While they have some similarities, there are certainly many differences in intonation, pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. In general, those who speak either language can understand the other, but it may be difficult in some situations. Countries tend to follow the linguistic developments of the mother country with a bit of delay due to the geographical distance.
Portuguese was not deemed the official language in Brazil until , whereas the colonization really began in the 16th century. Over time, changes occurred in the language because of increasing contact with European and Asian immigrants. The other countries colonized by Portugal speak a Portuguese more akin to the mother language.
Secondly, compared to Brazil, those countries gained their independence much later and had more contact with Portugal during their early development. Pronunciation is one of the main differences between the languages. Brazilians speak vowels longer and wider, while Portuguese pronounce the words with a more closed mouth, without pronouncing the vowels as much.
The pronunciation of some consonants is also different, particularly the S at the end of a word. Brazilian Portuguese is thought to be more phonetically pleasing to the ear thanks to its open vowels, while European Portuguese can sound somewhat garbled.
Brazilian accents have a strong cadence and lift to them, making it easier to learn and understand. All those additional years of direct contact with the Portuguese makes the African accent more similar to the Portuguese accent. Want to have fun whilst learning Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese? Struggling to find decent Portuguese language resources available? I recommend getting uTalk. Available as a desktop site and app, uTalk is awesome for learning key words and phrases in Portuguese both European and Brazilian , especially if you want to use it for travel purposes.
What I love most about uTalk is that you can jump around their extensive library of topics and choose what you want to learn, when you want, and at your own pace. Well, wait no more, here are some of the top 8 differences between European Portuguese vs Brazilian Portuguese:.
Instead, European Portuguese uses a preposition followed by the infinitive of a verb. Brazilians have an open pronunciation whilst European Portuguese have a closed one. Trying to explain it a little better, Brazilians pronounce every single syllable in the word while in Portugal people do not. This is one of the many examples there are as European Portuguese tend to cut a lot of vowels in the words making them harder to understand for foreigners and even Brazilians.
In European Portuguese it is said the same way as in English but in Brazil it gains a whole different pronunciation which is one of the most typical characteristics of the Brazilian accent. One of the biggest differences there are between Portuguese and English is the fact that you can omit the personal pronouns before the verb in Portuguese and still make yourself understood because the verbs are conjugated differently for all the pronouns. Even though that is acceptable in both European and Brazilian Portuguese, it is more commonly used in European Portuguese than in Brazilian Portuguese.
While pronunciation is different in both languages, the spelling is pretty much the same except for the when the words are different. In an agreement was signed in order to make the spelling of some words the same in European and Brazilian Portuguese. The biggest change was in European Portuguese where most words lost the silent consonants.
This agreement caused a lot of adverse reactions mainly from the European Portuguese side as it made the most changes to the spelling of the words. Even if there are words that lost their silent consonants in European Portuguese, there are the cases where those consonants still exist in Brazilian Portuguese. In European Portuguese, pronouns come after the verb, while in Brazilian Portuguese the pronoun comes before the verb. Pronouncing this word or sentence is incredibly different too. As we saw earlier, Brazilian Portuguese is pronounced with an open accent while European Portuguese uses a closed accent.
Just like in American and British English, there are also different words for the same thing in European and Brazilian Portuguese. We could be here all day talking about those but here are some examples:. It is the fee students pay in the university. In Brazil, people will tell you their nickname while in Portugal people will tell you their surname. In Brazil it is also commonly used to call someone.
People learning Portuguese tend to say that the Brazilian Portuguese is easier to learn and understand. That happens because of the pronunciation. As Brazilians say all the letters in a word with an open accent, it makes it easier to understand for a foreigner than when the Portuguese cut the sound of most vowels. When it comes to deciding whether you should study Portuguese in Portugal or in Brazil, there are some things to take into consideration.
Portugal is much smaller than Brazil and it is more of a European country with a Mediterranean climate, while Brazil is a large country where summer lasts all year around. But, besides the language itself, there is one thing that unites these two countries: the people.
There are a lot of words that are similar in Portuguese and English but there are also a lot of differences mostly in the grammar. They can communicate with one another because obviously they are speaking the same language.
It is not unlike the differences between American and British English. When they speak British English,the standard form of the language;as heard on TV,is relatively easily to comprehend for Americans. The accent is not as egregious and only a few word differences vocabulary and phrases are unrecognizable.
However, if they speak with a Cockney, West End, or Scottish accent, it becomes very difficult to follow. The accents are strong, crude and may have a deep nasal sound. Similarly, American English with a strong Southern accent may also present a challenge for people from England to readily and fully grasp.
I love Portuguese just like I love almost all Romance languages. I now have musician friends in Brazil and collaborating with them.
And I also love Brazilian sop operas. I am learning it bit by bit! Does is make sense to exclude the second person conjugations, when showing a Brazilian Portuguese conjugation? I'm learning European Portuguese and created a site to conjugate Portuguese verbs to help me learn to conjugate Portuguese.
On my site there is a Brazilian option to hide the second person conjugations. In Portugal the second person singular is very common, but it seems from this article that the second person singular conjugation is rarely used. Really interesting article and some good comments too. Never knew both words for pineapple came from Brazil. Seems from the other comments that almost every difference between portuguese in Brazil and Portugal is very not corresponding to the country.
I live in Brazil. Another interesting fact about Brazilian Portuguese is that it is a way more open to foreign words, while in Portugal not. It becomes more evident when talking about technology. Even some English words we turn into a verb, like "Delete" eu deleto, tu deletas, etc In Portugal most of this words have been translated.
Great article! I might add something though - the reason why they end being mutually intelligible even when vocabulary might change a lot is due to context. For example, bus stop as demonstrated above: PT: Paragem lit. Another thing I need to point out is "bicha". It's also used as a derogatory term for a homosexual person in Portugal, probably as a "brazilianism".
As sensitivity awareness becomes more and more widespread, that word is even being phased out of its original context "queue". ALso we ommit gerunds a lot, instead of pronounce "ndo" at the end of words we say "NO" "fazendo" turns into "fazeno" , 'comendo" "cumeno" is very similar what occurs in spanish of latin america they like to omit the word "S"" at the end plurals.
Here average people like to pronounce "SH" but not in every world. I can understand very well a portuguse speaking because I got used to their accent, the stress words like in german and english. Also BP is very nasal than EP. I love your article, it can be difficult for students to learn the differences between Portuguese PT and BR, still the Lusofonia emcompasses even more particularities, not only the dialects spoken in Africa and Asia, but also the oficial revisions made in the orthographic agreement that cause further confusion and even generational gaps that again do more damage than good, the agreements that are suposed to bring the Lusophone world togheter are little more than capricious opinions ratified without any public consensus, a complete mess.
I'm confused. I've heard that using Voce in Portugal is considered rude and Tu is more formal. All business that wishes to launch internationally must take into account these dissimilarities. To sell internationally, you must gain the trust of your target audience. And in order to win their trust, you must address them in their language, taking into account the regional specificities.
Do not address a Portuguese as a Brazilian. Study the habits of each culture in detail, because it is essential to localize your words based upon these. A rule that equally applies within the same country: although the similarities are close, the North Brazilians may not perceive things in the same way as those in the South.
Think about it!
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