Reading · Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese reading, from A1 to B2: stories, legends and articles
Free texts in Brazilian Portuguese, read aloud by a native voice, each with the English beside it and every word a tap away. Start at your level and move up when a story feels easy.
Start here
Pick the level where you understand about nineteen words in twenty. The three best texts for each level are on the card.
A1
10 textsShort sentences, everyday words, the present tense: about two minutes of listening.
- A Iara · 2 min
- A Mula sem Cabeça · 2 min
- O Curupira · 2 min
A2
0 textsLonger sentences and the past tense, still with the words you meet every day.
Nothing at this level yet.
B1
0 textsReal stories with real sentences; a dictionary tap every few lines, not every line.
Nothing at this level yet.
B2+
95 textsBrazilian authors as they wrote: Lima Barreto, Artur de Azevedo, Machado de Assis.
- A menina do narizinho arrebitado · 54 min
- Um Apólogo · 5 min
- "Barca" · 4 min
Brazilian legends, with art and audio
The stories every Brazilian child knows, retold in short sentences and read aloud slowly. Each page tells you who the creature is before the Portuguese begins.
The library: stories, legends and articles by level
Every text, easiest first. Filter by level and kind; every one is free, and most are read aloud.
105 texts
- A1Legend
A Iara
2 min with audio
- A1Legend
A Mula sem Cabeça
2 min with audio
- A1Legend
O Curupira
2 min with audio
- A1Legend
O Saci
2 min with audio
- A1
A Caipora
A1StoryA Caipora
2 min with audio
- A1
A Dona Baratinha
A1StoryA Dona Baratinha
1 min with audio
- A1
A Vitória-régia
A1StoryA Vitória-régia
1 min with audio
- A1
O Boitatá
A1StoryO Boitatá
2 min with audio
- A1
O Boto
A1StoryO Boto
2 min with audio
- A1
O Lobisomem
A1StoryO Lobisomem
1 min with audio
- B2Book
A menina do narizinho arrebitado
José Bento Renato Monteiro Lobato
Lucia, nicknamed Narizinho for her turned-up nose, lives with her grandmother, tia Anastacia and her rag doll Emilia, and loves to sit by the stream.
54 min with audio
- B2Story
Um Apólogo
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
A needle and a ball of thread argue about which of them is more important while a seamstress sews a ball gown for a baroness.
5 min with audio
- B2Classic
"Barca"
Artur de Azevedo
Every summer, rich merchant João Saraiva sends his trusting wife, D.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
345
Artur de Azevedo
Reginaldo, a patient, mild-mannered clerk, is forever scolded by his wife, whom he calls nhanhã, for being unlucky and spineless.
9 min with audio
- B2Classic
A Conselho do Marido
Artur de Azevedo
On a liner crossing the Atlantic, a forty-year-old husband lectures a younger fellow passenger: a man should never refuse a woman who tempts him, even if she is a friend's wife — and he adds that he is perfectly sure of his own wife, Mariquinhas.
3 min with audio
- B2Classic
A Doença do Fabrício
Artur de Azevedo
Fabrício, a junior civil servant, wants to follow his sweetheart Zizinha to the spa town of Caxambu, but the minister will only give him leave if a doctor certifies that he is ill.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
A Filosofia do Mendes
Artur de Azevedo
Timid bachelor Fulgêncio falls into an affair with Bárbara, a married woman, and when her husband Mendes finds a letter and throws her out, she moves in with Fulgêncio.
5 min with audio
- B2Classic
A gratidão do Assírio
Lima Barreto
A satirical sketch in dialogue: the narrator chats with Senhor Assírio, who runs a fashionable restaurant in the basement of the Municipal theatre.
5 min with audio
- B2Classic
A mulher do Anacleto
Lima Barreto
The narrator tells of a former office colleague, Anacleto, who took to drink and gambling and beat his wife until she left him and ended up homeless on the streets of Rio.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
A Nota de Cem Mil-Réis
Artur de Azevedo
Cavalcanti, a bad husband, keeps a French mistress, Josephine Leveau, while his wife, D.
