Differences between Spanish and Portuguese

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Spanish and Portuguese are two of the most widely spoken languages in the world today. Although they are closely related, to the point of having a moderate degree of mutual intelligibility, there are also important differences between them, which can pose difficulties for people acquainted with one of the languages who attempt to learn the other. Both are part of a broader group known as West Iberian, which contains also several minor languages or dialects with fewer speakers, all of which are mutually intelligible among themselves to some degree. Some of the most prominent differences between the two are explained below.

Contents

[edit] Vocabulary

[edit] Overview

Spanish and Portuguese share a fairly great amount of words that are either spelled identically (although they may be pronounced slightly different), almost identically (though they may be pronounced more or less the same) or predictably similar. Consider for example the following paragraph, taken from the Gramática Esencial del Español, by Manuel Seco, and compare it to the Portuguese rendition below, noting the extensive lexical similarity and the only slight changes in word order:

Pero, a pesar de esta variedad de posibilidades que la voz posee, sería muy pobre instrumento de comunicación si no contara más que con ella. La capacidad de expresión del hombre no dispondría de más medios que la de los animales. La voz, sola, es para el hombre apenas una materia informe, que para convertirse en un instrumento perfecto de comunicación debe ser sometida a un cierto tratamiento. Esa manipulación que recibe la voz son las "articulaciones".

Porém, apesar desta variedade de possibilidades que a voz possui, seria um instrumento de comunicação muito pobre se não contasse com mais além dela. A capacidade de expressão do homem não disporia de mais meios que a dos animais. A voz, sozinha, é para o homem apenas uma matéria informe, que para se converter num instrumento perfeito de comunicação deve ser submetida a um certo tratamento. Essa manipulação que a voz recebe são as "articulações".

Some frequent words are however quite different in the two languages, as illustrated in the following table. (Unless otherwise stated, the source of the examples is Latin).

Spanish Portuguese Meaning
calle rua street
callis [via] ruga
ventana janela window
vĕntu jānuella
rodilla joelho knee
rŏtella genucŭlu
alfombra tapete carpet
Arab. al ḥanbal tapēte
borrar apagar to erase
Spanish borra adpācāre
olvidar esquecer to forget
oblītare excadĕscere

Vocabulary divergence arises from the following factors:

  • Different lexical drift over the centuries (Spanish kept most of the Mozarabic vocabulary of Arabic origin, while Portuguese did not have a Mozarabic substratum as large, and gradually replaced much of it with Latin roots): albañil / pedreiro "stonemason".
  • Different semantic drift, producing cognates that look similar but mean different things (false friends): cola means "tail" in Spanish, but "glue" in Portuguese (although the word exists in Spanish with exactly the same meaning, it is little used nowadays).
  • Different influences from other languages, either European (Portuguese received a great deal of French influence, while Spanish was both more autonomous and more Mediterranean-oriented), or from other continents (Amerindian, African, or Asian languages). For example, compare:
    • the words for "pineapple": piña (from the Spanish word for "pine cone") / abacaxi or ananás (from Tupi);
    • the words for "tea", té / chá (from the Min Nan and the Cantonese dialects of Chinese, respectively).
  • Words that are peculiar to either language: adosado "in twos" has no Portuguese counterpart, while saudade is typical Portuguese.
  • Words that have two forms in one language, but just one in the other: Portuguese criar corresponds to both Spanish crear "create" and criar "raise", while Spanish sueño corresponds to both Portuguese sonho "dream" and sono "sleep."
  • Different sound inventory: ya / já "already", veces / vezes "times", visión / visão "vision", ojalá / oxalá "hopefully".
  • Different phonetic evolution. For example, the consonant clusters of Latin frequently took different routes in the two languages:
Spanish Portuguese Meaning
arcilla argila clay
argilla(m)
blando brando soft
blandu(m)
queso queijo cheese
cāsĕu(m)
hombre homem man
homĭne(m) → hom'ne
ojo olho eye
ocŭlu(m) → oc'lu
temblar tremer to tremble
tremulāre → trem'lare

