Private one-to-one tuition · Português
Private Portuguese lessons, European or Brazilian — decided deliberately.
The two are one language and two very different experiences of it. One specialist chosen for you from our selected network, matched to the Portugal or the Brazil your life is actually in.
Who it is for
Who books private Portuguese with us
Portuguese is a language of two continents, and almost every brief we receive belongs clearly to one of them.
The professional working with Brazil
Energy, agribusiness, mining, finance or tech, and counterparts who do business in Portuguese and build the relationship before the contract.
Brazilian business Portuguese with the warmth and informality it genuinely runs on — meetings, calls, and the conversation either side of them.
The household moving to Portugal
A residency route, a school, an AIMA appointment and a language requirement at A2 for the citizenship stage.
European Portuguese for daily and administrative life, plus focused preparation for the CIPLE A2 examination when it is required.
The partner or parent in a Portuguese-speaking family
A Brazilian or Portuguese spouse, in-laws who switch language over dinner, and children you would like to speak to in both.
Conversational Portuguese built for family life — listening at real speed, affectionate register, and the confidence to be present rather than translated for.
The Spanish speaker converting to Portuguese
You have good Spanish, you assume this will be quick, and you have discovered that being understood is not the same as speaking Portuguese.
A programme built on your Spanish and against it: pronunciation rebuilt from the start, false friends confronted, and portunhol dismantled deliberately.
The Learn&Co method
A selected network first. Your match, second.
We do not go looking for a Portuguese tutor once you enquire. The selection has already happened — our network is built slowly, from specialists we have interviewed, observed and chosen to work with.
What happens after your enquiry is the second layer, and it is personal. Maria hears the brief, chooses the specialist inside that network who fits it, and introduces you on a chemistry call before anything is committed.
“Amazing at understanding what people need and matching students with the perfect tutor…”
A network selected before you arrive
Portuguese specialists we have already interviewed, referenced and chosen — for teaching skill and subject depth, not simply for a passport.
A conversation before a tutor
Twenty minutes with Maria: what you need Portuguese for, by when, and how you learn well.
Matched from the network
The specialist who suits your goal, level and temperament is identified inside the existing network and named to you, with Maria overseeing the match. No rota, no directory, no algorithm.
A chemistry call, then oversight
You meet them before anything is booked. Monthly reports, a founder check-in at week six, and rematching if the fit ever stops working.
The tutors
What a Portuguese specialist brings that a generalist cannot
Portuguese is the least-well-taught major European language in the UK, largely because so much material silently assumes one continent. Our tutors are qualified teachers, chosen for the variety you need.
They choose your Portuguese with you
European and Brazilian Portuguese differ in pronunciation, pronoun placement, everyday vocabulary and how tu and você behave. A specialist teaches one properly and makes you comfortable hearing the other.
They teach European pronunciation as a skill
European Portuguese swallows unstressed vowels, which is why learners can read it and not hear it. Structured listening and pronunciation work is built in from the first lessons rather than left to immersion.
They handle the personal infinitive properly
Portuguese has a structure Spanish and French do not, and it is the point at which written Portuguese starts sounding native. Taught in use, not as a curiosity.
They know the Spanish-speaker traps
The false friends, the nasal vowels, the different past tense habits. A specialist diagnoses your Spanish interference in the first session instead of correcting it forever.
Life in the language
Portuguese arrives with its own soundtrack.
No other language has given so much of itself to music — fado's restraint, samba and bossa nova's ease, the whole vocabulary of feeling that English borrows and never quite translates. Saudade is only the famous one.
Learning Portuguese properly means those songs stop being atmosphere and start being sentences. Your programme is built towards that: understanding what is being said to you, at the speed and in the mood it is meant.
Two continents, one language
Your variety taught as the base, with enough of the other that Lisbon and São Paulo are both comprehensible.
Informality is the register
Brazilian Portuguese in particular runs on warmth, diminutives and easy familiarity. Getting the tone right matters more than getting every ending right.
Culture as material
Music, football, cinema, news or the family group chat — practice comes from what you actually listen to.
In practice
What the lessons actually look like
The most common question after price. Here is the shape of the thing you are buying.
- An hour a week, or considerably more
- One hour a week is the standard rhythm and the basis of our guide prices. Before a move, a deal or an examination, clients often run two or three, or a short intensive block.
- Online, in person in London, or both
- Most clients learn online with the same tutor throughout. Face-to-face tuition at home or at your office is available across London and is quoted individually.
