Throughout this semester, I have used both handwriting and typing to write in Portuguese. Both methods were able to convey the messages clearly for me. When typing, I would have to hold down on the keys to see the different accents available for the letter. After I updated my computer, this capability disappeared, so I found it much harder to write quickly. There are shortcuts on the keyboard, and I am used to using them for Spanish, however, Portuguese has unique accents which I could not find a shortcut for on the keyboard.
One of the largest challenges I found was to remember the pronunciation differences between Portuguese and Spanish, because when Dixon or Gabi would say a word that I wanted to write down and remember, they had to say the words a few times or spell it out. I was a Spanish AT, so I was still using Spanish regularly, and it would take a few moments to register the words. Another challenge was using reflexive verbs in sentences. I had to check myself each time I wanted to use a reflexive verb, because I was not sure about the pronoun placement. The syntactic order tended to be similar to Spanish with the subject + verb + object. Any adjective has to agree in number and gender and is mainly placed after the thing being described. There are exceptions such as superlatives and order.
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