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Key Facts: Português Língua Segunda (Prova 138) Exam

138

National exam code for Português Língua Segunda

EduQA Informação-Prova 2026

120+30 min

Duration: 120 min + 30 min tolerance

EduQA Informação-Prova 2026

200 points

Total score (Leitura, Conhecimento da Língua, Escrita)

EduQA Informação-Prova 2026

Valid Ingress

Valid as university entrance exam (prova de ingresso)

DGES Guia Geral de Exames 2026

120–180 words

Extended writing task requirement

EduQA Informação-Prova 2026

EduQA

Designed by EduQA, I. P. (successor to IAVE)

Decreto-Lei n.º 105/2025

Portugal's Exame Nacional de Português Língua Segunda (138) is a 12th-grade national exam prepared by EduQA for deaf students: 120+30 min, scored 0–200, valid as a university ingress exam. This free practice bank offers 100 English-language MCQs covering the 10th–12th grade PL2 literary corpus, non-literary reading, Portuguese grammar, and writing mechanics.

Sample Português Língua Segunda (Prova 138) Practice Questions

Try these sample questions to review concepts for the Português Língua Segunda (Prova 138) exam. Each question includes a detailed explanation. Start the interactive quiz above for the full 100+ question experience with AI tutoring.

1The PL2 secondary programme asks students to read crónicas literárias by authors such as António Lobo Antunes, José Saramago and Mia Couto. Which set of features best characterises a crónica?
A.A long narrative divided into chapters, with many characters and several intersecting plots.
B.A short press text that turns an everyday event into the author's personal reflection.
C.A text written in verse, organised in stanzas, and built mainly on rhyme and rhythm.
D.An objective news report that answers who, what, when and where, without expressing any personal opinion.
Explanation: A crónica is a brief genre between journalism and literature: it usually appears in the press, takes an ordinary episode of daily life as its starting point, and develops it with a subjective, often ironic or lyrical, commentary. The PL2 programme lists the crónica literária among the 10.º ano reading texts.
2In Luís de Sttau Monteiro's play 'Felizmente Há Luar!' (12.º ano PL2 corpus), the title phrase is first spoken by D. Miguel Forjaz: 'É verdade que a execução se prolongará pela noite, mas felizmente há luar...'. What does he mean at this moment?
A.He is relieved that the moonlight will help Matilde find her way home safely after visiting the governors.
B.He regrets the sentence and hopes the darkness of the night will hide the execution from the people of Lisbon.
C.He is glad the moonlight will keep the execution visible all night, as a warning against rebellion.
D.He is announcing that Gomes Freire has been pardoned and will be released during the night.
Explanation: D. Miguel speaks cynically: just before, he says that Lisbon 'há-de cheirar toda a noite a carne assada' and that people will remember the smell whenever they think of challenging the governors' orders. For him the moonlight is fortunate because it keeps the execution in full view as an example of the regime's power.
3General Gomes Freire de Andrade is the central figure of 'Felizmente Há Luar!', yet he never appears on stage. What is the dramatic effect of this choice?
A.It shows that the general is a minor character with little importance to the plot.
B.It lets the audience hear the general's own defence directly, through long speeches read aloud by a narrator.
C.His presence is built through what others say and feel about him, making him a symbol of freedom.
D.It suggests that Gomes Freire is an invented character with no historical basis.
Explanation: Gomes Freire is an absent-present protagonist: the populares, the denunciantes, the governors and Matilde constantly talk about him, so the audience knows him only through others' fear, hatred, admiration and love. This makes him less an individual than a symbol of liberal hope and of the repression that destroys it.
4In 'Felizmente Há Luar!', one line is printed as: 'Sousa Falcão (Com azedume) – D. Miguel é um cristão de domingo, Matilde.' What is the function of the words in brackets, '(Com azedume)'?
A.They are a didascália (stage direction) telling the actor which tone to use — here, bitterness.
B.They are part of what Sousa Falcão says aloud to Matilde.
C.They are an aparte, a remark the character makes so that only the audience hears it.
D.They are the name of a second character who enters and speaks with Sousa Falcão.
Explanation: In a dramatic text, words in brackets belong to the texto secundário (didascálias): they are not spoken but guide the performance — tone, gestures, movements and setting. '(Com azedume)' tells the actor to speak with bitterness, which reinforces Sousa Falcão's criticism of D. Miguel's hypocrisy.
5'Felizmente Há Luar!' was written and published in 1961, under the Estado Novo dictatorship, but its action is set in 1817. Why does the PL2 programme ask students to study the parallel between these two periods?
