Select Language

Powered by

Trans late

Current mission Fluent Egyptian Arabic in 3 months... in Brazil! Home Blog About Resources Language learning Travel and business Consultation call Site map Forum Learning With Texts Previous post: Introducing the best language learning system in the world: HB 2.0 Next post: Music and TV for homework? Really? Yes. S. Oui. .

Learning Brazilian Portuguese if you already speak Spanish

| 46 comments | Category: particular languages

There are just a few weeks left until one of the worlds most famous parties; Brazils Carnival. While most visitors would check it out in Rio, which I have lived in, my experience of the Carnival in Olinda in the Northeast was incredible! Some gringos (note: in Brazil that word is used affectionately, not derogatively, and describes all foreigners, even Argentines! Youll almost never hear estrangeiro in social situations even though that is the correct term) might be passing through Brazil briefly, and others may already be living there for a long time. After 8 years on the road, Brazilians remain my favourite people on the planet, so Id understand if you are staying much longer While some of you might be learning Portuguese as your first foreign language, quite a lot of you might have already learned Spanish before. So rather than dismissively (and inaccurately) say theyre almost the same, youll be fine Id like to actually write about how to leverage and transition your Spanish towards (Brazilian) Portuguese.

Starting point European or a Latin American Spanish?

Join almost 1/2 million Im presuming here that you already have a fluent level of Spanish. The only thing is, which Spanish monthly you are starting from will influence how easy it is. American variants such as Argentine or Colombian readers! Spanish have several features in common with Brazilian Portuguese that European Spanish does not. This includes the second person plural (you guys / Yall) simply adopting the same conjugation as the Contact Me third person (They). Luckily unlearning this from Peninsular Spanish (vosotros) is not hard as you would already be used to ustedes in formal studies. In both non-European Spanish and in Brazilian Portuguese, you will always use the ustedes / vocs conjugation (ustedes saben / vocs sabem) when Coaching more than one person, even in the most informal of situations. addressingand Consultation Even the pronunciation would be more similar away from Spain. The distinctive Spanish c is

pronounced as s before e & i (rather than like th) all across South America, and South Americans general speak slower and opening their mouth wider to pronounce words clearer (depending of course on where you are and who you talk to) compared to Spaniards. But what really makes a difference in South American Spanish compared to European Spanish as a starting point to Portuguese is the extra vocabulary. This is one of the many reasons I dont like the theyre the same dismissal its too simplified! It really depends on precisely where you are coming from. Uruguayan Spanish is way more similar to southern Brazilian Portuguese compared to Mexican Spanish, and definitely compared to Spanish from Sevilla, for example. Learning Portuguese actually helped me with later living in Spanish speaking South American countries, thanks to the extra Spanish vocabulary I had acquired and never seen in Spain, such as Bacn/Bacano (Sp) > Bacana (Pt) meaning cool/awesome. South Americans are also much more likely to create a Spanish version of English loan words, so you get computador(a) in L.A. Spanish & computador in Portuguese (but ordenador in Spain), and mouse in all of South America (for computers), but ratn in Spain.

Very important pronunciation differences

Now, even when you are dealing with words that are exactly the same or very similar in Spanish and Portuguese, pronouncing them the Spanish way is a mistake. Crucial Portuguese pronunciation traits that really distinguish the language include: Nasalising every n/m you see at the end of syllables (not between vowels). The easiest way to get used to this at first is to imagine it was written as ng in English. So bem (well) would be pronounced as [beng] and parabns (congratulations, and commonly happy birthday) as [para-beng-s]. One especially difficult sound in Portuguese (and also very frequent) is -o at the end of words. This requires practice its like saying the English ow but entirely through your nose. Similarly, the first two letters of e(s) are like a nasalised version of oy s has a z sound except at the start of words and when doubled. d and t turn to j and ch sounds before e/i (This doesnt happen in the Northeast and some other dialects, which act more like Spanish would). So the famous Brazilian word saudades is pronounced [Sa-oo-DA-jeez]. Unstressed o at the end of a word (and sometimes in other syllables, depending on the dialect) is pronounced as u is [oo in English]. So como is [KO-moo] Unstressed e at the end of a word is pronounced as i [ee in English], and in many dialects it isnt pronounced at all. So pode could be [PO-jee] or just [POJ] G before i/e & J are pronounced as in French (not aspirated like in Spanish). So gente is [zhENG-chee], with zh like the s sound in pleasure. l is pronounced as a oo at the end of syllables (when not between vowels within a word). So Brasil is [Bra-ZEE-oo], caldo is [KA-oo-doo]. Replace Spanishs trilled r with an h sound. The individually rolled r is pronounced as in Spanish (when between vowels, like in caro), but the trilled more continuous rolling r in

