Grammar Checker for Portuguese Speakers
L1-aware grammar, paraphrasing, and translation tuned to the specific transfer patterns Portuguese speakers face when writing English — from academic abstracts to business correspondence.
What makes English harder for Portuguese speakers?
English writing problems for Portuguese speakers cluster around a handful of systematic transfer patterns — false friends above all, plus «have» for «there is» and a dropped subject.
Portuguese and English share a Latin vocabulary, and that closeness is a trap: false friends slip through unnoticed. «Pretender» means intend, not «pretend»; «puxar» means pull, not «push»; «atualmente» means currently, not «actually»; «realizar» means carry out, not «realize». A Portuguese writer reaches for the look-alike English word and says something subtly different from what they mean.
The second high-frequency pattern is «have» for «there is». Portuguese uses «tem» and «há» where English uses «there is/are», so «In this section have three results» appears for «there are three results». The third is the dropped subject: Portuguese is pro-drop, so the dummy «it» and «there» get omitted — «Is important to note...» for «It is important to note...».
Diglot's Grammar Checker is tuned for these Portuguese → English patterns specifically — false friends, «have»/«there is», dropped expletive subjects, preposition calques («depends of»), and pluralised uncountables («informations»). It names the Portuguese-L1 reason behind each correction rather than treating it as an isolated slip.
What Grammar Checker specifically does for Portuguese writers
A Portuguese-aware grammar checker holds the false-friend set open while reading the English output. When a Portuguese writer produces «We pretend to realize the experiment», an English-only checker sees a grammatical sentence and moves on — it has no idea the writer meant «intend to carry out». Diglot reads it as the Portuguese false-friend transfer it is and surfaces «intend» and «carry out» with the «pretender»/«realizar» reason attached.
The other patterns the checker is built around are the existential «have» and the dropped subject. «In this section have three results» and «Is important to note» feel complete to a Portuguese speaker because «tem/há» and pro-drop are native structures. Diglot recognises both shapes — supplying «there are» and the expletive «It» — and explains why Portuguese grammar gave no signal that anything was missing.
Top Portuguese-to-English transfer patterns Diglot catches
| Pattern | Example error | Corrected |
|---|---|---|
| False friend (pretender / actually / realize) | "We pretend to realize the experiment actually." | "We intend to carry out the experiment currently." |
| «have» for «there is/are» | "In this section have three results." | "In this section there are three results." |
| Dropped expletive subject (pro-drop) | "Is important to note the limitation." | "It is important to note the limitation." |
| Preposition calque | "The result depends of the sample size." | "The result depends on the sample size." |
| Pluralised uncountable noun | "We collected many informations." | "We collected a lot of information." |
Ready to write better English?
Diglot combines L1-aware grammar checking, paraphrasing, translation, and originality verification in one workspace — built for Portuguese speakers writing English.
Try Diglot freeCommon writing tasks for Portuguese speakers
Concrete Diglot workflows by writing task — each tuned to Portuguese-to-English transfer patterns.
How Diglot compares to alternatives
If you're evaluating writing tools, here's the honest head-to-head — when the alternative wins, when Diglot wins.
Grammar Checker for speakers of other languages
Each L1 has its own transfer-pattern profile — pick yours for the patterns Diglot specifically addresses.
Frequently asked questions
- Why do Portuguese speakers use «pretend» when they mean «intend»?
- Because «pretender» in Portuguese means to intend or aim to do something, while English «pretend» means to fake. It is a false friend, and one of the most consequential because the English meaning is so different. Diglot flags «pretend», «realize» (realizar = carry out), «actually» (atualmente = currently), and «push» (puxar = pull) as Portuguese false-friend transfer, explaining the intended English word.
- Why do I write «have» where English wants «there is»?
- Portuguese marks existence with «tem» and «há», both of which translate loosely as «have», so «In the table have three columns» appears for «there are three columns». English uses «there is/are» for existence and «have» only for possession. Diglot recognises this as a Portuguese existential-transfer pattern and corrects it with the reason attached.
- Does Diglot catch the dropped «it» and «there» subjects?
- Yes. Portuguese is a pro-drop language — it omits subject pronouns because the verb ending carries the person — so the English expletive subjects «it» and «there» get dropped: «Is clear that...», «Has evidence that...». Diglot flags these and supplies the required subject, which is a high-frequency Portuguese pattern in academic and formal English.
- Does the checker flag «pretend», «realize», and «actually» as Portuguese false friends?
- Yes. The pattern `false-friend` is in the Portuguese-aware ruleset because Portuguese and English share Latin roots that have drifted apart in meaning. Diglot flags «pretend» (pretender = intend), «realize» (realizar = carry out), «actually» (atualmente = currently), and «push» (puxar = pull), suggesting the intended English word and naming the Portuguese source rather than presenting it as a word-choice typo.
- Will it catch «depends of» and «In this section have...» as transfer patterns?
- Yes — both are high-frequency Portuguese-writer patterns. «depends of» calques «depende de» (English «depends on»), and «In this section have three results» comes from existential «tem/há» where English needs «there are». Diglot corrects «depends of» → «depends on» and «have» → «there are», flagging each as Portuguese-L1 transfer.