5 min with audio
- B2Classic
A Pequetita
Artur de Azevedo
During a smallpox epidemic in Rio, Coriolano refuses to have his little daughter, Pequetita, vaccinated because his strict uncle Bandeira, a positivist, is against vaccines.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
As Asneiras do Guedes
Artur de Azevedo
The narrator introduces Guedes, a man famous for using fancy words with exactly the wrong meaning, and describes meeting him in a shop on the Rua do Ouvidor with a witty lady friend.
5 min with audio
- B2Classic
Às Escuras
Artur de Azevedo
At a monthly dance in a small provincial town, young Lírio is courting the lovely Alice and plots to steal a kiss from her by having a friend turn off the gas lights at ten o'clock.
3 min with audio
- B2Classic
As Paradas
Artur de Azevedo
Young Norberto falls madly in love with a beautiful stranger who smiles at him at the Exhibition, then loses her in the crowd.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
As vaporosas
Lima Barreto
A very short, humorous newspaper piece in which the writer pokes fun at the society columns' habit of inventing new labels for fashionable young women, from encantadoras and melindrosas to the latest, vaporosas.
3 min with audio
- B2Classic
Assunto Para um Conto
Artur de Azevedo
A writer who must produce a story every week is always being promised a great story idea by a self-important retired official.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
Coisas de "mafuá"
Lima Barreto
In a lively dialogue full of slang, Jaime tells his friend Pena how winning a chicken at a church fair ended with him spending a night in a police cell.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
Como o Diabo as Arma!
Artur de Azevedo
Sr.
6 min with audio
- B2Classic
Denúncia Involuntária
Artur de Azevedo
Nosy Lustosa watches a pretty neighbour receive two lovers — a fat, bald older man he takes for the one who pays, and a handsome young one.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
Duas Apostas
Artur de Azevedo
Comendador Salazar, a disagreeable merchant, scoffs that a new newspaper, O Século, won't last a month.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
Elefantes e Ursos
Artur de Azevedo
Colonel Ferraz loves telling wildly exaggerated hunting stories to a big audience, such as how he once saved a young prince from two elephants by the Ganges.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
Em Sonhos
Artur de Azevedo
César innocently tells his wife, D.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
Ingenuidade
Artur de Azevedo
Vaz, a would-be seducer, finally persuades the apparently shy and innocent Ernestina, wife of the easy-going Friandes, to meet him in a discreet rented room.
5 min with audio
- B2Classic
Mal Por Mal...
Artur de Azevedo
Sebastião, worn down by his bad-tempered wife, D.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
Na Exposição
Artur de Azevedo
Raimundo left his home state of Maranhão at twenty after his sweetheart, Filomena, married a rich merchant, and for years he avoided anything that reminded him of home.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
Na Horta
Artur de Azevedo
The Barão da Cerveira, once a poor Portuguese boy named Manuel Barroso who came to Brazil alone at ten, has become a rich and generous merchant who never enjoys his own big garden.
8 min with audio
- B2Classic
O chefe político e o seu eleitor
Lima Barreto
Felício, a loyal party voter who owes a doctor and party boss many favours, comes to explain why he will not follow the party line in the presidential election.
7 min with audio
- B2Classic
O Cuco
Artur de Azevedo
Roberto goes out every night and leaves his patient wife at home, where his grandmother's old cuckoo clock strikes the hours.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
O Espírito
Artur de Azevedo
Garcia, a kind but dim-witted man ruled by his clever wife, D.
8 min with audio
- B2Classic
O Galo
Artur de Azevedo
A poor country couple's husband falls ill, and a travelling doctor, Dr.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
O Meu Criado João
Artur de Azevedo
The narrator hires João, a servant from Madeira, and soon discovers that he is remarkably slow-witted.
5 min with audio
- B2Classic
O Retrato
Artur de Azevedo
The narrator tells a true anecdote about his late friend Emílio Rouède, a photographer in Rio.
3 min with audio
- B2Classic
O Sonho do Conselheiro
Artur de Azevedo
The stern Conselheiro Lapa throws out the young clerk Alberto who asks to marry his daughter, Rosalina, and she falls ill with grief.