[edit] Frequent homonyms

Apart from a considerable number of false friends, there are also some cognate words whose meaning is broader in one language than in the other. Some examples:

[edit] "Muy," "mucho," and "muito"

Spanish distinguishes the adjective mucho "much/many" from the adverb muy "very/quite". Portuguese uses muito as both an adjective and adverb. As an adjective, muito is inflected to agree in gender and number with the noun it qualifies, like mucho. As an adverb, it is invariable like muy. Thus, it would be incorrect to say *muitas maduras, in the second example below. (The cognate mui appeared in ancient Portuguese, but has become archaic.)

Sacamos muchas fotos durante el viaje. (Spanish)
Tiramos muitas fotos durante a viagem. (Portuguese)
We took many photos during the trip.
Las cerezas están muy maduras. (Spanish)
As cerejas estão muito maduras. (Portuguese)
The cherries are quite ripe.

[edit] "Todo" and "tudo"

The Spanish indefinite pronoun todo can mean "all/every", or "everything". Portuguese distinguishes between todo "all/every" and tudo "everything" (used when the referent is an indefinite object or abstraction).

Todo insecto tiene seis patas. (Spanish)
Todo inseto tem seis patas. (Portuguese)
Every insect has six legs.
El ladrón robó todo. (Spanish)
O ladrão roubou tudo. (Portuguese)
"The thief stole everything," or "The thief stole it all."

[edit] Cardinal numbers

The cardinal numbers are very similar in both Spanish and Portuguese, but there is a difference in numbers one and two. Spanish use a separate word, uno for "one," where the subject is undefined or in sequence with other numbers (i.e. página uno page one). In Portuguese it is the same word as its masculine indefinite article, um. On the other hand, in Portuguese cardinal number two must agree in gender with its referent (dois if masculine, duas if feminine), while in Spanish dos is used for both.

Uno más uno es igual a dos. (Spanish)
Um mais um é igual a dois. (Portuguese)
One plus one is equal to two.
Dos cabezas son mejores que una. (Spanish)
Duas cabeças são melhores (do) que uma. (Portuguese)
Two heads are better than one.

[edit] Orthography

Further information: Spanish orthography, Portuguese orthography.

[edit] Different spellings for similar sounds

The palatal consonants are spelled differently in the two languages.

Pronunciation Spanish Portuguese
/j/ y i
/ʎ/ ll lh
/ɲ/ ñ nh

The spelling y was used in ancient Portuguese by some authors, but an orthographic reform in 1911 made i official. This sound can be regarded as an allophone of the vowel /i/ in both languages.

The spellings ll and ñ were used in Old Portuguese, but in the 13th century King Denis of Portugal, who was an admirer of the poetry of the troubadors, decided to adopt the Occitan digraphs lh and nh.

The precise pronunciation of these three consonants varies with dialect in each language. In particular, although the consonant y has been transcribed here as /j/ to facilitate the comparison with Portuguese, in Spanish it is usually realized as the fricative /ʝ/. See also the section on yeísmo, below.

[edit] Different sounds spelled the same way

Spelling Spanish Portuguese
ch /tʃ/ /ʃ/
j or
g (+e, i)		 /x/ /ʒ/
r-, -rr- /r/ /x/
v /b/ /v/
z-, -z- /θ/ or /s/ /z/

Portuguese is a guttural "r" language; the word-initial "r", transcribed here as /x/ to facilitate the comparison with Spanish, actually has several possible pronunciations, depending on the speaker's dialect. Spanish has kept its original pronunciation as an alveolar trill. The realization of the Spanish phoneme /x/ also varies somewhat with dialect.

[edit] Endings

Various word endings are consistently different in the two languages.