Spanish must be replaced with something like an English h (sometimes more forced in some dialects). This occurs at the start of words, where two rs are in succession and (unlike in Spanish, which doesnt trill it) at the end of words (depending on the dialect). So Rio is actually [HEEoo], morro is actually [MO-hoo], comprar ends in a [h] sound, which we dont do in English. Interestingly enough, I noticed that in parts of So Paulo state, this syllable ending [r] sound actually sounded way more like the English r! Rio has a special accent with extra unique features that I wrote about in great detail here. This would be slightly more similar to the European Portuguese accent thanks to a few features. Distinguishing between and can be tricky and requires a lot of practice. Loan words that end in a consonant (other than r, s, or m) must be pronounced phonetically as written and as if an e was added after that consonant. This invisible vowel adds another syllable to the word. This can get very confusing when its a word you should know. So Internet is actually pronounced [eeng-teH-NE-chee] and suite (as in en-suite bathroom, where the e is silent in French and English) is pronounced [swEE-chee], and amusingly hip hop is [HEE-pee HO-pee] and rock is pronounced exactly like the sport hockey! When reading a quick summary of Portuguese, youll see that the basic rules of how consonants and vowels are pronounced are pretty much the same as in Spanish, but I hope this list shows you how more versatile Portuguese really is. Recognising this will bring you so much further in being able to understand the language and pronounce it correctly yourself!

Different vocabulary
Glancing at Portuguese text, especially formal text will make you feel like its precisely the same as Spanish, just with some / thrown in for good measure. Perhaps 95 or 99% of the words are the same, and thats great and all, but the 1-5% thats different tends to be the most common words that end up taking up much more than 1% of conversations! Here are some examples: Cad: This is how Brazilians are more likely to say Where is.. than they would Onde est. It includes the verb, so Cad voc Where are you? Rua (not calle reminds me more of the French rue) Legal: While it also means what it looks like it does, the most common usage is cool ! This one is pretty short and youll hear it a lot in Brazil. Its a shortened down version of olha (look). As well as being used to get peoples attention to see something, its usually just added to simple indications like aqui-. As well as different words there is a very long list of false friends that you should be aware of. Even occasional basic words are nothing alike; Rojo (red) in Spanish is Vermelho in Portuguese, negro (black) in Spanish is preto in Portuguese, and apart from sbado and domingo, the days of the week in Portuguese are number ordered (Monday = segunda-feira, up to Friday = sexta-feira).

Different writing and word formation

You can usually equate some words directly between Spanish and Portuguese, but the writing changes for the style of the individual language. While Portuguese does have words ending in -ano/-am, quite a lot of the -ano/-an words in Spanish have their equivalents in Portuguese as -o, which makes them hard to recognise at first. So you have mo (mano hand), po (pan bread) etc. The same -o ending is used in comparing Spanish -in. Many of the -(t)ion words in English work in both Spanish and Portuguese in this way, like nao, presso, soluo Por (for) is the same in both Spanish & Portuguese, especially with its use compared to para, but if the follows it in Spanish, you just add el or la. In Portuguese the word itself changes entirely. Por el > Pelo, Por la > Pela (never por a / por o, as it would be in Portuguese word-for-word). The use of accents is also different. As in Spanish, most of the time the second-last syllable is stressed and in every other situation, apart from when the word ends in a vowel, you have to write the accent to indicate this. Its similar in Portuguese, but how you define syllable changes. In Spanish its the group of vowels before the last consonant, but in Portuguese its simply the second-last vowel itself. To show you what I mean, an example I like to use is the translation of Pharmacy (drug store). In Spanish its farmacia. The stress is on the underlined a and no accent is needed. In Portuguese, the word sounds similar but it must be written as farmcia. If you dont, then i gets the accent. This means that conditional verbs dont need accents: comeria, faria etc. while they do in Spanish (comera, hara). Also i and u automatically get accented at the end of the word, so assisti in Portuguese, but youd need to indicate it in Spanish asist. And rather than an ending , as in Spanish, Portuguese would have an unaccented ou. Ele falou When using peoples names, its common to add the before it, which is not translated in English. So O Benny, A Carol, etc.