5 min with audio
- B2Classic
O Último Palpite
Artur de Azevedo
A family in Rio is obsessed with the jogo do bicho, the illegal animal lottery, and with his last breath the dying father tells his wife to bet everything on the dog.
3 min with audio
- B2Classic
O Velho Lima
Artur de Azevedo
Old Lima, a long-serving civil servant, falls ill the day before the Republic is proclaimed in Brazil in 1889 and, as he never reads newspapers, misses the news completely.
7 min with audio
- B2Classic
Octogenário
Artur de Azevedo
Five well-behaved students from Minas share a model house in Rio, and the most serious of them, Gaspar, is the only one who stays out at night.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
Os Compadres
Artur de Azevedo
Simeão comes to Rio after eighteen years and finds that his brother José has no trade and lives by his wits.
3 min with audio
- B2Classic
Os Dois Andares
Artur de Azevedo
Novais, the chief clerk of an import firm, lives on the first floor above the shop and flirts through binoculars with pretty Helena across the back gardens.
7 min with audio
- B2Classic
Pan-Americano
Artur de Azevedo
A short comic scene in a tavern, written as a play: Chico Facada asks Manuel, the shopkeeper, what the word pan-americano means.
3 min with audio
- B2Classic
Piedade Filial
Artur de Azevedo
Brochado, a successful young clerk in Rio, misses his father back in Portugal and asks a painter for an oil portrait of him.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
Plebiscito
Artur de Azevedo
One evening in 1890, after dinner, young Manduca asks his father, Senhor Rodrigues, what the word plebiscito means.
6 min with audio
- B2Classic
Por Não se Entenderem
Artur de Azevedo
Zeca Borges, a small farmer, travels to Rio to visit his brother, a consul just back from Germany.
5 min with audio
- B2Classic
Quase doutor
Lima Barreto
The narrator is introduced to Seráfico Falcote, a well-dressed student in his twenties who treats his companions at a café.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
Um Capricho
Artur de Azevedo
In the town of Mar de Espanha, the spoilt Zulmira agrees to let Epidauro Pamplona ask for her hand on one odd condition: he must first see his name printed somewhere.
10 min with audio
- B2Classic
Uma aposta
Artur de Azevedo
Simplício Gomes, a plain and modest young man, secretly loves the beautiful Dudu but feels unworthy of her.
8 min with audio
- B2Classic
Uma Carga de Sono
Artur de Azevedo
So as not to miss his 5 a.m. train to Minas, Alfredo stays up all night.
5 min with audio
- B2Classic
Uma Por Outra
Artur de Azevedo
Paulo hurries to the ferry station for his first secret meeting with Isabel, a seamstress who has finally agreed to see him after four months.
6 min with audio
- B2Classic
X e Y
Artur de Azevedo
Xisto, the ugliest man in Rio, silently adores the beautiful widow who lives across the street.
8 min with audio
- C1Story
A causa secreta
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Garcia, a young doctor, becomes friends and business partners with Fortunato, a wealthy man who nurses the sick with surprising devotion, and he falls silently in love with Fortunato's gentle wife, Maria Luísa.
31 min with audio
- C1Story
A desejada das gentes
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
On a walk through Glória, an old conselheiro tells a younger man about Quintília, a beautiful, rich woman who turned down every suitor in Rio.
25 min with audio
- C1Story
Adão e Eva
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
At a dinner in eighteenth-century Bahia, the guests argue over whether Adam or Eve was to blame for losing paradise.
14 min with audio
- C1Story
Conto de Escola
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
In 1840 a schoolboy named Pilar goes to class instead of skipping it, and the teacher's timid son Raimundo secretly offers him a shiny silver coin in exchange for help with a grammar lesson.
23 min with audio
- C1Story
D. Paula
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
D.
25 min with audio
- C1Story
Entre Santos
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
An old priest remembers a night when, as chaplain of the church of São Francisco de Paula, he saw a strange light inside the locked church and found the statues of the saints come to life, chatting about the day's prayers.