  • Spanish -n generally corresponds to Portuguese -m (e.g. Spanish: jardín, algún; Portuguese: jardim, algum). In the plural, the m is replaced with an n (Spanish: jardines, algunos; Portuguese: jardins, alguns). There is also a difference in pronunciation, since in Spanish these letters are fully pronounced, but in Portuguese they just indicate that the preceding vowel is nasal.
  • Common exceptions to the above rule concern the Spanish noun endings:
    • -an and -ano, which normally correspond to -ão in Portuguese;
    • -ana, which corresponds to -ã;
    • -ón / -ción / -sión, which usually correspond to -ão / -ção / -são or -ssão.
  • The 3rd. person plural endings of the preterite tense are spelled with -on in Spanish (pensaron, vivieron), but with -am in Portuguese (pensaram, viveram).
  • Another conspicuous difference concerns the use of -z in Spanish versus -s in Portuguese at the end of syllables, especially final unstressed ones. A few examples:
Spanish: Álvarez, Hernández, Rodríguez, izquierda, mezquino.
Portuguese: Álvares, Fernandes, Rodrigues, esquerda, mesquinho.

[edit] Diacritics

  • The tilde is part of the letter ñ in Spanish, while in Portuguese it marks the nasal vowels ã and õ. (In Spanish, the word tilde is a synonym of "accent mark", but in Portuguese it designates only this diacritic.)
  • The accentuation rules of Portuguese and Spanish are similar, but not identical. Differences are especially pervasive in words that contain i or u in their last syllable. Compare the following cognates, which are stressed on the same vowel in the two languages:
Spanish: serios, taxi, viví, bambú, jardín, sería, pensáis, pensé, pensó.
Portuguese: sérios, táxi, vivi, bambu, jardim, seria, pensais, pensei, pensou.

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Historical divergence

Related articles: Linguistic history of Spanish, Portuguese Vocabulary.

[edit] Early differences in the vowels

Spanish and Portuguese have been diverging for over a thousand years. One of the most noticeable early differences between them concerned the evolution of the stressed vowels of Latin:

Classical Latin Spanish Portuguese
Spelling Pronunciation Spelling Pronunciation
A a/á /a/ a/á /a/
Ā
E ie/ié /je/ e/é /ɛ/
Ē e/é /e/ e/ê /e/
I
Ī i/í /i/ i/í /i/
O ue/ué /we/ o/ó /ɔ/
Ō o/ó /o/ o/ô /o/
U
Ū u/ú /u/ u/ú /u/
AU o/ó /o/ ou /ou̯/

Latin vowels with a macron were long. The exact pronunciation of some of them likely varied with time and register. In Spanish and Portuguese, accent marks indicate stress (which is not always marked explicitly). The digraph ou may be pronounced as a diphthong or as the monophthong /o/ in modern Portuguese, depending on the speaker's dialect.

As vowel length ceased to be distinctive in the transition from Latin to Romance, the short stressed vowels E and O became ie and ue in Spanish. This diphthongization, although also found in some other Romance languages, did not occur in Galician-Portuguese, which instead lowered all short stressed vowels of Latin but A. Some examples:

  • Latin: petra "stone" → Spanish: piedra, Portuguese/Galician: pedra (French: pierre, Italian: pietra).
  • Latin: moritur "he dies" → Spanish: muere, Portuguese/Galician: morre (French: meurt / muert, Romanian: moare, Italian: muore).

[edit] Early differences in the consonants

The following table shows some of the systematic sound changes in the consonants.

Latin Spanish Portuguese Meaning
F-
filiu(m), *fabulare		 h-, later silenced
hijo, hablar		 f-
filho, falar		 son, to speak
-L-
volāre, caelu(m)		 l
volar, cielo		 elided
voar, céu (arch. ceo)		 to fly, sky
-N-
generāle(m), tenēre		 n
general, tener		 elided
geral, ter		 general (adj.), to have
-LL-
castellu(m)		 ll
castillo		 l
castelo		 castle
-NN-
canna(m), annu(m)		 ñ
caña, año		 n
cana, ano		 reed, year
-LI-
filiu(m), alĭu(m)		 j
hijo, ajo		 lh
filho, alho		 son, garlic
-NI-
Juniu(m)		 ni
junio		 nh
Junho		 June
CL, FL, PL
clamāre, flamma(m), plēnu(m)		 ll
llamar, llama, lleno		 ch
chamar, chama, cheio		 to call, flame, full
CT, LT
nocte(m), octo, mŭltu(m)		 ch
noche, ocho, mucho		 it, ut
noite (arch. noute), oito, muito		 night, eight, much

