Uma Casa Portuguesa
by Amália Rodrigues
- Language
- Portuguese
- Released
- 1953
- Genre
- fado
- Level
- B2-
- Difficulty score
- 894
- Special
- Legend
Put this beside the Brazilian cards and you have the most useful comparison in the Portuguese catalogue. Amália sings European Portuguese: vowels closed almost to vanishing, the final s hissed rather than spoken. Brazilian keeps its vowels wide open. One written language, two very different sounds, and a learner who has only ever heard one is regularly stranded in front of the other. The vocabulary is a house inventory — casa, mesa, janela, cortina, tigela, paredes, jardim — plus two words that carry culture rather than meaning: azulejo, the painted tile, and alecrim, rosemary. B2- is about the accent and the register, not about the words.
How to study this song
The card for “Uma Casa Portuguesa” is built from 54 study entries at B2-: 34 Portuguese words, 9 adjectives and 11 verb forms. Start with the glossary: casa, pão and vinho come up again and again, so they are the ones to know first. It is unusually descriptive — 9 adjectives alongside 34 everyday words — so expect colour rather than plot. At this level the words on their own are not the problem — it is the way they are put together that takes the work.
The words of this song, in several languages
Every word below is taken from this song and translated by us. Nothing here is the lyric itself — these are the individual words you need in order to follow it.
Vocabulary
| PT | EN | ES | IT | FR | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| casa | house | casa | casa | maison |
What this song teaches you
Level · B2-
- Vocabulary words
- 34
- Adjectives
- 9
- Word combos
- 11
- Expressions
- 10
- Verb forms
- 13
- Quiz questions
- 35
Background
About the song
“Uma Casa Portuguesa” (“A Portuguese House”) is one of the best-loved songs of Amália Rodrigues, the legendary “Queen of Fado”, recorded in the 1950s.
Rather than the mournful longing of much fado, this is a warm, proud celebration of humble domestic life: a modest home where bread, wine and love matter more than wealth.
Amália’s incomparable voice turns that simple, homely image into something deeply moving and quintessentially Portuguese.
The words are by Reinaldo Ferreira, with music by Artur Fonseca and Vasco Matos Sequeira, written around 1950 and first sung by Sara Chaves; Amália recorded it in 1953 for Columbia and kept it in her repertoire, including her celebrated 1956 concerts at the Olympia in Paris.
Did you know?
The song became almost a second national anthem of everyday Portugal, embraced across social classes for its message that dignity and happiness lie in simplicity rather than riches.
Through Amália’s international tours and films it helped carry fado — and the Portuguese language — to audiences far beyond Portugal, and it remains a staple of the fado repertoire.
Charts & streaming
A signature recording for the most important fado singer of all time, “Uma Casa Portuguesa” has been reissued, covered and streamed continuously for decades.
It stands as one of the most recognisable Portuguese songs ever recorded and a cornerstone of Amália Rodrigues’s enduring legacy. The original 78rpm Columbia disc of 1953 is preserved in the discographic collection of the Museu do Fado in Lisbon.