- Your material, not a course book
- The AIMA letter, the supplier call, the family WhatsApp group, the contract. Real Portuguese from your own life.
- Written up every month
- Your tutor writes a monthly progress report against the objectives agreed at the start, and Maria checks in with you at week six.
Corporate clients
Trusted by global businesses
Language programmes delivered inside law firms, hedge funds, publishing houses and global property groups.
Partner schools
Working with leading schools in the UK and Europe
Exam preparation, tutor placement and curated exchanges with demanding independent schools here and with partner schools across Europe.
Investment
One rate, four ways to commit to it.
Every client receives the identical service — the matching, the chemistry call, the bespoke programme, the reporting and the founder oversight. The only thing that changes is how many hours you commit to, and the hourly rate falls as you do.
Guide prices are based on one hour of private online tuition a week and include VAT. Face-to-face lessons in London, additional weekly hours and intensive programmes are quoted individually.
Flexi
4 hours
Month to month
£75/hr£300 in total
Discovery
12 hours
Up to 3 months
£71/hr£855 in total
Momentum
24 hours
Up to 6 months
£68/hr£1,620 in total
Mastery
48 hours
Up to 12 months
£64/hr£3,060 in total
Every private plan, whichever you choose, includes
Bespoke programmes — not lesson bundles.
- A discovery call with Maria, our founder
- Personal matching from our selected network
- A chemistry call before you commit
- A programme written from your objective
- Specialist tutors, vetted and selected
- Monthly written progress reports
- Week-six founder check-in
- Rematching at any point, at no cost
Not sure which plan? Maria will recommend one on the call.
Before you book
Private Portuguese lessons — your questions, answered.
- How much do private Portuguese lessons cost?
- Private Portuguese tuition is bought in hours. Flexi is 4 hours at £75/hr (£300 in total); Discovery 12 hours used within up to 3 months at £71/hr (£855); Momentum 24 hours within up to 6 months at £68/hr (£1,620); Mastery 48 hours within up to 12 months at £64/hr (£3,060). All prices include VAT. Face-to-face lessons in London and intensive programmes are quoted individually.
- How is my Portuguese tutor chosen?
- The selection happens before you enquire: every tutor in our network has already been interviewed, referenced and chosen by us. When you come to us, Maria listens to your objective, level, temperament and timetable, then names the specialist inside that network who fits the brief. You meet them on a chemistry call before anything is committed.
- Should I learn European or Brazilian Portuguese?
- Choose by where your life is. They are one language, and speakers understand each other, but pronunciation, some vocabulary and pronoun habits differ noticeably. Tell Maria whether you are dealing with Portugal or Brazil and she matches you accordingly; if you deal with both, we teach one as your base and train your ear to the other.
- I speak Spanish. How much of a head start is that?
- A very large one for reading and a mixed one for speaking. Vocabulary and grammar will feel familiar; pronunciation, false friends and a handful of structures will not. A specialist uses the Spanish deliberately and rebuilds pronunciation from the start so you do not settle into portunhol.
- What if my tutor is not right for me?
- We rematch you, at no cost and without any argument. Fit is our responsibility rather than yours, and rematching is a normal part of the service rather than a complaint.
- Do you teach in person in London, or only online?
- Both. Online lessons are available anywhere in the world and are what our guide prices are based on. Face-to-face Portuguese lessons are available across London and some surrounding areas, subject to tutor availability. Many clients run a hybrid of the two.
- Can you prepare me for the Portuguese nationality language test?
- Yes. The CIPLE A2 examination is a short paper that candidates most often fail on format rather than on Portuguese, so it is prepared for as an exam-technique problem alongside the language itself.
- Could I learn in a group instead?
- Yes. We run small-group Portuguese terms of ten weeks, never more than six people, live in Central London and online from Tuesday to Thursday. Private tuition is faster and entirely your own; groups are more sociable and less expensive. Maria will say honestly which suits your goal.
- How quickly can I start?
- Most clients have a proposed tutor within a few days of the discovery call and a first lesson in the week that follows. A highly specific professional or dialect brief can take a little longer, because we would rather match well than match quickly.
Ready to start Portuguese?
Twenty minutes with Maria.
Tell her what you need Portuguese for, where you are now and how much time you honestly have. She will tell you how we would approach it — and who, from our network, she would match you with.
Maria Toubbe
- 20 minutes
- A conversation, not a sales call.
- With Maria
- Our founder, every time — not a call centre.
- No obligation
- Advice you can use even if you never book.
20 min · video call · free
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