25 min with audio
- C1Story
Mariana (Várias Histórias)
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
In 1890 Evaristo returns to Rio after eighteen years in Paris and visits Mariana, the married woman he once loved passionately, whose husband Xavier is now dying.
23 min with audio
- C1Story
O Cônego ou Metafísica do Estilo
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Canon Matias is writing a sermon when he gets stuck looking for the right adjective.
16 min with audio
- C1Story
O Diplomático
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Rangel, a pompous, cautious clerk of forty-one nicknamed 'the diplomat', has secretly loved young Joaninha for months and carries his first love letter to her family's Saint John's Eve party in 1854, waiting for the right moment.
24 min with audio
- C1Story
O Enfermeiro
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
A dying man writes down what happened to him in 1860, when he took a job as a live-in nurse to Colonel Felisberto, a sick, cruel old man who insulted and beat everyone who cared for him.
24 min with audio
- C1Story
Trio em lá menor
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Maria Regina is courted by two men at once: Maciel, young, handsome and brave but shallow, and Miranda, fifty, hard and unkind but brilliant company.
20 min with audio
- C1Story
Um homem célebre
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Pestana writes lively polkas that all of Rio dances to and whistles in the street, but he longs to compose one serious piece worthy of Mozart or Beethoven, and every attempt fails.
30 min with audio
- C1Story
Uns Braços
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Inácio, a dreamy fifteen-year-old, works for Borges, a bad-tempered legal agent, in Rio in 1870 and puts up with insults and loneliness for one reason: the bare arms of D.
23 min with audio
- C1Story
Viver!
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Written as a short play: at the end of time, Ahasverus, the Wandering Jew, believes he is the last man alive and longs at last to die.
20 min with audio
- C1Classic
A 'Réclame'
Artur de Azevedo
Comendador Viana spots Passos Nogueira, a poet said to be a dangerous seducer, writing in the garden next door, and warns his young wife Laura against him.
10 min with audio
- C1Classic
A "Não-me-toques"!
Artur de Azevedo
Antonieta, the spoilt and proud daughter of the rich Comendador Costa, rejects every suitor and earns the mocking nickname Não-me-toques.
11 min with audio
- C1Classic
A Água de Janos
Artur de Azevedo
Lieutenant Remígio Soares falls for Dona Andréa, a married woman who is closely watched by her husband's aunt and a loyal gardener.
8 min with audio
- C1Classic
A Ama-Seca
Artur de Azevedo
Romualdo, a serious bookkeeper and faithful husband, gives in to temptation while his wife, D.
7 min with audio
- C1Classic
A Doença do Antunes
Lima Barreto
The newspapers are full of Doctor Gedeão Cavalcanti, a fashionable physician who is also a goalkeeper, poet and dancer, and who charges fifty mil-réis a visit.
14 min with audio
- C1Classic
A Melhor Amiga
Artur de Azevedo
D.
10 min with audio
- C1Classic
A Polêmica
Artur de Azevedo
Romualdo, an out-of-work journalist, is paid by a rich merchant, Caldas, to write a newspaper attack on another old schoolfriend, Saraiva.
13 min with audio
- C1Classic
A Ritinha
Artur de Azevedo
Flores, a bachelor civil servant of nearly fifty, sees his first love Ritinha at a theatre in Rio after thirty years and hardly recognises her.
8 min with audio
- C1Classic
Anúncios... anúncios...
Lima Barreto
The narrator, Jarbas, finds his friend Raimundo absorbed in the newspaper's small ads, which he reads to study society: rude landlords, paid motherly love and boastful fortune-tellers.
9 min with audio
- C1Classic
Ardil
Artur de Azevedo
A young baroness, upset because her lover Bittencourt has stopped answering her letters, visits her worldly friend the viscountess early one morning to ask for advice.
7 min with audio
- C1Classic
Atribulações de um vendeiro
Lima Barreto
A retired narrator who enjoys visiting the local grocery shops describes the troubles of his friend Carlos Ventura, a small shopkeeper.
3 min with audio
- C1Classic
Conjugo Vobis
Artur de Azevedo
Angelina, daughter of Seabra, flirts from her window with a shy, elegant stranger who walks past every afternoon.