Conjugation: Easier and harder

Portuguese complicates conjugation somewhat by adding an entirely new tense. The future subjunctive, where Spanish just uses the standard (present) subjunctive, which Portuguese also has. So Cuando seas would be Quando (voc) for (not sejas). The good news though, is that Portuguese simplifies a few other things with regards conjugation. For example, you only really need to know three person-conjugations, and not six as in European Spanish (or five/six in other Spanish [where the sixth would be "vos"]). So its not I, you, he/she/it, we, you (pl), them, its just I, you/he/she/it, we, you (pl)/them. This is simplified even further by the fact that we usually relies on a gente and not ns. This is similar to the French on in terms of replacing nous. Brazilians are way more likely to use it, and its the same conjugation as voc/ele meaning you can get by fine knowing just 3 conjugations!

A gente sabe = We know The vowel changes that occur in Spanish and make conjugation that extra bit complicated, are much less frequent in Portuguese. In Spanish you have contar > cuento, cuentas but in Portuguese, its simply conto, conta You still have some exceptions that need to be learned but the number is much less than in Spanish. Many nouns with a ue in Spanish have an o in Portuguese. Similarly for ie and i.

Meeting Brazilians will make the differences become natural

In a post like this, I can only ever give a superficial list of some important differences. For a more indepth look at technical differences between Spanish and Portuguese, see this Wikipedia entry. You really need to get busy speaking Portuguese if you are to learn how to communicate in the language! There are many ways to make sure you dont mix up your Spanish and Portuguese. Constantly practising both is the best way. Cant travel to Brazil yet? There are so many ways that I keep writing about how that isnt a valid excuse. In fact I learned my Portuguese before ever even going to Brazil. Portuguese has an extra boost to help non-travellers learn it: ORKUT Facebook has pretty much taken over social networking in all countries in the world with a few exceptions and Brazil is one of them. Google-run Orkut remains the most active network among Brazilians. [Edit: No longer the case, since this article was written] Using social networking sites like Couchsurfing are great for learning any language, but with Orkut you can connect with Brazilian communities all over the world. After my first trip to Brazil, when I was dying of saudades and living in Barcelona, I simply logged into Orkut and searched for the Barcelona comunidade, and saw all the people there. I messaged a few directly to meet up with and even saw a discussion about getting together to watch a world cup match. Over 30 Brazilians showed up (I was the only non-Brazilian, but welcomed as the irlands mais brasileiro do mundo). I have continued to do this in other countries and its not just limited to major cities: I even met Brazilians in my hometown in Ireland through Orkut!! So finding and hanging out with them is easy. Brazilians are way more friendly than locals in countries they are living in and once you show genuine interest in their culture and language, you can bet they will be extremely helpful. Portuguese is my favourite language because Brazilians are my favourite people. So hopefully this post helps some people who have a head start with Spanish to be able to genuinely speak Portuguese, rather than get by with portuol. If you have other tips, or thoughts on anything in this post, share them with us in the comments!

*********************** Enter your email in the top right of the site to subscribe to the Language Hacking League e-mail list for way more tips sent directly to your inbox! If you enjoyed this post, you will love my TEDx talk! You can get much better details of how I recommend learning a language if you watch it here. This article was written by Benny Lewis Comments: If you liked this post or have anything to say, please leave a comment! I love reading them Just keep in mind that Ill delete any rude, trolling, spammy, irrelevant or way off-topic comments. If you have a general language learning question, please ask it in the forums. Otherwise please use the search tool on the right for any other question not related to this post. How to start learning Italian (video) (Very similar post) Having fun at Esperanto events (Very similar post) Combining learning languages with your hobbies: My first video in Czech! (Very similar post) Why Czech isn't as hard to learn as you think (Very similar post) How to speak Portuguese as if you were from Rio (Very similar post) Singing in French & Spanish, dancing salsa & working efficiently: A day in the life of an Irish polyglot in Colombia (RANDOM - Very similar post)

67 comments
Leave a message...

Discussio n

Co mmunit y

Share

Demarian Williams

3 months ago

Can anyone recommend any really good sites, books, etc, to help me begin my studies on Brazilian Portuguese? I would really like to learn. I am specifically looking for things that get me a good start with pronunciation and vocabulary. Those are my biggest things right now. I have almost three years of Spanish under my belt and I think that I have a pretty good control over it. Not fluent yet, but I'm pretty close. Give me about another year and I'll hopefully be as good as a South American native. But any way, please, if you have any suggestions email me: demarianw@rocketmail.com (Also, I need to find a lot of stuff for me to read once I get started. I already have a lot of Brazilian radio/talk show stations to listen to, but I need things to read. Any

