B1 — Intermediate

B1 European Portuguese stories (intermediate)

71 stories

At B1 the stories get longer and the plots get real. Characters make decisions, change their minds and look back on what happened, so you meet the conditional and the pluperfect (tinha feito) in context rather than in tables.

The themes are those of adult life in Portugal: moving to a new neighbourhood, looking for work after a company closes, a Chiado bookshop where Ana shelters from the rain, an accent in Évora that takes time to understand. B1 also has more stories about Portuguese history than any other level: the 1755 earthquake, the Age of Discoveries, the Padeira de Aljubarrota and the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974.

Most of the Clássicas, nineteenth-century Portuguese folk tales adapted into modern European Portuguese, are at this level too. Start with Lisboa é Grande, about a young man from Castelo Branco looking for work in the capital, and if a B1 story feels hard going, read it twice: once for the plot and once for the language.

Each story page shows the opening in Portuguese with the English under every paragraph, and a glossary of key words. The whole story is in the reader, with audio for every sentence and tap-to-translate on every word.

Not sure B1 is your level? The B1 readiness test checks whether your A2 foundations are solid. B1 readiness test →

All 71 B1 stories, in learning order