5 min with audio
- C1Book
Era uma vez...
Júlia Lopes de Almeida
A fairy tale about Princess Edeltrudes, whose father, the King, has never refused her anything since her mother died, so she grows up beautiful, cruel and loved by no one.
47 min with audio
- C1Classic
Foi buscar lã...
Lima Barreto
Doctor Felismino Praxedes Itapiru da Silva arrives in Rio from the North with a law degree, an expensive briefcase and big plans, though his career and his past are not what they seem.
15 min with audio
- C1Classic
In Extremis (Artur de Azevedo)
Artur de Azevedo
Major Brígido's beautiful daughter Gilberta is set on marrying Teobaldo Nogueira, a smooth young man with no steady income, and nothing her father says can change her mind.
10 min with audio
- C1Classic
Manel Capineiro
Lima Barreto
The narrator describes a poor road on the edge of Rio and the people who stop at a roadside shop there, among them Manel, a Portuguese grass-cutter who lives in the fields and loves his two oxen, Estrela and Moreno.
8 min with audio
- C1Classic
Morta Que Mata
Artur de Azevedo
Barreto, a modestly paid civil servant, is embarrassed by his wife Francina's dazzling jewellery, which he tells everyone is cheap and fake.
5 min with audio
- C1Classic
O caçador doméstico
Lima Barreto
Simões comes from a family of slave-owners ruined by the end of slavery, and after a comfortable career as a civil servant he moves to the suburbs and keeps a pack of hunting dogs.
5 min with audio
- C1Classic
O Chapéu
Artur de Azevedo
A comic story told in verse.
7 min with audio
- C1Classic
O homem que sabia javanês
Lima Barreto
Over drinks, Castelo tells his friend Castro how, broke and desperate in Rio, he answered an advertisement for a teacher of Javanese, a language he did not know at all.
23 min with audio
- C1Classic
O Telefone
Artur de Azevedo
Chagas, a shy young clerk in a government office, starts a secret affair with Clorinda, a married woman he met at the theatre, and runs himself into debt and trouble at work.
10 min with audio
- C1Classic
Os cortes
Lima Barreto
A short, sarcastic opinion piece rather than a story.
4 min with audio
- C1Classic
Os Dez por Cento
Artur de Azevedo
Colonel Mascarenhas, a once-rich farmer, has lost his land, his money and his family at the roulette table.
12 min with audio
- C1Classic
Paulino e Roberto
Artur de Azevedo
Kind, hard-up Paulino is married to Adelaide, who never forgives him for being poor.
9 min with audio
- C1Classic
Poverina
Artur de Azevedo
Salazar, a minor writer who has become quite famous in Rio, grows so vain that he ignores his shy, clever wife.
9 min with audio
- C1Classic
Quantos?
Lima Barreto
A short, humorous newspaper piece rather than a story.
3 min with audio
- C1Classic
Questão de Honra
Artur de Azevedo
One morning Angélica tells her idle husband, Braga Lopes, that she needs five hundred mil-réis at once, and when he shows her the unpaid rent she sets off by carriage to borrow it.
8 min with audio
- C1Classic
Três gênios de secretaria
Lima Barreto
Presented as notes left by an old clerk, this piece describes life in a government office, where every day is calm and every letter starts the same way.
12 min with audio
- C1Classic
Um entendido
Lima Barreto
Serapião Stromberg, the most elegant young man in a small northern capital, is made a congressman and comes to Rio eager to show off his taste in art and letters at a society afternoon.
4 min with audio
- C1Classic
Uma outra
Lima Barreto
An old school friend, now an engineer working on railway surveys in the interior, tells the narrator about a curious belief of ordinary Brazilians: that anyone called doctor must know everything.
6 min with audio
- C1Classic
Vovó Andrade
Artur de Azevedo
A shabby old Portuguese man named Andrade takes the cheapest room in Dona Eugênia's boarding house and spends hours locked in with an iron strongbox, so everyone decides he must be a rich miser.