A.Because the repression of 1817 lets the author indirectly denounce the lack of freedom in the 1960s.
B.Because the play presents the governors of 1817 as a model of order that the 1960s government should follow.
C.Because 1817 and 1961 are the years in which Portugal lost and then recovered its independence.
D.Because the author wanted to write a purely historical chronicle with no connection to his own time.
Explanation: Sttau Monteiro uses historical distance: by showing denunciantes, a frightened people, and governors who rely on the Church and the army to crush Gomes Freire, he lets the audience recognise the same mechanisms of repression in the Salazar regime. The PL2 programme explicitly highlights this paralelismo, the denunciation of violence and oppression, and the value of freedom.
6In the tragic episode of Inês de Castro in Canto III of 'Os Lusíadas', how does Camões portray the emotional confrontation between Inês and King Dom Afonso IV?
A.Inês remains silent before the king and accepts her death without a word, as a sign of resignation.
B.Inês appeals tearfully to the king's paternal mercy, pointing to her young children and begging for exile rather than execution.
C.Inês accuses Dom Pedro of having abandoned her and asks the king to punish him instead.
D.Inês threatens the king with the revenge of Castile if she is put to death.
Explanation: Inês makes a moving appeal to King Afonso IV as a grandfather, showing him her innocent children and asking to be sent into perpetual exile ('Na Cítia fria ou lá na Líbia ardente') rather than killed. Her words move the king, who wants to forgive her, but 'o pertinaz povo e seu destino' do not, and she is killed.
7At the end of 'Felizmente Há Luar!', Matilde watches the fire of the execution and says: 'Aquela fogueira, António, há-de incendiar esta terra! [...] Felizmente – felizmente há luar!' How does the meaning of the title phrase change when Matilde repeats it?
A.It keeps the meaning D. Miguel gave it: Matilde agrees that the execution must be seen as a warning to the people.
B.It is turned around: the light now exposes the injustice, and the execution becomes a sign of future resistance.
C.It becomes a neutral remark about the night, showing that Matilde has calmly accepted her loss.
D.It expresses Matilde's wish that the people forget Gomes Freire as quickly as possible.
Explanation: The same words carry opposite intentions. D. Miguel wanted the moonlight to spread fear; Matilde asks the people to 'clean their eyes' in the glow of the fire, says that what seemed the end 'afinal é o princípio', and predicts that the fire 'há-de incendiar esta terra'. The light now reveals the crime and announces future resistance, so the ending is defiant and hopeful.
8Camões wrote many of his lyric poems as sonnets (sonetos), a form also used by Bocage and Florbela Espanca, who appear in the PL2 10.º ano poetry anthology. What is the fixed structure of a classical sonnet?
A.Fourteen lines, organised in two quatrains (quadras) followed by two tercets (tercetos).
B.Twelve lines, organised in three quatrains, with a refrain repeated at the end of each.
C.Fourteen lines, organised in two tercets followed by two quatrains.
D.Any number of lines, as long as every line has ten syllables.
Explanation: The classical sonnet used by Camões has 14 lines: two quadras (4 + 4) followed by two tercetos (3 + 3), usually in decasyllabic verse. The final tercet often closes the poem with a conclusion or striking idea (the chave de ouro).
9'O Infante', the first poem of 'Mar Português' (the second part of Pessoa's 'Mensagem'), opens with the line 'Deus quer, o homem sonha, a obra nasce.' What idea does this line express?
A.Human beings achieve great deeds on their own, without any need for faith or dreams.
B.Great works happen by chance, and neither God nor people can control them.
C.Divine will, answered by a human dream, produces great deeds such as the Discoveries.
D.God punishes those who dream too much, so people should be content with what they already have.
Explanation: The line is a three-step gradation: God wills, the man (the Infante D. Henrique) dreams, and the work is born. Pessoa presents the Discoveries as a mission in which human vision carries out a higher purpose — a sea that should unite the earth 'já não separasse'.
10In Eça de Queirós's short story 'Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loura' (one of the 11.º ano Contos), what does Macário discover about Luísa at the jeweller's shop?
A.That she is secretly engaged to another man, who arrives at the shop to buy her a ring.
B.That she is a thief: the shop assistant asks Macário to pay for a ring she has hidden.
C.That she is the jeweller's daughter and has inherited a large fortune.
D.That she cannot read, so she is unable to sign the marriage documents.
Explanation: Macário takes Luísa to choose a ring, and as they leave the shop assistant asks him to pay for one she has taken. He pays and then rejects her ('és uma ladra'), choosing honesty over passion. The story shows how a beautiful appearance can hide a moral flaw — the 'singularity' of the blonde girl.