recomendations of children's books or really easy Brazilian Portuguese readers/where to get them would be really helpful as well. Thanks everyone!) Algum pode recomendar quaisquer sites muito bons, livros, etc, para me ajudar a iniciar meus estudos em Portugus do Brasil? Eu realmente gostaria de aprender. Estou procurando especificamente coisas que me um bom comeo com a pronncia e vocabulrio. Essas so as minhas maiores coisas agora. Eu tenho quase trs anos de espanhol, sob o meu cinto e eu acho que eu tenho um controle muito bom sobre ele. No fluente, mas estou bastante perto. D-me sobre outro ano e eu espero que seja to bom quanto um nativo sul-americano. Mas qualquer maneira, por favor, se voc tiver qualquer e-mail sugestes me: demarianw@rocketmail.com (Alm disso, eu preciso encontrar um monte de coisas para eu ler uma vez que eu comear. J tenho um monte de brasileiros estaes de rdio / talk show para ouvir, mas eu preciso de coisas para ler. Qualquer recomendations de livros infantis ou realmente Portugus do Brasil fcil leitores / onde obt-los seria muito til tambm. Obrigado a todos!) (A propsito, eu usei o Google Translate para este pargrafo em Portugus Eu no acho que ele brasileiro, ento me perdoe eu sei online.. tranlsators no so muito bons.)
2

Re ply

Share

Bill

>

De marian Williams 3 months ago

Go to Busuu.com. Start doing the lessons but start talking to Brazilians that you meet on Busuu immediately. Boa sorte!
0

Re ply

Share

Lala
2

a ye ar ago

Actually, we use "ns" quite often

Re ply

Share

Benny Lewis Mod

1 2

>

Lala a ye ar ago

As an object: "pra ns", not so much as the subject.

Re ply

Share

Lala

>

Be nny Le wis a ye ar ago

I mean, we conjugate it, "a gente" is used more often but verbs conjugated with ns are not rare(sometimes we say it without the s in the end though) "Vamo(s) pro parque?; Vocs comeram o bolo? Comemo(s). And is still widely used in the written language. What I wanted to say is that it is necessary to be able to conjugate verbs with ns to dominate the language. PS: people make jokes about the misconjugation of a gente: "Agente vamos" sometimes is written/said.
2

Re ply

Share

Andrew

2 ye ars ago

Great work, fantastic overview, I really look forward to learning Portuguese and living in Brazil for a bit. I feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle because I don't speak Portuguese: between Spanish and Portuguese you've got ALL of South and Central America covered, and that's quite a bit. Also, you've got a repeated typo: Spanish 'r's are "trilled", not "thrilled", haha :D Cheers, Andrew
2

Re ply

Share

Benny Lewis Mod

>

Andre w 2 ye ars ago

I've never seen it written before and in Ireland we pronounce both the same. Rather than saying that I'm filling in a piece of the puzzle, I really think Brazil stands on its own as worth visiting ;)
0

Re ply

Share

Victor Berrjod
0

>

Andre w 2 ye ars ago

I laughed out loud as I imagined what a "thrilled r" would be like! XD

Re ply

Share

Benny Lewis Mod

3

>

Victor Be rrjod 2 ye ars ago

Michael Jackson would have known how to do it ;)

Re ply

Share

Alexandre

2 months ago

Just and observation that might help (or confuse more, I apologize if it does, I remember this vaguely from school): The fact that the Portuguese versions of Spanish's "por el" and "por la" being "pelo" and "pela", rather than "por o" and "por a", is due to those being an evolution of the - assumably, I don't know much - Old Portuguese expressions "per lo" and "per la". Portuguese seems to have used to have "per", an expression I believe still remains in Italian, as well as "lo" and "la", which remain in Spanish. You pronounce "per lo" and "per la" quickly and there you are, it becomes "pelo" and "pela". By the way, there are some old, obsolete expressions like "mui", meaning the same as Spanish's "muy", that you can find in old Portuguese texts like Os Lusadas (if you will, take reading this one as a tough, personal challenge, as it's not that easy a reading even for us, native Portuguese speakers). "Voc" is another expression that apparently evolved from an older one: "vosmec", which you can hear in some historical Brazilian soap operas, and which in turn came from "vossa merc", a much older and very, very polite pronoun, meaning literally "your mercy" ("your" taken as a 'polite pluralization' of "thy", as much as "vossa" is a polite pluralization of "tua"). Well, anyway, I guess you might be more interested in current Brazilian culture and language, but I thought this was something interesting to share. And it's fun to practice writing in English, haha. ^^

Cheers from Porto Alegre! x)

1

Re ply

Share

Rodrigo Tomzhinsky

a ye ar ago

I'm from Rio, but I live in Manaus, in the Amazon for 10 years, and here we have a totaly different ascent and vocabulary (we use a lot of indigenous words)... and I love to speak it! :) by the way, on the part " Bacn/Bacano (Sp) > Bacano (Pt) meaning cool/awesome", it is not Bacano, it is BacanA with A in the end.thanks for the nice article!
1

