If you want to learn European Portuguese for kids at home, begin with what a small child already loves: pictures, voices and a little game. This hub brings together eight free games in the Portuguese of Portugal and English: the alphabet from abelha to zebra, numbers from um to cem, and picture words for animals, fruits, vegetables, colours and body parts. Every word is read aloud in clear audio with a Portugal accent, so a three-year-old who cannot read yet can still tap, listen and play.
Why a separate pack for Portugal
Portuguese is one language, but a child in Lisbon and a child in São Paulo hear it very differently. In Portugal, unstressed vowels shrink or almost vanish, so pequeno sounds close to "p'keno" and telefone can sound like "tl'fon". A final s often sounds like "sh", as in dois and três. Brazilian Portuguese keeps its vowels open and clear, and many everyday words change too. If your family is Portuguese, your child should hear the Portugal accent and the Portugal words, which is why this pack has its own vocabulary and its own audio.
If your family speaks the Brazilian variety, use the Brazilian Portuguese games for kids instead. Both packs have the same eight games, so you can also compare them side by side with an older child.
| English | Portugal | Brazil |
|---|---|---|
| dog | cão | cachorro |
| pineapple | ananás | abacaxi |
| brown | castanho | marrom |
| sixteen | dezasseis | dezesseis |
| train | comboio | trem |
| I am playing | estou a brincar | estou brincando |
The eight games in this pack
- European Portuguese alphabet: 26 letter cards, from A de abelha to Z de zebra.
- Numbers in European Portuguese: a 1-100 chart with a "Count with me" button.
- Animals in European Portuguese: 60 animals, from vaca to cavalo-marinho.
- Fruits and vegetables: 30 of each, ready for the kitchen and the mercado.
- Colours in European Portuguese: 12 colours, including cor-de-rosa and cinzento.
- Body parts: 30 words from cabeça to ossos.
Each game has three modes. Listen lets your child tap a picture and hear its name. Find it has Golu, our glass-marble mascot, ask for a picture in Portuguese. Memory is a pairs game. A wrong tap is never called wrong: Golu gives a gentle hint and your child tries again. Every finished round drops a marble into the Goli Jar, and counting the marbles together is a nice way to practise um, dois, três.
How young children learn in Portugal
In Portugal, babies and toddlers up to three may attend a creche. From three until they start the 1.º ano at about six, children go to the jardim de infância, which is part of educação pré-escolar. The national guidelines, the Orientações Curriculares para a Educação Pré-Escolar, do not ask for formal reading or sums. They ask the educadora de infância to build oral language, early awareness of print and letters, counting and curiosity about the world through play, songs and projects.
These games follow the same spirit. Your child hears words, links them to pictures and plays with them, without worksheets or pressure. If you want something on paper, print this page from your browser: the word list on each game prints cleanly.
For Portuguese families abroad
Many children who need this pack live outside Portugal, in France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Canada or South Africa. At school they speak French, German or English all day, and Portuguese can slowly become "the language grandma speaks". A few minutes of play in Portuguese keeps the sounds familiar. It helps most when you then use the words in real life: name the fruit in the lancheira, count the steps to the flat, or call avó and let your child show off three new animals.
If one parent speaks Portuguese and the other does not, the Portuguese-speaking parent can sit with the child for the games while the other learns alongside. Children love teaching grown-ups a word they already know.
A simple plan by age
| Age | Start with | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| 2-3 | Animals and body parts in Listen mode | Pointing when you say a word; a few single words |
| 3-4 | Colours, fruits, counting to 10 | Naming 20-40 words, counting small groups |
| 4-5 | Find it, numbers to 20, the vowels | Short sentences like "O gato é preto" |
| 5-6 | Alphabet, Memory, counting to 100 | Knowing most letters and their first sounds |
Keep sessions short, about five to ten minutes, and play together whenever you can. Children under two learn more from you and real objects than from a screen, so for them use the pictures only as a starting point for talk.
Festivals that bring the words to life
Portuguese traditions give you ready-made language moments. In June the Santos Populares fill Lisbon and Porto with grilled sardines, pots of manjerico (basil) and coloured paper garlands, which is a perfect time for colour words and counting. In November, on São Martinho, families roast chestnuts, castanhas, and at Natal the table has bacalhau on Christmas Eve and a round bolo-rei covered in fruit. Name what you see, count what you eat, and the words stick.
Vamos aprender a brincar
Nesta página o seu filho encontra oito jogos em português de Portugal e em inglês: o alfabeto, os números de um a cem, os animais, as frutas, os legumes, as cores e as partes do corpo. Cada palavra tem uma imagem e um som claro, por isso a criança pode brincar mesmo antes de saber ler.
Brinquem juntos cinco ou dez minutos por dia. Depois, levem as palavras para a vida real: contem os degraus, digam as cores das roupas e o nome das frutas no mercado. Elogie o esforço e não a perfeição. Se a criança se enganar, o Golu dá uma pista e ela tenta outra vez.
Para as famílias que vivem fora de Portugal, estes jogos são uma maneira simples de manter a língua viva em casa, com o sotaque de cá.
How to use this page at home
Say it, then find it
Play for a few minutes, then look for the same thing away from the screen: portuguese (portugal) words on the shelf, in the kitchen, on the way to school. A child learns a word properly when they meet it twice, once on the screen and once in their hand.
Ten minutes is enough
Short and happy beats long and tired. Stop while your child still wants more, and come back tomorrow: the same page on five short days teaches far more than one long sitting. Nothing here is scored, so there is no reason to push.
Use both languages
Tap the language button at the top to hear the words in your home language first and the second language after. Hearing the same picture named in two languages is one of the few things research agrees builds attention as well as vocabulary.