About the Português Língua Segunda (Prova 138) Exam

The Exame Final Nacional de Português Língua Segunda (Prova 138) is a trienal 12th-grade national examination in Portugal designed for students with severe-to-profound deafness. Designed by EduQA — Instituto de Educação, Qualidade e Avaliação, I. P. (which succeeded IAVE under Decreto-Lei n.º 105/2025) and administered under the Júri Nacional de Exames (JNE), the exam is based on its own autonomous curriculum: the Programa de Português Língua Segunda para Alunos Surdos (10.º–12.º anos, homologado em 2011). It is not an individual adaptation of Português 639; rather, it assesses written Portuguese as a second language for deaf students, many of whom use Portuguese Sign Language (LGP) as their first language; LGP itself is a separate subject. The exam lasts 120 minutes (+ 30 minutes tolerance) and is scored out of 200 points across three domains: Leitura (literary and non-literary texts), Conhecimento da Língua (syntax, morphology, lexical semantics, and grammar), and Escrita (restricted response items and an extended composition of 120–180 words). Eligible candidates choose between Prova 138 and Prova 639 at registration, and both count towards secondary school completion and serve as valid admission exams (provas de ingresso) for higher education per the DGES Guia Geral de Exames 2026 and Norma 02/JNE/2026. This bank is an independent English-language multiple-choice study adaptation with 100 original practice questions. It is not affiliated with EduQA or the JNE and does not reproduce the official paper or its constructed-response tasks.

Exam sponsor: EduQA, I. P. (exam papers; successor to IAVE since 2025) with the Júri Nacional de Exames (JNE). The requirements and fees below concern the certification or admission exam, separate from our free practice resources.

Assessment

Written examination totaling 200 points with a duration of 120 minutes (+ 30 minutes tolerance). Based on the Programa de Português Língua Segunda para Alunos Surdos (homologado em 2011), the exam assesses three domains: Leitura (reading comprehension of literary and non-literary texts), Conhecimento da Língua (grammar, syntax, morphology, lexical relations), and Escrita (writing, featuring restricted constructed items and one extended essay of 120–180 words). Selection items (multiple-choice) and constructed items are combined; monolingual Portuguese dictionary consultation is permitted.

Time Limit

120 minutes (+ 30 minutes tolerance)

Passing Score

Scored 0–200; counts 25% of the subject grade for internal students; valid as university ingress exam (prova de ingresso) with minimums set by higher education institutions (never below 95/200)

Exam / Certification Fees

€0 for on-time students in compulsory education; €3 per exam in other cases; €25 + €3 per exam if registering late

Exam sponsor website

Fees, eligibility, and exam policies can change. Confirm them with the exam sponsor before applying or paying.

Our practice resources: topics covered

We aim to reflect publicly available exam outlines and topic information in our study resources. Coverage, format, and difficulty may differ from the actual exam, and we cannot guarantee that every detail is accurate or current. Confirm exam requirements, fees, and policies with the official exam sponsor.

~35% of this bank

Leitura e interpretação literária

Interpretation of literary texts — from the 10th–12th grade PL2 corpus (e.g., Camões, Garrett, Eça de Queirós, Cesário Verde, Fernando Pessoa, José Saramago, Sttau Monteiro) or from other authors, with priority on interpreting the text presented — including narrative categories, dramatic text, versification and rhetorical devices.

~20% of this bank

Leitura de textos não literários

Comprehension of informational, journalistic, and opinion texts (articles, chronicles, interviews), identifying main arguments, explicit and implicit information, and textual organization.

~25% of this bank

Conhecimento da língua e gramática

Functioning of Portuguese syntax, syntactic functions, verb tenses and moods, pronominal placement, word formation, lexical cohesion, and punctuation adapted for L2 deaf learners.

~20% of this bank

Escrita e produção textual

Planning, structure, coherence, register, and argumentation strategies for constructed responses and extended compositions (120–180 words).