Re ply

Share

Benny Lewis Mod

0

>

Rodrigo Tomz hinsky a ye ar ago

Thanks! I fixed it ;)
Re ply

Share

Cindy

2 ye ars ago

I'm from south Minas Gerais, very close to So Paulo, and my ''r'' at the end of words sounds like the American English ''r'', as in ''car''. The accent from south Minas is the same one from So Paulo. We don't pronounce Internet like cariocas do. Instead of in-TEH-ne-chee, we pronounce in-TER-ne-chee, with an emphasis on the R the way americans do. The same goes for poRta, toRto, moRto, poR, falaR, comeR, etc. :)
1

Re ply

Share

Benny Lewis Mod

>

Cindy 2 ye ars ago

Yes, that confirms my experience :) BTW Mineiros are among the coolest Brazilians I've met and you can bet it will be high priority to hang out there whenever I get back to Brazil!
1

Re ply

Share

Marcos Anilton

>

Be nny Le wis 2 ye ars ago

We from Rio use to say that's easier for people from Minas Gerais or So Paulo states to pronounce the English "r" as they pronuounce it exactly the same way a native English speaker does. We also have a very peculiar accent (as you mentioned) due to the influence of the Portuguese Court which fled from the Napoleonic Wars and turned Rio into the capital of the Portuguese Empire for around 13 years in the 19th Century.
0

Re ply

Share

Cindy

>

Be nny Le wis 2 ye ars ago

Whoa, cool *-* You're gonna love Minas, po-de-queijo (or cheese bread in

English, I think) is originally from here. Our cuisine is very unique too. There's beautiful waterfalls and mountains everywhere. Also, Minas is one of the top 5 most historical states in Brazil. When you come here, make sure you visit Ouro Preto, So Joo del Rei, Tiradentes, Diamantina, etc,etc. They are all historical cities and there's many more :D And in case you need a place to stay , s falar! You're most welcome here ;) I sound like a very annoying proud mineira.. :P
0

Re ply

Share

Vinicius Morello

>

Cindy 5 months ago

In countryside SP, the [r] is (mostly) close to the English r, but there are a few rules... final R in verbs are never pronounced ('amar' = 'am'), but in nouns it is, except when the next word starts with a vowel (i.e - 'o amor ' sounds like 'o amor', with the rolled r. 'Amor' by itself would carry the American r sound). Elders often pronounce 'rr' exactly as Spanish, but that's fading away in some regions... I pronounce 'carro' as 'cahu'. The r is also retroflex when the letter preceding it is a vowel and the next one is a consonant (paRte, oRganizao). Of course Im being quite generic, there are a few more different accents inside SP state, not to mention SP city. In Piracicaba, for example, its a bit common to pronounce almost all Rs with the American sound. It's the most ignored accent ):
0

Re ply

Share

patty

9 days ago

Spanish.. Actually we study the Spanish while we are in college..It's good to learn more language so that if we travel to the other place we know their language. Its good to learn how to speak Spanish. were glad that we have subject in college.. I'm happy that i have that subject..
0

Re ply

Share

Christian

10 days ago

Very thorough and well-written, although you might want to include a small bit about "" being almost identical in pronunciation to "nh" when comparing Spanish and Portuguese.

almost identical in pronunciation to "nh" when comparing Spanish and Portuguese.

0

Re ply

Share

Carlos Halliwell

2 months ago

Preto has a cognate in Spanish: "prieto", which means the same, although it is mostly used when speaking of a dark skinned person.
0

Re ply

Share

Jael

3 months ago

I am impressed by the techniques explained in this post. So simple and yet, it seems like they are not usually mentioned in a classroom. My first language is Spanish, but I am currently living in the US, so I have to speak English all of the time. When you are using another language, even if it is one that you feel comfortable speaking, do you doubt yourself sometimes when speaking it? What is the mindset needed to think as a native? Thank you!
0

Re ply

Share

Dagane

3 months ago

This is an article which explains the use and lack of use of this tense: http://www.delcastellano.com/2.... However, I must confess that apart from the common expressions (sea lo que fuere, donde fueres haz lo que vieres, etc), people think I'm misspelling every time I use it.
0

Re ply

Share

Dagane

3 months ago

Actually Spanish has got a subjunctive future tense, but it's widely ignored except for extremely formal writings (mainly laws and similar ones) and some expresions such as "sea lo que fuere", where "fuere" is the subjunctive future.
0

