Customer Reviews

501 Portuguese Verbs (Barrons)

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Arm yourself with verbs. The nouns will come in time,
and adjectives and adverbs are a more advanced tool that you
will naturally acquire through extensive reading and speaking.

No, to gain fluency and functionality, you need verbs.

This book is a collection of 501 Portuguese verbs, with full
conjugations listed and some very informative usage examples below each listing. Each verb takes up a page, has the English definition at the top, and lists the usage examples at the bottom.

The index at the end of the book lists verbs in English, then in Portuguese, providing an excellent method for finding your verb choice even if you are a Portueguse student learning English. Yes, I meant exactly that: in learning Portuguese, I have found it helpful and enlightening to see what English words a Portuguese-speaker might choose, as it gives me insight into what a native might feel is the best translation of an idea.

The best feature of this book, however, is the front matter. It explains each conjugation in depth, because if you are anything like me, you've forgotten exactly what a future subjunctive is. Heck, I don't even know if I've used a grammatical term there or not; good thing I bought this book though, because it'll tell me in plain terms what I need to know.

This is truly a five-star reference. A comprehensive dictionary would surpass it in coverage, but from the perspective of learning Portuguese, this book has no peer.

A large number of fully conjugated Portugese verbs. Most useful though is the examples of usage at the bottom of each page. One note to remember - this is Portugal Portuguese and not Brazilian Portuguese. Brazilian Portuguese students will still find the book useful, but remember to ignore the "tu" tense and remember that the imperative is different in Brazilian Portuguese.

This book is great for those who are studying Portuguese. Portuguese is my original language and my husband is trying to learn it. He has the "Living Laguage Brazilian Portuguese Complete Course" and this book, "501 Portuguese Verbs". This book is helping him to conjugate the verbs right. Portuguese is a very hard language to learn, especially when it comes to verbs. This book, with its 501 Portuguese verbs, is fully conjugated in all the tenses(up to 18 is some cases). The verbs are in alphabetical order, so it is easy to find and follow.
I strongly recommend this book to all those who are learning Portuguese.

First, this book contains a tremendous amount of information on verbs, in my view, fundamentally all you need to know. Secondly, it has the great advantage of considering both European and Brazilian Portuguese. You don't have to buy two different books! I would recommend this book to be used together with Manuela Cook's recent book Portuguese a complete course in understanding speaking and writing (just the book or better the book-audio pack). They have in common catering for the Portuguese of Portugal, Brazil and elsewhere in the world where this language is used. I would say that they are Perfect Partners.

I am living in Brasil and using a variety of language learning books and methods. I pick this book up occasionally to see the spelling of a new verb or to find its conjugation if its irregular. It makes it handy to have the book but its info I could easily find with internet research or asking a friend. One point Id like to make is included under each verb is a variety of sample uses. Sentences with the verb being used in various ways. I wrote some of these sentences down on index cards to study. My friend here in Brazil saw these cards, and commented on how formal and archaic the phrases were. He said no one really speaks like that in everyday situations. Just a heads up.

Whether a student or traveler, "501 Portuguese Verbs" will make it easier for you to conjugate the many verbs associated with this Romance language. Just like many Romance languages, there are many tenses to memorize, however with the alphabetical, easy-to-use style authors John J. Nitti and Michael J. Ferreira have used, conjugating Portuguese verbs is as easy as 1-2-3.

Similar to "501 Spanish Verbs," the book also contains short phrases commonly used in Portuguese-speaking countries such as Brazil and Portugal. The reader needs to be aware of the differences between Brazilian Portuguese and Continental Portuguese (spoken in Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome e Principe, Macao, East Timor, and Portuguese-language enclaves in India, Canada, and the United States). Brazilian usage often eliminates the "tu" tense, and certain participles are used in different order (e.g., "te" is used before a verb in Continental and after a verb in Brazilian usage).

Overall, a must have for those wanting to brush up on their language skills. It's a great reference book to have in your collection.

I used this book in preparation for my two-year stay in Brasil. I found the book well set-up and easy to use, but often times it was unnecessary. In Portuguese, as in all Romance languages, all verbs have conjugation rules. Yet at least 90% of Portuguese verbs follow these simple-to-learn, universal rules. And even most of the irregular verbs are conjugated by certain "irregular rules." After learning the grammatical conjugation rules (which the book strangely omits), I only needed to look up 5 irregular verbs during my whole stay for reference. The one thing that I thoroughly enjoyed was the beginning outline of verb moods and tenses. This was very useful and served to give a clearer picture of the Portuguese grammatical verb structure. So for what the book sets out to do, it does well. I simply did not find it useful, necessary, or worth the money as I learned Portuguese.

Though it doesn't have every verb, it has the most popular verbs, gives examples through sentences, and gives conjugations for those learning Portuguese from Portugal and those learning Portuguese from Brazil (like me).

Explanations are given at the beginning of the book, so don't forget to read that area. All tenses are in this book, so I found it VERY helpful. Just remember this book is only a good guide, but you can't learn a language with one book alone.

This book is probably the most valuable reference that a student of Portuguese can have. Whether going to Brasil, Portugal, or any of the Portuguese speaking African countries, this book should go with you. Learning a language that contains nearly twenty tenses and almost a hundred personal endings per verb is very hard. That's the reason why 501 Portuguese Verbs is so useful. It's well organized and has all of the everday verbs that students need to communicate. If you're thinking about learning Portuguese and need a book as reference, then this is the book to buy.

A good book and a necessity to serious Portuguese students. It is inferior to 501 Spanish Verbs and 501 French verbs though, both of which are in their fourth editions. 501 Portugues Verbs lacks features like the additional "1,000 verbs conjugated like modal verbs...", verb drills and curiously, even a summary of meanings and uses of all tenses! All Barron's (the publisher) needed to do was to look at their other language editions to see how to create 501 Portuguese Verbs. They didn't though. This first edition is worth the money but future editions will hopefully be better.