Fluent and inaccurate is a real failure mode
Portuguese and English share a great deal of vocabulary, so you can be conversational quickly. People understand you, so nobody corrects you — and because you are speaking at speed, you never slow down enough to catch yourself.
The list below is short and it is the same for almost every Portuguese speaker.
The 'ter' problem — the signature error
In Portuguese, ter covers both possession and existence: Tem muita gente aqui means There are a lot of people here. Colloquial Brazilian Portuguese uses ter where European Portuguese uses haver, and both come into English as have.
- Have many people here. → There are many people here.
- Has a park in my city. → There is a park in my city.
- In Brazil have a lot of beaches. → There are a lot of beaches in Brazil.
The rule: there is / there are for existence; have / has for possession. They are never interchangeable in English, and this error appears in nearly every unedited Portuguese speaker's writing.
Note this is not the Spanish error — Spanish hay maps cleanly onto there is. This one is yours.
False friends — including two that mean the opposite
| You say | You mean | It actually means |
|---|---|---|
| Push | to pull (puxar) | to push. The two are opposites, and puxar looks like push. A genuine trap on doors and in instructions. |
| Parents | relatives (parentes) | mother and father only. For relatives, say relatives. |
| Pretend | to intend (pretender) | to fake. Say intend / plan to. |
| Actually | currently (atualmente) | in fact. For atualmente, say currently. |
| Exquisite | weird (esquisito) | extremely beautiful, refined. For esquisito, say weird / strange. |
| College | high school (colégio) | university-level. For colégio, say secondary school / high school. |
| Realise | to carry out (realizar) | to become aware of. Say carry out / hold (an event). |
| Assist | to attend (assistir) | to help. For a class or a film, say attend / watch. |
| Compromise | commitment (compromisso) | a settlement where both sides give something up. Say commitment / appointment. |
| Costume | custom, habit (costume) | fancy dress. Say custom / habit. |
Push / puxar is the one to burn into memory, because they are exact opposites and the words look alike.
Too many -ing verbs
Brazilian Portuguese uses the gerund heavily — estou fazendo, estou querendo — and it transfers directly into English, where many verbs simply cannot take the continuous.
Stative verbs describe states, not actions, and they stay in the simple form:
- I am wanting a coffee. → I want a coffee.
- I am agreeing with you. → I agree with you.
- I am knowing him for years. → I have known him for years.
- I am liking this. → I like this.
- I am needing help. → I need help.
The stative list is short and worth memorising: want, need, like, love, hate, know, understand, believe, agree, prefer, own, seem, mean. None of them take -ing in normal use.
Other structures that transfer badly
1. 'Make a question'
Fazer uma pergunta → ask a question. English chooses a specific verb for these, and make is rarely it.
- Make a question → ask a question
- Make a test → take a test / sit an exam
- Make a course → take a course / do a course
- Make an accident → have an accident
2. 'I have 20 years'
Tenho vinte anos → I am twenty years old. English uses be for age — and for hunger, thirst, fear and heat: I am hungry, I am cold.
3. 'Since' with the present tense
- I live here since 2010. → I have lived here since 2010.
- I study English for three years. → I have studied English for three years.
High value: it removes an error and adds the present perfect, which the grammar criterion rewards.
4. 'People is' and articles
- People is friendly. → People are friendly. (a gente is singular; people is not)
- The life is difficult. → Life is difficult. (no article on general statements)
- I like the music. → I like music.
5. 'I have doubt'
Tenho uma dúvida → I have a question. In English, I have a doubt means you doubt something — you are sceptical — which is not what you mean when you want to ask something.
Smaller errors worth fixing
| Instead of | Write |
|---|---|
| It depends of | It depends on |
| differents ideas | different ideas (adjectives never take -s) |
| a house big | a big house |
| I speak portuguese | I speak Portuguese (capitalise languages and nationalities) |
| In the Monday | On Monday (no article, capitalised) |
| informations, advices | information, advice — uncountable |
| Explain me the problem. | Explain the problem to me. |
| I am agree. | I agree. |
| I didn't see nobody. | I didn't see anybody. (no double negatives) |
How to fix them
- Get your writing marked sentence by sentence and find the error you make more than once. You cannot see it yourself — you produce it fluently, so it sounds right.
- Start with there is / there are. It is the most frequent, the most visible, and the easiest to fix.
- Learn the stative verbs as a list. Thirteen words, and they eliminate a whole family of errors.
- Learn the false friends as a list, because they are the only errors here that change what you actually said.
- Practise accuracy at your current speed, not more speed. You already have the fluency; it is the accuracy that is capping you.
Frequently asked questions
Why do Portuguese speakers say 'have many people' instead of 'there are many people'?
Because 'ter' covers both possession and existence in Portuguese — 'tem muita gente aqui' means 'there are a lot of people here' — so both come into English as 'have'. The rule is that 'there is' and 'there are' express existence while 'have' and 'has' express possession, and they are never interchangeable. This appears in almost every unedited Portuguese speaker's English.
What are the worst false friends for Portuguese speakers?
'Push' and 'puxar' are the trap to memorise, because they look alike and mean the exact opposite. 'Parents' means only your mother and father, not your relatives. 'Pretend' means to fake, not to intend. 'Exquisite' means beautiful and refined, not weird. And 'actually' means 'in fact', not 'currently'.
Why can't I say 'I am wanting' or 'I am agreeing'?
Because Brazilian Portuguese uses the gerund heavily and English has stative verbs that cannot take the continuous at all. Want, need, like, love, hate, know, understand, believe, agree, prefer, own, seem and mean all stay in the simple form: 'I want a coffee', 'I agree with you', 'I have known him for years'. It is a short list and memorising it removes a whole family of errors.
How do I say 'fazer uma pergunta' in English?
'Ask a question' — not 'make a question'. English picks a specific verb for these and 'make' is rarely it: you take a test, take or do a course, and have an accident. This is a small set of fixed collocations rather than a rule, so they are worth learning as phrases.
Is 'I have a doubt' correct English?
It is grammatical but it does not mean what you want. 'I have a doubt' means you are sceptical about something. If you want to ask something, say 'I have a question' — the Portuguese 'dúvida' covers both meanings and English does not.