11 min with audio
- C2Story
A Cartomante
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
In Rio in 1869, Camilo is having an affair with Rita, the wife of his oldest friend Vilela, and laughs at her for visiting a fortune-teller.
25 min with audio
- C2Book
Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Brás Cubas tells his life story after his own death, starting with his funeral and the grand medicine he was inventing when he died.
469 min with audio
Portuguese short stories
Short stories in Brazilian Portuguese to read in one sitting: the graded ones written for learners, and the classics of Artur de Azevedo, Lima Barreto and Machado de Assis as they wrote them, each with a summary in English and the text in full.
B2+
- Um Apólogo · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- "Barca" · Artur de Azevedo
- 345 · Artur de Azevedo
- A Conselho do Marido · Artur de Azevedo
- A Doença do Fabrício · Artur de Azevedo
- A Filosofia do Mendes · Artur de Azevedo
- A gratidão do Assírio · Lima Barreto
- A mulher do Anacleto · Lima Barreto
- A Nota de Cem Mil-Réis · Artur de Azevedo
- A Pequetita · Artur de Azevedo
- As Asneiras do Guedes · Artur de Azevedo
- Às Escuras · Artur de Azevedo
- As Paradas · Artur de Azevedo
- As vaporosas · Lima Barreto
- Assunto Para um Conto · Artur de Azevedo
- Coisas de "mafuá" · Lima Barreto
- Como o Diabo as Arma! · Artur de Azevedo
- Denúncia Involuntária · Artur de Azevedo
- Duas Apostas · Artur de Azevedo
- Elefantes e Ursos · Artur de Azevedo
- Em Sonhos · Artur de Azevedo
- Ingenuidade · Artur de Azevedo
- Mal Por Mal... · Artur de Azevedo
- Na Exposição · Artur de Azevedo
- Na Horta · Artur de Azevedo
- O chefe político e o seu eleitor · Lima Barreto
- O Cuco · Artur de Azevedo
- O Espírito · Artur de Azevedo
- O Galo · Artur de Azevedo
- O Meu Criado João · Artur de Azevedo
- O Retrato · Artur de Azevedo
- O Sonho do Conselheiro · Artur de Azevedo
- O Último Palpite · Artur de Azevedo
- O Velho Lima · Artur de Azevedo
- Octogenário · Artur de Azevedo
- Os Compadres · Artur de Azevedo
- Os Dois Andares · Artur de Azevedo
- Pan-Americano · Artur de Azevedo
- Piedade Filial · Artur de Azevedo
- Plebiscito · Artur de Azevedo
- Por Não se Entenderem · Artur de Azevedo
- Quase doutor · Lima Barreto
- Um Capricho · Artur de Azevedo
- Uma aposta · Artur de Azevedo
- Uma Carga de Sono · Artur de Azevedo
- Uma Por Outra · Artur de Azevedo
- X e Y · Artur de Azevedo
- A causa secreta · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- A desejada das gentes · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Adão e Eva · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Conto de Escola · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- D. Paula · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Entre Santos · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Mariana (Várias Histórias) · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- O Cônego ou Metafísica do Estilo · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- O Diplomático · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- O Enfermeiro · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Trio em lá menor · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Um homem célebre · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Uns Braços · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Viver! · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- A 'Réclame' · Artur de Azevedo
- A "Não-me-toques"! · Artur de Azevedo
- A Água de Janos · Artur de Azevedo
- A Ama-Seca · Artur de Azevedo
- A Doença do Antunes · Lima Barreto
- A Melhor Amiga · Artur de Azevedo
- A Polêmica · Artur de Azevedo
- A Ritinha · Artur de Azevedo
- Anúncios... anúncios... · Lima Barreto
- Ardil · Artur de Azevedo
- Atribulações de um vendeiro · Lima Barreto
- Conjugo Vobis · Artur de Azevedo
- Foi buscar lã... · Lima Barreto
- In Extremis (Artur de Azevedo) · Artur de Azevedo
- Manel Capineiro · Lima Barreto
- Morta Que Mata · Artur de Azevedo
- O caçador doméstico · Lima Barreto
- O Chapéu · Artur de Azevedo
- O homem que sabia javanês · Lima Barreto
- O Telefone · Artur de Azevedo
- Os cortes · Lima Barreto
- Os Dez por Cento · Artur de Azevedo
- Paulino e Roberto · Artur de Azevedo
- Poverina · Artur de Azevedo
- Quantos? · Lima Barreto
- Questão de Honra · Artur de Azevedo
- Três gênios de secretaria · Lima Barreto
- Um entendido · Lima Barreto
- Uma outra · Lima Barreto
- Vovó Andrade · Artur de Azevedo
- A Cartomante · Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Collections
Stories
All 24 →Brazilian legends
All 4 →Classic Brazilian stories
All 77 →- B2Classic
"Barca"
Artur de Azevedo
Every summer, rich merchant João Saraiva sends his trusting wife, D.
