Today I decided to focus on the little ones, and I will write about Portuguese Songs For Kids.
Many of my students have children or grandchildren that also want to learn this beautiful language, and I understand that there are not a lot of resources.
With these songs, I hope that I can bring the language to children, in an easy and fun way. But adults, sing along too! Never underestimate the power that Portuguese children’s songs can have in your language learning process!
All of the following songs are traditional Portuguese songs, that have been passed from generation to generation and when I was a little girl I used to sing them all the time. In the car, going on trips, at school, at home, with my parents. All times seemed to be good to pull one out of the bag and start singing!
You can check the videos, where you will hear me singing and playing (do not judge me, I am not a professional player – I just wanted to give you a sense of how the music goes) and you can also check out the lyrics.
So, shall we start?
Portuguese Songs for Children
Doidas, doidas, andam as galinhas
Lyrics in Portuguese:
Doidas, doidas, doidas, andam as galinhas
Para pôr o ovo lá no buraquinho
Raspam, raspam, raspam
P’ra alisar a terra
Bicam, bicam, bicam
Para fazer o ninho
Lyrics in English:
Crazy, crazy, crazy the chickens go around
To put the egg in the hole
They scratch, scratch, scratch
To smooth the earth
They hit the ground with their beak
To build the nest
Era uma vez um cavalo
Lyrics in Portuguese:
Era uma vez um cavalo
Que vivia num lindo carrossel
Tinha as orelhas de burro
E a cabeça era feita de papel
A galope xalalá Sem parar xalalá
Cavalinho nunca sai do seu lugar Xalalá (BIS)
Lyrics in English:
Once upon a time there was a horse
Who lived on a beautiful carousel
It had donkey ears
And the head was made of paper
Galloping Xalalá
Nonstop Xalalá
The little horse never leaves his seat Xalalá (BIS)
Papagaio Loiro
Lyrics in Portuguese:
Papagaio loiro
De bico doirado
Leva-me esta carta
Ao meu namorado
Lyrics in English:
Blond Parrot
With a golden beak
Take this letter
To my boyfriend
Brilha, Brilha Estrelinha
Lyrics in Portuguese:
Brilha, brilha lá no céu
A estrelinha que nasceu
E logo outra surge ao lado
E o céu fica iluminado
Brilha, brilha lá no céu
A estrelinha que nasceu =)
Lyrics in English (literally translated):
It shines, shines in the sky
The little star that was born
And suddenly another one appears next to it
And the sky is illuminated
It shines, shines up there in the sky
The little star that was born
English version of the song:
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
I hope you enjoy listening to these songs and that you share it with the children and adults of your life! To get a better insight on the lyrics, please select CC when looking at the videos 😉 It will make it easier to sing along, I reckon!
Also, if you enjoyed this post, please let me know in the comments either on the comment section below or on the comment section in youtube! Likes are always welcome too!
Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube Channel and stay up-to-date with new videos.
If you want to learn Portuguese in a structured and fun way you should check out my Online Course here.
I will continue singing now (or maybe I will stop..people may start to complain if I don’t aha 😉
See you later!
Hi Mia. Thanks for this great page. I have been learning Portuguese for 18 months now, but I live in London and I don’t have any Portuguese people living here to try to have spoken conversations with.
I am scared if maybe my learning is not improving and maybe even getting worse because of this.
Can you advice how I can improve?
Thanks
Dermot
Olá Dermot 🙂
Thank you for your comment. I am glad you have decided to reach out 🙂
If you want to learn the best practices to become fluent in Portuguese, I would advise you check out the following webinar that I host:
https://event.webinarjam.com/register/11/40v5ot6
In this webinar, I teach you all the best methods, techniques and also courses and how to follow them, so that you can become fluent in Portuguese faster and effectively.
Please let me know if this is helpful 🙂
If you still have any questions, please let me know!
Beijinhos,
Mia
Thank you. Sorry for late reply. I had not seen your comment until now. I will have a look at your link. Thanks very much.
You’re welcome 🙂
This is so great for me as an adult to learn some Portuguese. It’s very helpful. Thanks for posting it!
Hi Linda,
thank you so much for your comment 🙂 I am glad you enjoyed it.
Beijinhos,
Mia
Can you maybe put the chords somewhere so I can teach myself the songs while playing?
Hey Maria!
I will try to do this in the near future. Thank you for the suggestion!
Mia
Hi Mia,
love your lessons. I have been using childrens’ books to help my Portuguese reading ability. I bought a book of Portuguese songs from Pingo Doce (they have a lot of great books for kids in Portuguese) which I and my friends use to try and learn Portuguese. The best songbook I have found is ‘cantar Portugal’ para miudas e miudos. It has a free CD and the words and music for the songs.
I live in a small village, ‘Almegue’ near Cernache do Bonjardim, 6 houses, 10 people. My neighbours seem to speak a dialect, not the grammatical Portuguese that we learn in class. Have you any ideas on how to pick up dialects?
Cheers
Tony Charlton
Hey Tony!
I am glad you enjoy learning Portuguese this way. I really think it’s a good way for adults too 🙂
About the dialects, I think the only effective way is by speaking and listening as much as you can!
That’s more a less how I learnt (a bit, at least) how to speak in the dialect in Bavaria, south of German…
I am sorry that I don’t have any magical ways, but i really believe immersion is the best way 🙂
Muito obrigada,
Mia.