Milestone map
Milestone map
3 milestones
Build A2 Portuguese vocabulary on familiar topics
10–14 weeks building on A1. Portuguese A2 vocabulary acquisition is fastest through comprehensible input (listening and reading slightly above current level) combined with Anki for high-frequency phrase retention.
Portuguese A2 vocabulary covers family, home, work, food, transport, shopping, health, weather, and daily routine — the domains needed to handle familiar situations without falling back on gestures or single words. At A2, the vocabulary gap from A1 is substantial: you're moving from 250–300 words to around 1,500–2,000 high-frequency words, and those words should be learned in connected phrases rather than as isolated items.
Proof required
Record a 5-minute unscripted description of a typical weekday — morning routine through evening — covering at least 4 of the following topic areas: family, food/meals, work or school, transport, leisure. Write 150 words on: which topic area has the most gaps in your Portuguese vocabulary right now, one Portuguese phrase (not a single word) that you've started using naturally that you didn't know at A1, and whether you're learning European or Brazilian Portuguese and whether any vocabulary gap is variety-specific.
What gets checked
- The recording covers at least 4 topic areas at A2 vocabulary depth — not just naming objects but describing actions and situations: 'eu acordo às sete horas e faço o pequeno-almoço / café da manhã antes de sair de casa' shows A2 connected phrase use, not just 'café'
- The phrase adopted naturally is quoted in Portuguese — this is the acquisition signal; genuinely acquired A2 phrases become automatic and available on demand; memorized but not acquired phrases require retrieval effort
- The vocabulary gap is topic-specific and honest — naming a specific topic where A2 vocabulary is still thin shows accurate self-knowledge; claiming all topic areas are equally strong is rarely accurate at A2
Common mistakes
- Learning vocabulary as isolated words rather than in phrases — 'almoço' (lunch) alone is less useful than 'vou almoçar em casa hoje' (I'm going to have lunch at home today); phrase-level learning builds the slot-and-filler patterns that enable spontaneous production
- Treating vocabulary and grammar as separate studies — at A2, the vocabulary items that most need learning are not just nouns but the verbs, prepositions, and collocations that carry the grammar of the sentence; learning 'depender de' (to depend on) teaches the vocabulary and the preposition governing it simultaneously
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- The recording should cover at least 4 topic areas with A2 connected-phrase production — ask the submitter to describe what they had for breakfast in Portuguese right now as a spot-check of food vocabulary
- Ask the submitter to produce the naturally-acquired phrase in a new sentence — genuinely acquired phrases transfer to new contexts immediately
- The vocabulary gap topic is honest and diagnostic — ask: 'if I asked you about [the topic they named as weakest] right now, what Portuguese words are you missing?'
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Build A2 Portuguese past and future tenses
6–8 weeks. The preterite and imperfect tense distinction is one of the most common A2 plateaus in Portuguese; learners often use only preterite (the first one learned) for all past reference. Weekly practice of narrating past events specifically targets this distinction.
Portuguese A2 has two major tense acquisitions: the preterite (pretérito perfeito simples — falei, comi, fui) for completed past events, and the imperfect (pretérito imperfeito — falava, comia, era) for ongoing past states and habits. For European Portuguese, there is also the compound perfect (tenho falado — I have been speaking recently, with current relevance) which does not exist in Spanish and differs from the Portuguese simple perfect. The future at A2 is primarily 'ir + infinitive' (vou falar — I'm going to speak) rather than the synthetic future.
Proof required
Record a 5-minute unscripted story in Portuguese about something that happened to you in the past — could be a recent event, a childhood memory, or a journey. The story should use: at least 4 preterite forms (regular or irregular), at least 2 imperfect forms (for ongoing past states: 'era, tinha, estava, vivia'), at least 1 'ir + infinitive' future reference. Write 100 words on one irregular preterite verb that required specific learning (not 'comer' but something like 'ir/ser → fui', 'ter → tive', 'fazer → fiz', 'ver → vi') and how you learned to use it.
