Lee este artículo en español / Leia este artigo em espanhol
Did you know Spanish and Portuguese are 90% similar? Yes, it is true 9 out of 10 words in these two languages look the same.
Both Spanish and Portuguese are Romance languages. It means they derived from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire.
Despite that, native speakers could not understand each other because the remaining 10 percent is very different, especially pronunciation and syntax.
Also, between Brazilians and Spanish speakers from America, the typical speech speed of those living near the coasts will make communication impossible. To understand each other, they will have to know and introduce changes in the target language.
Ah, but thanks to the vocabulary similarities, it would be easy for them to understand when reading texts in the other language. The good news, you could chat with a lover in your language, and he or she would understand everything.
What is true is you can learn Spanish if you are a Portuguese speaker easily. Because of the similarities that unite these sister languages.
Never think about enrolling in a Spanish course designed for speakers of any language, or only English. It is a big mistake. You have a different path. Besides, you will enjoy it because not only our languages have common aspects, but also our landscapes, our music, our stories, our cultures, our people.
To keep you encouraging yourself to learn Spanish, we give you some keys, at least 5, that will start you quickly in your progress.
Check out these main differences:
1. The use of the definite article by the Portuguese is more common than in Spanish. In Portuguese, it would be “Vou ao México. While in Spanish, it is “Voy a México” Or is the definite article EL. So, in Spanish, the exact translation would be “Voy al México” which is not correct. In Spanish, the definite article is neither necessary nor acceptable in many contexts. One of those contexts is the proper noun. Before a proper noun, we do not use an article.
2. In Spanish there are only two contractions (a-el: al and de-el: del) while in Portuguese there are many: ao = a + o: al, do = de + o: del, da = de + a: de la, dos = +, das = +, no = em + o: in, na = +, nos = +, nas = +, hair = +: by, pela = +, hair = +, pelas = + .
3. In Portuguese, in some situations, the verb SER is used to locate. In Spanish, we use ESTAR. Example: Brazil está en Sur America. Mi barrio está lejos de aquí. Only the verb SER is used in Spanish to localize an event. Example: El campeonato es en el Estadio Central
4. The gender between Portuguese and Spanish is different. In Spanish and Portuguese, there are similar or equal words in the form of different gender: a cor / el color; o mel / la miel; o nariz / la nariz. In Spanish, unlike Portuguese, the letters are feminine: la eme, la uve, la hache. Another example that makes a difference is that all the words ending in -aje are masculine: el garage, el paisaje, el traje.
5. A fairly noticeable difference in pronunciation is the sound between the letters j / r / rr. In Spanish, they are three different sounds.
-The sound of the j is formed in the throat.
-When a word begins or ends with r, or when the r is next to a consonant (rápido, armado, remar), the sound is formed in the tongue and is repeated several times.
-When a word has rr (carrera, garrapata), the sound is formed on the tongue and is repeated several times.
-When the r is inside the word, followed by a vowel (Arabic, arepa), the sound is formed in the tongue only once.
We could continue giving you the most remarkable syntactic and pronunciation differences, which inhibit oral comprehension between natives of these two languages. Also orthographic and morphological differences (word structures). Consider this article as a snack.
Come to our classes. We have an excellent program to accelerate your Spanish learning if you are a Portuguese speaker.
We need to clarify something. We want to teach you Spanish because it is a growing and worldwide language. It will be helpful to you. However, we want you to know that we love Portuguese, and we always speak of it as our beloved sister language.
¡A gente se vê!
