English-Portuguese Cognates and False Friends | WIDA 1-3, CEFR A1-A2

Your Portuguese speaking students already own a large part of school English. It is hiding inside the Portuguese they speak. This pack teaches the pairs that match and the pairs that almost match: 48 true and spelling-shifted cognates from science, mathematics, social studies, and language arts, 12 word patterns that unlock new words on sight, and the 12 false friends that trap Portuguese speakers hardest.

After five days, students can unlock 48 school cognates with their Portuguese anchors, build new English words with 12 word patterns (gravidade becomes gravity; população becomes population), reject the 12 false friends in context, and write true sentences with six sentence patterns built for school work.

THE WORDS, SPECIFICALLY

Science (12): observe, evaporate, gravity, experiment, hypothesis, energy, temperature, liquid, solid, oxygen, cycle, conclude.

Mathematics (12): number, fraction, decimal, percent, angle, triangle, circle, area, volume, total, calculate, problem.

Social studies (12): nation, government, president, election, constitution, liberty, community, region, population, capital, history, culture.

Language arts (12): author, compare, example, definition, paragraph, vocabulary, contrast, describe, explain, important, different, conclusion.

THE 12 WORD PATTERNS, BY NAME

ção to tion, dade to ty, oso to ous, mente to ly, ista to ist, al stays al, the dropped initial es, ico to ic, ência and ância to ence and ance, ivo to ive, ura to ure, and vel to ble. Patterns are taught with 43 worked exemplars and a pattern lab of untaught words, so students leave able to unlock words nobody taught them.

THE 12 FALSE FRIENDS, BY NAME

parentes (relatives, never parents), pasta (a folder, never the food), esquisito (strange, never exquisite), eventualmente (possibly or sometimes, never eventually), puxar (pull, never push), maior (bigger or older, never mayor), colégio (a school, never college), novela (a TV soap opera, never a novel), lanche (a snack, never lunch), costume (a custom, never a costume), data (a date, never data), esperto (smart, never expert). Every trap is taught with both sides printed together, and the trap word is never heard in the audio: students learn traps by reading, never by hearing the wrong word modeled.

LANGUAGE IN CONTEXT (3 POINTS)

Passive recognition in the science text (is heated), eight connectors for school writing (first, then, next, finally, because, but, also, in conclusion), and six sentence patterns for definitions, comparisons, sequences, and conclusions.

WHAT IS INSIDE

- Main deck: 88 slides with full presenter notes and tap to play audio on every entry slide

- Editable Teacher Tools deck: 30 slides (72 word wall cards, 12 trap cards, pattern posters at two patterns per slide)

- Student packet: 30 pages (dictation, content practice, 5 text attacks, pattern pages, pattern lab, trap guide and practice, six sentence patterns, 15 exit tickets)

- Games: crossword (24), definition clue word search (20), and Bingo with a 72 entry call list and caller record sheet

- Cognates Check: 40 items in three forms from one master file: printable, Google Forms (self-grading, copy link), and Canvas QTI for New Quizzes

- Audio: 72 MP3 files (one per entry; pattern files read the whole exemplar set), embedded in the deck and in a standalone Audio folder

- Answer keys: 20 pages, including the explained key for the Cognates Check

- Family letter: Portuguese send-home letter with an English teacher copy

- Teacher guide: 16 pages with pacing, print map, standards map, audio index, and differentiation

FIVE DAY PACING

Day 1 science, Day 2 mathematics, Day 3 social studies, Day 4 language arts and patterns 49 to 51, Day 5 patterns 52 to 60 and the false friends. Every day's core path is exactly 50 minutes, with extension material built in (70 to 75 minutes per day). An optional Day 6 runs the Cognates Check as one 35 to 40 minute sitting.

BILINGUAL SUPPORT

Portuguese anchors print with every entry. Meaning notes appear only where a pair is partial or spelling-shifted, where a sense must be pinned, or where a trap needs its correction, so students grow out of translation dependence while the support stays where it earns its place. Portuguese support in this pack is Brazilian Portuguese; the teacher guide notes European Portuguese differences where they matter.

WIDA and CEFR alignment: Built for Portuguese speaking learners at WIDA Levels 1 to 3 (Entering, Emerging, and Developing) across the language of science, mathematics, social studies, and language arts. The pack supports CEFR A1 to A2 school reading and writing: students master 48 school cognates including spelling-shifted and partial pairs, twelve word patterns that unlock hundreds more words, the twelve false friends that trap Portuguese speakers, and six sentence patterns for school writing. Portuguese anchors print with every entry, and meaning notes appear only where a pair is partial or shifted, a sense is narrow, or a trap needs its correction.

ACTFL cross-reference: Novice High to Intermediate Low interpretive communication.

AUDIO AND GOOGLE SLIDES

Every entry slide carries tap to play audio in PowerPoint and Keynote. Google Slides cannot import sound embedded inside a PowerPoint file, so the pack also ships all 72 recordings as standalone MP3s, and the teacher guide (page 4) gives the short Drive and Insert, Audio route for wiring sound into Slides.

GOOGLE FORMS AND CANVAS

The Forms version is a copy link form: open the link in the Forms Access file, click Make a copy, and the self-grading form is yours. Never request access to the master form; the copy link is the route. The Canvas QTI imports through the in-quiz route: New Quiz, Build, More Quiz Actions, Import Content. Full guidance prints in the teacher guide (page 13).

TERMS

One teacher, one classroom. Print the packet and games for your students as often as you teach them. Please do not post the files online or share the download with other teachers.

Questions: message EduLingo by Dr. Michael Alan Wood through this listing.