Preparing for the Português Língua Segunda (Prova 138) Exam

What You Need to Know

  • Passing score: Scored 0–200; counts 25% of the subject grade for internal students; valid as university ingress exam (prova de ingresso) with minimums set by higher education institutions (never below 95/200)
  • Assessment: Written examination totaling 200 points with a duration of 120 minutes (+ 30 minutes tolerance). Based on the Programa de Português Língua Segunda para Alunos Surdos (homologado em 2011), the exam assesses three domains: Leitura (reading comprehension of literary and non-literary texts), Conhecimento da Língua (grammar, syntax, morphology, lexical relations), and Escrita (writing, featuring restricted constructed items and one extended essay of 120–180 words). Selection items (multiple-choice) and constructed items are combined; monolingual Portuguese dictionary consultation is permitted.
  • Time limit: 120 minutes (+ 30 minutes tolerance)
  • Exam / certification fees: €0 for on-time students in compulsory education; €3 per exam in other cases; €25 + €3 per exam if registering late Official sources

Using Our Practice Resources

  • Work through all 100 available questions
  • Review every answer and explanation
  • Track weak areas and revisit them
  • Use our AI tutor for tough concepts

Português Língua Segunda (Prova 138): Suggested Study Strategy

1Give extra attention to the features of written Portuguese that differ most from LGP — articles, prepositions, verb inflection and agreement — and check them when you revise your answers.
2Review the selection of prepositions and prepositional contractions (a, de, em, por) required by specific Portuguese verbs and adjectives (regência verbal e nominal).
3Pay careful attention to agreement rules (concordância nominal e verbal), ensuring gender, number, and person consistency across complex sentences.
4In the literary domain, practise reading unseen texts: identify the narrator, characterisation, reported speech, stage directions and rhetorical devices, and revise the PL2 corpus authors (Camões, Garrett, Eça, Cesário Verde, Pessoa, Saramago, Sttau Monteiro).
5Practice analyzing non-literary texts by underlining topic sentences, identifying main evidence versus secondary examples, and tracking pronoun references that create textual cohesion.
6For the 120–180 word essay, outline a three-part structure before writing: a clear thesis introduction, one or two development paragraphs with concrete arguments, and a concise concluding summary.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is eligible to take Prova 138 instead of Prova 639?

Prova 138 is intended for 12th-grade students with severe-to-profound deafness. Under Norma 02/JNE/2026 (19.55–19.56), these students may sit either Prova 138 or Português 639; the choice is made at registration on PIEPE, the same exam code must be kept in both phases, and sitting Prova 138 depends on authorisation from the President of the JNE.

Can Prova 138 be used as a university entrance exam (prova de ingresso)?

Yes. Per the DGES Guia Geral de Exames 2026 and Norma 02/JNE/2026 (points 19.55–19.59), both Prova 138 and Prova 639 are legally valid as higher education entrance exams (provas de ingresso) for courses that require Portuguese.

Is Prova 138 an examination of Portuguese Sign Language (LGP)?

No. Prova 138 evaluates Portuguese as a Second Language (PL2) in written form. Portuguese Sign Language (LGP) is a distinct curricular subject with its own independent framework. However, an LGP interpreter is provided during the exam to translate administrative instructions.

What is the structure and duration of Prova 138?

The examination lasts 120 minutes plus a 30-minute tolerance window, totaling 200 points. It assesses Leitura (literary and non-literary reading), Conhecimento da Língua (grammar and language structure), and Escrita (restricted-response items and one extended-response text of 120–180 words). The 2026 papers allowed consultation of a Portuguese-language dictionary.

What literary works are covered in the PL2 syllabus?

The 2011 PL2 programme lists, among others: literary chronicles, autobiographical texts, short stories and a poetry anthology from Camões to contemporary poets (10th grade); Eça de Queirós, Cesário Verde and Almeida Garrett (11th grade); and José Saramago, Fernando Pessoa (including Mensagem, read with Os Lusíadas) and Sttau Monteiro's Felizmente Há Luar! (12th grade). The 2026 Informação-Prova adds that the exam may also use texts by other authors, prioritising interpretation of the text presented.

How does this practice bank adapt the official exam?

This bank is an independent English-language multiple-choice study adaptation with 100 original practice questions. It is not affiliated with EduQA or the JNE and does not reproduce the official paper or its constructed-response tasks. It allows learners to practice core comprehension, grammatical rules, literary knowledge, and writing logic.