: on any website, in books and in podcasts. You still follow everything, and the Portuguese you understand grows a little every day, without setting aside time to study.
The same sentence at all seven levels
This is the sentence Otto uses to show its levels, taken straight from the app. At A few words only the most common words are Portuguese; at Confident the sentence takes Portuguese word order too; at Native it is all Portuguese.
A city council vai repair a old bridge este winter, e o mayor promised que pedestrians e cyclists podem still cross a footbridge.
A city council vai repair a old bridge este winter, e o mayor promised que pedestrians e cyclists podem ainda cross a footbridge.
A câmara municipal vai repair a velha bridge este inverno, e o mayor promised que pedestrians e cyclists podem ainda cross a footbridge.
A câmara municipal vai reparar a velha ponte este inverno, e o mayor prometeu que pedestrians e cyclists podem ainda atravessar a footbridge.
A câmara municipal vai reparar a ponte velha este inverno, e o presidente prometeu que os peões e cyclists ainda podem atravessar a footbridge.
A câmara municipal vai reparar a ponte velha este inverno, e o presidente prometeu que os peões e os ciclistas ainda podem atravessar a footbridge.
A câmara municipal vai reparar a ponte velha este inverno, e o presidente da câmara prometeu que peões e ciclistas vão poder continuar a atravessar a passarela.
The most common words come first
A few hundred words make up most of what anyone reads, so that is where Otto starts. In this sentence, the first Portuguese you would meet is:
How you learn Portuguese with Otto
- Pick your level. Start with a few everyday words, or most of the page.
- Read as you normally would. A book in the app, a podcast, or any website in Chrome, Safari or the app's own browser.
- Tap any word you don't know. See what it means and hear it. Save it with one tap.
- Practise and move up. Short games in Learn use the words you saved, and as you learn more, Otto shows you more Portuguese.
A Portuguese grammar course, A1 to C1
Otto teaches Portuguese grammar in 102 short topics, each with a clear explanation and exercises, practised with the words you have met yourself. A few of them:
Everything you read, in Portuguese at your level
Any website
News, blogs, Wikipedia, recipes: Otto weaves Portuguese into the page in Chrome, in Safari and in the app.
Books and podcasts
A library of classic books, and podcasts in which some of the words you hear are Portuguese, both at your level.
Your word bank
Every word you save goes to Learn, where quick games bring it back until it sticks.
Your tutor
Working with a tutor? They can set your reading and see the words you looked up.
Questions
Can you learn Portuguese just by reading?
Reading things you can mostly understand, with a few new words each time, is one of the best-supported ways to build vocabulary. Otto keeps your reading at that point, and pairs it with short practice games for the Portuguese words you save.
What level of Portuguese do I need to start?
None. At the first level Otto swaps only a handful of the most common words into Portuguese, and it adds more as you learn them, all the way to reading entirely in Portuguese.
Is Otto free?
Yes. Everything Otto does is free, with a daily limit. Otto Pro (£3.99 a month) lets you read five times more and work with a tutor; Otto Max (£9.99 a month) five times more again.
Where does Otto work?
On iPhone, iPad and Mac, and as an extension for Chrome and Safari, so it works on the websites you already read.