How Long Does It Take to Learn Portuguese?
For a native English speaker, the U.S. Foreign Service Institute (FSI) estimates 24 weeks of full-time study, or about 552 class hours, to reach professional working proficiency in Portuguese. That's in FSI's fastest group, and six weeks shorter than its figure for Spanish. At an hour a day, it's about a year and a half.
On this page
The FSI figure
The State Department's Foreign Language Training page lists Portuguese in Category I, "languages close to English", at 24 weeks, alongside Italian, Dutch, Romanian and the Scandinavian languages. The list doesn't separate Brazilian and European Portuguese. The target is an integrated 3 in speaking and listening on the ILR scale, usually read as upper B2 to C1 on the CEFR, though no official conversion exists (see FSI hours vs CEFR levels).
FSI's typical week is 23 hours of class plus 17 of self-study, so total effort over 24 weeks is closer to 24 × 40 = 960 hours. In FSI's older 1993 data on speaking after 24 weeks, reproduced by economists Barry Chiswick and Paul Miller, Portuguese scored 2.50, level with French and Italian and above Spanish's 2.25.
Brazilian or European Portuguese?
They're one language with two standards. Grammar is largely shared; the differences are in pronunciation, some vocabulary, and how pronouns are used. European Portuguese reduces many unstressed vowels, which makes it noticeably harder to understand at first; Brazilian Portuguese keeps vowels clearer and has far more learner material online. Neither changes the overall size of the job much, but choosing one and sticking to it for your first few hundred hours will save confusion. Pick the one you'll actually use.
Hours per CEFR level
Portugal's and Brazil's certificate bodies don't publish a standard hours-per-level table, so these are planning estimates. They use FSI's 552 hours, this blog's rule of thumb that B1 takes about half the FSI hours, and published figures for a close relative: Campus France's indicative DELF hours put French B1 at 350–400 hours and B2 at 550–650, and FSI rates Portuguese slightly faster than French.
| Level | Hours |
|---|---|
| A2 | ~150–200 |
| B1 | ~275–375 |
| B2 | ~450–600 |
| FSI (ILR 3) | 552 |
How long that takes at your pace
| Per day | B1 (~300 h) | 552 h |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | ~20 months | ~3 years |
| 1 hour | ~10 months | ~18 months |
| 2 hours | ~5 months | ~9 months |
Plug your own numbers into the calculator below. To compare Portuguese with Spanish or another language, use the same calculator on our how long to learn a language page.
What's easy and hard about Portuguese
Easy: the Latin alphabet, a large stock of Latin-based vocabulary shared with English (informação, importante, possível), and sentence structure that's mostly familiar.
Hard:
- Pronunciation. Nasal vowels (pão, mãe), vowels that change quality when unstressed, and in Brazil a few consonants that shift (t and d before an i sound often become ch and j sounds).
- Verbs. Many forms, including a personal infinitive and a future subjunctive that most other Romance languages don't use in everyday speech.
- Listening. Connected speech, especially in European Portuguese, runs words together.
If you already speak Spanish, you'll go much faster on reading and grammar, though pronunciation still takes work. Our post on Portuguese for Spanish speakers covers that case.
Track it
Log your hours from the start and compare after 100 and 200. That's when you'll know whether the 552-hour benchmark is generous or tight for you. LangTrack keeps the running total, a daily goal and a breakdown by activity; our Portuguese tracking guide covers what else to watch.
FAQ
How many hours does it take to learn Portuguese?
FSI estimates about 552 class hours (24 weeks full time) for a native English speaker to reach professional working proficiency. For a conversational B1 level, plan for roughly 275–375 hours of study.
Is Brazilian or European Portuguese easier?
FSI doesn't distinguish them. Most English speakers find Brazilian Portuguese easier to understand at first, because European Portuguese reduces unstressed vowels, and there's more Brazilian learning material. The grammar is largely the same.
Is Portuguese harder than Spanish?
Not by FSI's figures: Portuguese is 24 weeks (552 class hours) and Spanish 30 weeks (690). Portuguese pronunciation is harder for most English speakers; grammar and vocabulary are similar in difficulty.
Watch your Portuguese hours grow
Log every session and see how close you are to B1 and FSI's 552 hours.
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