Re ply

Share

Adriano
0

4 months ago

I liked what you said about the 'R'. "Porque, porta, porteira e porto" sounds a lot like English ;)

Re ply

Share

Rafael

4 months ago

Man I think you know more of Brazilian Portuguese than me, a native Brazilian Portuguese Speaker. I intend to be a linguist some day and I'm appreciating your work here. Any suggestion about northern Brazilian Portuguese be comfortable to communicate. I'm from Cear, but nowadays I'm lving in

Belm do Par. I'm graduating in Spanish, but never been abroad. So this is it. Any doubt or idea about something i'll be glad to help.
0

Re ply

Share

juji fina

6 months ago

one thing you said bacan/bacano is spanish and bacana is portuguese but be aware that bacana is also spanish its just femine for example you can tell a girl tu si eres bacana .......... u sure are cool etc etc or ella es bacana etc etc
0

Re ply

Share

Jonathan Xavier Murphy

8 months ago

Awesome post. I'm currently learning Spanish (have been for a year), I'm 21, and also Irish - so I guess you should see me as a potential successor! Haha, but I love your posts and videos, keep up the good work.
0

Re ply

Share

Philip Kirkland

11 months ago

Actually, the future subjunctive does exist in Spanish - it's just that no one uses it, and at least in Mexico where I live, people look at you strangely if you try to explain. I suppose for the purpose of your missions (to communicate with natives), it's fine to ignore it. Just as one example; instead of "Venga lo que venga" (come what may), you could say, "Venga lo que viniere" (and one educated Mexican politician does just that!)
0

Re ply

Share

Leonel Argentina

a ye ar ago

Hi Benny, thanks so much for all the facts you share in this article. Particularly, it's interesting to find that people from the South of Brazil (gachos as it were) tend to roll the 'rr's in a way similar to us (Spanish-speaking people), also they do sometimes pronounce the 'l' sounds in final position (e.g. sul= /sul/). I find it bewildering that Brazilians speak in such a strikingly different way from region to region, but I guess you also have many sotaques in The States, hu?
0

Re ply

Share

White
0

a ye ar ago

This article is so good! LOVE!

Re ply

Share

Jenna

a ye ar ago

I love that you mention Brazilians as your favorite people. They are wonderful. My husband is Brazilian, and we spend at least a month there every year. My master's degree is in linguistics, and I've learned and researched Brazilian Portuguese, so I read this

post with interest. It's great because so many people who learn Spanish first really struggle with Portuguese, I guess because they expect them to be more similar. Regarding what you wrote about the pronunciation of r: "This occurs at the start of words, where two rs are in succession and (unlike in Spanish, which doesnt trill it) at the end of words (depending on the dialect). So Rio is actually [HEE-oo], morro is actually [MO-hoo], comprar ends in a [h] sound, which we dont do in English. Interestingly enough, I noticed that in parts of So Paulo state, this syllable ending [r] sound actually sounded way more like the English r!" My in-laws are from SP, and they have different ways. The older ones sometimes pronounce ALL these as a trilled r, like they do in southern Brazil (and like Fausto Silva on the popular Globo show "Domingo do Fausto" does). The others pronounce it the way you mentioned but trill the r at ends of words. I often hear "Oh, Portuguese is supposed to be so hard!" I don't get that. As in any language, you have to learn the pronunciation rules.
0

Re ply

Share

Raz Saccharine

2 ye ars ago

very helpful...
0

Re ply

Share

Wica93
0

2 ye ars ago

Hah, Brazilians are my favorite people, too! :D

Re ply

Share

Frankj

2 ye ars ago

That'll be easy when you've already learned how to speak Spanish. Some languages are derived from other languages, and that's the reason why there are words from one language are almost similar to other languages. It doesn't really matter whether it's called Spanish or Brazilian as long as the similarities are there, and there is understanding among the two parties.
0

Re ply

Share

Benny Lewis Mod

>

Frankj 2 ye ars ago

I think it matters quite a lot - not sure where you got your info from! Neither of these languages were derived from the other. They are both from Latin.
0

Re ply

Share

andredurruti

2 ye ars ago

I forgot to comment: We understand spanish when it is spoken slowly. its easy and good. but the accent btw us is so diferent for..... and the portuguese from Brasil is more easy than the Mother Country Portugal: we need to Translate and legend what they say!!!!! but to me is not a problem: my family is all

Portugal: we need to Translate and legend what they say!!!!! but to me is not a problem: my family is all Lusitan. Bye!!!!
0

