Michel Thomas Beginner Portuguese, Lesson 3

What is the Michel Thomas Method? The Michel Thomas Method teaches everyday conversational languages that will allow you to communicate in a wide variety of situations, empowered by the ability to create your own sentences and use the language instinctively, having absorbed the vocabulary and grammatical structures. These all-audio courses were perfected over 25 years by gifted linguist and teacher Michel Thomas, and provide an accelerated method for language learning that is truly revolutionary.

Lessons 1-8, the Beginner course: This course makes no assumption of knowledge of any language other than English and gives the beginner practical and functional use of the spoken language. It is also appropriate for anyone who has studied Portuguese before, but has forgotten much of it or does not have confidence in speaking. The Beginner course is designed to take you from complete beginner to intermediate level.

Lessons 9-12, the Intermediate course: This course is for those with an intermediate-level foundation in Portuguese, or those who have completed lessons 1-8 and want to take their learning to an advanced level and speak Portuguese proficiently and easily.

How does it work? Unlike most language courses that focus around topics or grammar forms, the Michel Thomas Method works by breaking a language down into its component parts, enabling you to reconstruct the language yourself - to form your own sentences, to say what you want, when you want. Within the first 10 minutes of the course, you will be generating complete sentences on your own. It is important that you complete the lessons in order.

The Method is successful because it builds on the language you learn in each lesson and "recycles" language taught in earlier lessons, allowing you to build ever-more complicated sentences. Because the Method is based on understanding, not memorisation, there is no set limit to the length of time that you should study each lesson. Once you feel you have a good grasp of the language taught in one lesson, you can move on to the next.

In lesson three of the Portuguese Beginner course, you'll learn basic greetings and how to say that you "have to" or "must" do something with the following:

• Adjectives (describing words)
• Verbs tenho de (I have to/must), tem de (you have to/must), estou (I am) and está (you are) with masculine and feminine adjectives, vou (I am going), vou estar (I am going to be), etc.
• Words ending in -ico ( ic/ ical), -dade ( ty)
• Question words "how much" (quanto) and "how" (como)
• Useful words em/no/na (in, in the), se (if), esta (this, fem.), tarde (late; afternoon), mais ou menos (more or less), ligar (to call, ring); a (at); a que horas (at what time)

In the next lesson you'll learn about word order and different verb endings.