Portuguese for life in Portugal

Yes, Mil Palavras is free. We do not collect or store credit cards. Anyone can try features anonymously once and can then continue by submitting your email only. For more information, please review our Privacy & Terms linked at the bottom of this page.

European Portuguese only with a distinct focus on how native speakers communicate. Every word, phrase, story and audio cue is composed for the every day situations you experience as an Expat or Digital Nomad living in Portugal. We have checks across all features to ensure no Brazilian vocabulary or pronunciation makes it into the app. Including: Reviews by Portuguese users who believe in our mission.

For an exact comparison, check out our Compare section. Mil Palavras is designed from expats for expats. Our approach stands out in two ways: 1. 80/20 Rule: Spend 80% of your time learning the 20% of Portuguese that you actually need and use in your daily life. (Seriously, why learn 15 different tenses when knowing simple present, past and future gets you understood?) 2. The Flywheel: Each component of Mil Palavras is designed for an "1+1=3" outcome. A translation turns into core memory via a quick review later. Study words turn into stories and allow you to build sentences more confidently.

This is the main reason we'll never charge you a subscription fee. We don't want you to keep studying Portuguese forever. We want you to communicate confidently with as little time and effort as possible. Mil Palavras is designed around the interactions you already have. Translate on-demand, build a sentence as you wait for your turn at the coffee counter or Finanças balcão. Each study sessions take less than 3 minutes: 9 essential words and 1 practical phrase. Do one whenever you can: on the bus, waiting for coffee, ... Challenges like the 30-Day story telling is designed for under 2 min/day.

No, Mil Palavras allows you to customize your study settings to your level or current knowledge. You can use lifelines (Multiple Choice answers), focus on one category at a time or simply start with the Translate feature to build familiarity and learn a little more Portuguese every day.

Yes, Mil Palavras is optimized for mobile usage. You can open our web app with any phone browser. A native app is planned.

Mil Palavras builds the everyday words and sentences you will need. A dedicated exam path is not currently planned. Like many expats, the founder of Mil Palavras has acquired an uncertified half-knowledge of Portuguese through her network and move to Portugal. Mil Palavras was designed to close the gap, build the vocabulary and sentence structure needed to communicate confidently in Portuguese rather than passing an exam or conducting grammar drills. Mil Palavras works especially well alongside Portuguese lessons or Youtube-self learning. Personally, we endorse Portuguese with Leo as it has a similar focus on helping Expats focus their time learning the most high impact words, phrases and sentences in European Portuguese. 

Like many expats, the Mil Palavras founder heavily relied on Google Translate and DeepL when she arrived in Portugal. However, there is a growing frustration of not being able to retain the words translated. Translation apps aren't designed to help you improve or learn from those every day encounters. The broken step from translation to learning was a main reason behind launching Mil Palavras. When you use Mil Palavras to translate, every word or sentence you look up is saved to your cards automatically. You not only have a history of what you looked up, but can commit these to memory at your convenience.