Re ply

Share

andredurruti

2 ye ars ago

Hi Friend!!! I loved your work. Im starting to speak, read and write in English. My mother is my inspiration cause she lives in New Hampshire USA. I tried to know others idioms and alphabets in the world: arab, Armenian, Georgian, Rumenian,Hindi, Nederlandise, Greek, Russian (and ukrainsk, polsk, Croatian,Bjelorus, Slovak, Czech...). To understand the spirit of Slavian idioms, the neo-latins (portuguese, Galego, Castellano, Arans, Catalan, Bable, Mirands, Italian, french, Occitan....), Teutonic idioms as English, Nederlandise, german, Letzemburgish, Norge, Dansk.....) Curiosities of suomi, Hungarian, Basco!!! The travel on the sound of Hebrew and all that I could to know.....I take a feel of them. The Spanish is a friendly language as Galego, Mirands, etc. Im learning the Cervantes Idiom wihout teacher....Courses is so expensive to me! but I stoped to run around the world in my searching for the ideal idiom when I found out Esperanto!!!!!!!! I hope the E. as a guide and Help for all . all the idioms are beautiful. but a better instrument to the comunications could be the Z amenhoff Language. imagine Portuguese being used for all....I know the dificulties to use the conjugation of the verbs! and the idiomatic exprssions? Oh my God! meu Deus!!!!. Benny I like u so!!! vem aqui pro Rio. O CARNAVAL te espera. We Love All the People of the world. Que venham Egipsios, Tunisians, arabs, hebrews, chineses.....we are all brothers in this little beauty world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The only one Home!
0

Re ply

Share

Amber Nascimento

2 ye ars ago

This is all very helpful, Benny! My husband is Brazilian and I'm dying to learn portuguese. I speak spanish very well, most 'hispanos' actually think I am spanish :). I've just really begun studying Portuguese and at first I thought that they were 'almost the same', but the more I get into it the more I realize how wrong I was! It's difficult to keep them seperate but your tips are a great help! I think my favorite part of knowing other languages is the look on the natives faces when they hear you speak, PRICELESS :P
0

Re ply

Share

Benny Lewis Mod

0

>

Ambe r Nascime nto 2 ye ars ago

Yes, it is priceless :D I never get bored of it :P

Re ply

Share

Zonotriko

2 ye ars ago

Excelente post! Sou brasileiro, j morei em trs estados diferentes e exatamente como voc disse. Achei divertido poder ver a minha lngua da forma como um gringo aprende. E este ano vou curtir meu primeiro carnaval em Olinda!
0

Re ply

Share

Benny Lewis Mod

>

Zonotriko 2 ye ars ago

Adorei o carnaval em Olinda!! Se vc estiver na rua 13 de maio, tem que falar muito "eu no gosto da fruta"!!! ;)
2

Re ply

Share

Djavan Fagundes

2 ye ars ago

Ol Benny! Muito bom saber que o Portugus o seu idioma predileto e que os Brasileiro tambm so! Voc muito bem vindo ao Brasil! Abrao!
0

Re ply

Share

Vitor Pellegrino

2 ye ars ago

Hi Benny, first of all i would like to congratulate you for such a great work "uncovering" our portuguese dialect spoken here in Brazil; you did a very awesome work! :) I just would like to notice that (at least here in Rio de Janeiro - yes, i am a carioca hehe) we don't use that "", but "" as a shortened version of "olha". That is pretty subtle for non native speakers, but a brazilian would notice it and maybe be confused depending on the context. That sound like "o" in "rock" spoken in american accent. Anyway, keep the good work! I'll use your tips at learning my next language - Arabic :) Grande abrao pra voc, "mermo" :)
0

Re ply

Share

Benny Lewis Mod

>

Vitor Pe lle grino 2 ye ars ago

Thanks for the correction. You're right of course. This is why I mentioned that and are so hard - I still have trouble ;)
0

Re ply

Share

Una Timlin

2 ye ars ago

O Benny, you have just opened another door for me - thank you so much!!!!!!! I couldn't help thinking that marro = maith th! from your pronunciation guide :) One thing you've said about Spanish stresses, I'm not too sure about. Isn't the rule that all words with no accent have the stress on the last syllable, except those ending in n, s or a vowel, which have the stress on the second last syllable? And everything that doesn't follow this rule has an accent? Or maybe I misunderstood what you were saying? I do agree that a huge proportion of Spanish words end in n, s or a vowel :)
0

Re ply

Share

Benny Lewis Mod

>

Una Timlin 2 ye ars ago

Haha nice connection, morro:maith th. Never even thought of that :) (Starts with a different vowel though). The way you've phrased the rule seems to make sense but it's the opposite way that it's usually explained. I was trying to say more or less the same thing.
0

Re ply

Share

Peter

2 ye ars ago

These are all valid points. However, knowing Spanish as a foreign language the major challenge that I faced when learning Portuguese was not the differences between the two languages but the fact that I started to mix them up and to mess up my Spanish.
0

Re ply

Share

Benny Lewis Mod

0

>

Pe te r 2 ye ars ago

Please read the link I gave about mixing up languages.