4 min with audio
- B2Classic
345
Artur de Azevedo
Reginaldo, a patient, mild-mannered clerk, is forever scolded by his wife, whom he calls nhanhã, for being unlucky and spineless.
9 min with audio
- B2Classic
A Conselho do Marido
Artur de Azevedo
On a liner crossing the Atlantic, a forty-year-old husband lectures a younger fellow passenger: a man should never refuse a woman who tempts him, even if she is a friend's wife — and he adds that he is perfectly sure of his own wife, Mariquinhas.
3 min with audio
How to read a story in Portuguese
Listen first, without reading. You will not understand everything, and that is the point: your ear learns where the words begin and end before your eye fixes a spelling to them. Then play it again with the text, letting the highlight carry you from word to word.
Aim for the 95% rule: a story is at your level when you know about nineteen words in twenty. Below that you are decoding, not reading, and the pleasure that keeps you going is gone. Paste a page into the text level checker if you are not sure.
Tap a word only when the sentence has stopped making sense without it. Guessing from the story is itself the skill, and a word you worked out stays with you longer than one you looked up. In the Reader every tapped word is saved for review, so a story you finish becomes a list you learn.
Move up a level when a story feels easy end to end: you follow the audio without the text and you tap a word a paragraph or less. If the next level feels like work, read two more at this one. The 5,000 most common words and the Anki deck built from them cover almost everything in the A1 to B1 texts here.
Questions
What are some good Portuguese short stories for beginners?
Start with the Brazilian legends told at A1: O Curupira, O Saci, A Iara and A Mula sem Cabeça. Each is about 280 words of short sentences in the present tense, read aloud slowly, with the English line by line. They are the stories every Brazilian child knows, so you learn the culture along with the words.
Where can I read Portuguese stories with audio for free?
Here. Every text on this page is free to read and listen to, with no account: the narration plays on the page and highlights each word as it is spoken. Open a story in the Reader to tap any word for its meaning in that sentence and save it for review.
What level should I start reading at?
The level where you understand about 95% of the words without help. If you are new to Portuguese, that is A1. If you have studied for a few months, try A2 and drop back if it feels like decoding. The free level test takes ten minutes and tells you where you stand.
How many words do I need to read a story?
The A1 stories use the first thousand or so words of Brazilian Portuguese, A2 about two thousand, B1 three to four thousand. The 5,000 most common words cover about 88% of everyday Portuguese (Nation, 2006), which is why the word list and the deck built from it go that far.
Are these Brazilian or European Portuguese?
Brazilian. The graded stories are written in the Portuguese spoken in Brazil today and recorded by a Brazilian voice; the classics are Brazilian authors of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with their spelling brought up to date where the edition says so.
Can I download them?
Not yet as files, but every text is free to read and listen to here, and the stories you start are kept in your Reader to pick up on any device. The 5,000-words book is free to download as a PDF and EPUB under CC BY-SA 4.0.
How long is each story?
The A1 legends take about two minutes to listen to; the A2 and B1 stories five to ten; a short classic by Artur de Azevedo or Lima Barreto five to fifteen. The graded novels are read in sittings of a chapter, about five minutes each, over four to eight chapters.
Looking for whole books? Free Portuguese books: graded novels and the classics, with the 5,000-words book to download.