166 Portuguese Abbreviations, Acronyms and Contractions

Portuguese abbreviations make communication quick and easy. For example, you might say “Sra.” instead of Senhora (Missus) and “fds” instead of fim de semana (weekend).

Get to know the most common and most useful Portuguese abbreviations, acronyms and contractions for all your communication needs. 

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Portuguese Abbreviations

Below are some of the most common Portuguese abbreviations, organized by theme. Abbreviations are typically used in writing, and you’ll generally see these in letters, emails and text messages. 

Address abbreviations

Books and literature abbreviations

Measurement abbreviations

Title and name abbreviations

Day and month abbreviations

Miscellaneous abbreviations

Portuguese Acronyms

An acronym is formed by taking the initial letters of words in a phrase or name. For example, UNESCO stands for “United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.” Check out the table below for a breakdown of some common Portuguese acronyms. 

Portuguese Contractions

Portuguese, like English, often sticks words together. Here are some of the most common contractions you’ll see used in everyday Portuguese. Unlike most other shortenings, you’ll actually hear these spoken in addition to seeing them written. 

Because of this, a good way to practice them is to watch videos that come with subtitles or transcripts, since you’ll see contractions written and hear them spoken at the same time. FluentU could be a good option for this.

Text Abbreviations in Portuguese

When you’re sending text messages, use these abbreviations to make your Portuguese chats quick and casual. 

You’re all caught up on Portuguese abbreviations, contractions and acronyms! You can save some time when texting, or look just like a native Portuguese speaker thanks to these quick terms!

And One More Thing…

If you've made it this far that means you probably enjoy learning Portuguese with engaging material and will then love FluentU.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized Portuguese lessons.

Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the Portuguese language and culture over time. You’ll learn Portuguese as it’s actually spoken by real people.

FluentU has a wide variety of videos, as you can see here:

FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don’t know, you can add it to a vocab list.

Review a complete interactive transcript under the Dialogue tab, and find words and phrases listed under Vocab.

Learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU’s robust learning engine. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.

The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they’re learning with the same video.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Click here to check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.