Re ply

Share

Peter

>

Be nny Le wis 2 ye ars ago

Thanks Benny! Indeed the mixing up languages applies really well to what I was thinking
0

Re ply

Share

Julien

2 ye ars ago

In just a few days, i ll be going to Brazil and stay there a few months. Im determined to do my own fluent in three month challenge with brazilian portuguese. Thanks for this post Benny, seems like this is gonna be usefull, even if my spanish is far from perfect ! :)
0

Re ply

Share

Load more comments

ALSO ON FLUENT IN 3 MONT HS What's this?

T im Ferriss, interview on language learning

41 comme nts 4 days ago

T he most important skill a traditional learning approach will

44 comme nts 14 days ago

Michael Miller Great interview. This may sound corny, but my best experience in another language has to be falling

Drp9341 I completely agree about it being necessary to speak a language before you are technically "ready"

T he month I lost faith in the system, and gained it in humanity

37 comme nts a month ago

Cloud-T utoring Combining Automated T eaching and

6 comme nts 6 days ago

allen I recently started to take a deep look at my life and where I was headed. I feel myself in your stor

Idahosa Hi Miranda. Thanks for your interest. I'm still doing the Mandarin bootcamp in a closed beta. I'v

and where I was headed. I feel myself in your stor

still doing the Mandarin bootcamp in a closed beta. I'v

r Comment feed

Subscribe via email

The Language Hacking League

Join thousands and get FREE language hacking tips, cool links, site updates & two free chapters of the Language Hacking Guide!
Name... Email... Join the League!

No Spam. Not ever.

My talk about "How to speak from day 1" Most popular posts Most commented Random posts Categories

Most popular posts

29 life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight 17 cultural reasons why this European never wants to live in America How to speak English like the Irish Review of Rosetta Stone: Detailed and honest look at latest version (TOTALe) Review of Pimsleur method Any phonetic script can be learned in just a few hours

Any phonetic script can be learned in just a few hours How to speak a language pretty well, starting from scratch, in just two months Getting rid of your English accent when speaking a foreign language The German 3 month mission: Sit C2 exam

Like this blog on Facebook!

Fluent in 3 months
Face book Like 22,460 pe ople like Fluent in 3 mo nt hs. on

Daniele

Rene

Toniann

Oliver

Facebook social plugin

Search
Search

Languages I speak
English French Italian Esperanto Irish Spanish (Br) Portuguese German Mandarin Dutch American Sign Language Video of me speaking all these languages Currently Learning:

Egyptian Arabic

Recent Forum Posts

Forum: My language mission and my log Topic: bisayan By: COO9 - 48 minutes ago Forum: My language mission and my log Topic: Finish all levels of Rocket Japanese by the end of January 2013 for a level of conversational fluency By: Remelsy - 50 minutes ago Forum: My language mission and my log Topic: My Current and Future Language Missions By: Jax - 3 hours ago Forum: Resources for speaking Topic: Learning Material to Learn Farsi Phonetically By: Barret - 8 hours ago Forum: General discussion Topic: Refreshing one language while learning two others. Bad idea? By: Scruffy - 8 hours ago Forum: Find a conversation exchange Topic: Native: Italian (fluent in English) Target: Japanese/Mandarin By: darkkame - 8 hours ago Forum: Ask Benny Topic: about learning languages in your own country and how many? By: KEuge - 10 hours ago Forum: Ask Benny Topic: How can I stop "short circuiting" when put on the spot? By: Kevinpost - 11 hours ago
irishpolyglot
171 videos | 8,976 subscribers

Join almost 1/2 million monthly readers!

Contact Me

Coaching and Consultation

About the Site See the guy at the top-right and in the main image of all posts (other than guest posts)? That's me Benny! I have been travelling for almost a decade, while discovering new cultures and learning new languages and encourage others to try to learn their target language too. You can read more about my story and about this website here. Recent Posts Tim Ferriss, interview on language learning Cloud-Tutoring Combining Automated Teaching and Personalized Learning The most important skill a traditional learning approach will never teach you (+2 month Arabic video) Categories

culture guest post learning

languages mission off topic particular

languages positive mentality saturday post tools translation travel Uncategorized video
Copyright 2011 Fluent in 3 Months - Design by the brilliant Charfish Design