What gets checked
- The preterite and imperfect are used in the semantically correct contexts: preterite for completed, specific past events ('ontem fui ao supermercado'); imperfect for ongoing past states or habits ('quando era criança, morava em Lisboa') — using only preterite for all past is B1's most common Portuguese grammar error, and it begins as an A2 error
- The irregular verb is quoted in Portuguese in a sentence from the recording — hearing 'fui, tive, fiz, vi, quis, pude' correctly used in the recording with the submitter naming them as irregular verbs they specifically learned shows targeted A2 grammar acquisition
- The future 'ir + infinitive' is present and correctly formed — at A2, 'vou + infinitive' is the primary future production; the synthetic future ('falarei') is grammatically correct but less natural in spoken A2 Portuguese and need not be present
Common mistakes
- Using preterite for all past reference (the 'narrative override' error) — Portuguese learners at A2 often use 'fui/fiz/falei' for every past time reference including ongoing states and habitual past; 'quando era pequena, tinha muito medo de cães' (when I was little, I was very afraid of dogs) requires imperfect 'era' and 'tinha', not preterite 'fui' and 'tive'
- Avoiding irregular preterites by restructuring sentences to avoid verbs like 'ir, fazer, ter, ver, vir' — these are the highest-frequency verbs in Portuguese; avoidance produces A2 Portuguese that sounds like a learner avoiding difficulty rather than using the language naturally
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- Find the imperfect forms in the recording — 'era, tinha, estava, morava, vivia, gostava' — and verify they are used for ongoing past states or habits, not for completed events; any imperfect used for a specific, completed past event is a grammatical error
- Ask the submitter to tell you a sentence about a childhood habit using the imperfect right now — 'quando era criança...' — this spot-checks whether the imperfect has been acquired for habit/state or only memorized for the test
- The irregular preterite named should be producible immediately in a new sentence — ask the submitter to make one now
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Hold a 10-minute recorded conversation in Portuguese with a native speaker
2–4 weeks after Milestone 2. Schedule one weekly conversation session in Portuguese; tell the tutor or exchange partner you're at A2 and want to use past tense narration.
Have a 10-minute unscripted conversation in Portuguese with a native speaker covering at least 2 familiar topic areas and at least one past-tense account. At A2, the conversation should demonstrate that you can initiate and continue exchanges on familiar topics, handle comprehension breakdowns using A2 strategies, and produce past-tense and immediate-future references.
Proof required
Submit the recording (10 minutes, both sides clearly audible). Write 200 words on: the topics covered, one past-tense account you gave in Portuguese (describe which tense you used and why), one comprehension breakdown and your Portuguese recovery strategy, and one thing about the native speaker's Portuguese register or speed that you hadn't encountered before.
What gets checked
- The past-tense account used a tense other than preterite — if all past reference in the account is in preterite, the A2 imperfect acquisition hasn't been demonstrated; the conversation is the test of whether the tense work in Milestone 2 has transferred to natural use
- The comprehension breakdown is resolved using Portuguese — 'Pode repetir mais devagar?' or 'O que significa...?' or 'Pode escrever isso?' are A2 repair strategies; asking for help in English is a failure of A2 communicative competence
- The register/speed observation is specific to the native speaker's Portuguese — what feature of their speech or vocabulary was new? This shows active listening during the conversation
Common mistakes
- Using present tense for most of the conversation and only switching to past at the end — A2 Portuguese conversation should include spontaneous past-tense narration; a 10-minute conversation where 9 minutes are present tense shows the past tense hasn't transferred to spontaneous use
- Staying in safe, narrow topics to avoid past-tense production — a 10-minute conversation about only what you like and dislike (present tense) is designed to avoid the A2 grammar challenge
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- The past-tense account should include at least one imperfect form — listen for 'era, tinha, estava, morava, gostava' — if the entire past account uses only preterite, ask the submitter why they didn't use imperfect for any part of the story
- Verify the comprehension repair strategy was in Portuguese — find the moment of breakdown in the recording and check what language the repair request was made in
- Ask the submitter to describe one vocabulary item from the conversation they hadn't known before — this confirms active listening beyond self-monitoring
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