Peculiar to early Spanish (as in the Gascon dialect of Occitan, possibly due to a Basque substratum) was the loss of Latin initial F whenever it was followed by a vowel which did not diphthongise. Compare:

  • Spanish hijo with Ladino fijo, Fr. fils, Italian figlio, Port. filho, Occ. filh and Gasc. hilh;
  • Spanish hablar, Lad. favlar, Port. falar;
  • but Spanish/Lad. fuego, Port. fogo.

Another typical difference concerned the result of Latin L and N in intervocalic position:

  • Simple L and N were elided in Portuguese (sometimes followed by the merger of the two surrounding vowels, or by the insertion of an epenthetic vowel between them), but retained in Spanish. For instance, Lat. arēna(m), Luna(m) → Spanish arena, Luna, Port. areia (arch. arẽa), Lua (arch. Lũa) "sand", "Moon".
  • Double L and N were shortened in Portuguese, but became the palatals /ʎ/ and /ɲ/ in Spanish. (The Spanish letter ñ was initially a shorthand for nn.)
  • Before semivowel I, they became palatals in Portuguese, but in Spanish L produced j (/dʒ/ or /ʒ/), and N remained unchanged.

The tables above represent only general trends. There are many exceptions, due to:

  1. Other phonological processes at work in old Spanish and old Portuguese, which interfered with these.
  2. Later regularization by analogy with related words.
  3. Later borrowing of learned words directly from Latin, especially since the Renaissance, which did not respect the original sound laws.
  4. Mutual borrowing, from Spanish to Portuguese or vice-versa.

Learned words such as pleno, ocular, no(c)turno, tremular, and so on, were not included in the examples above, since they were adapted directly from classical Latin at later times.

[edit] "B" versus "V"

Since the late Middle Ages, both languages have gone through more sound shifts and mergers which set them farther apart. Originally, the letters b and v stood for independent sounds pronounced /b/ and /β/, respectively, but with time the two merged into a single phoneme in Spanish. Although the same happened in the northern region of Portugal, they have remained separate phonemes in most dialects of Portuguese, including all Brazilian dialects. The bilabial fricative /β/ of Old Portuguese subsequently changed into the labiodental fricative /v/, as in French and Italian.

Since no distinction is made anymore between the pronunciation of b and v, Spanish spelling has been reformed according to classical Latin. In Portuguese, the spelling of these letters is based on pronunciation, which is closer to medieval Latin. This leads to some orthographic disparities:

  • Compare for example Spanish gobierno, haber, deber with Portuguese governo, haver, dever.
  • The endings of the imperfect indicative tense of 1st. conjugation verbs (with infinitives ending in -ar) are spelled with b in Spanish (cantaba, cantabas, cantábamos, and so on), but with v in Portuguese (cantava, cantavas, cantávamos, etc.)
  • The Spanish adjectival suffix -ble, as in posible (also used in English, "possible"), corresponds to -vel in Portuguese: possível.

[edit] Yeísmo

In most Spanish dialects, the consonant written ll, originally a palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/, has come to be pronounced like the consonant y, a sound merger known as yeísmo. A similar phenomenon can be found in some dialects of Brazilian Portuguese, such as mineiro, but it is much less widespread than in Spanish.

[edit] The sibilants

However, the most marked phonetic divergence between Spanish and Portuguese in their modern period was in the evolution of the sibilants. In the Middle Ages, both had a rich system of seven sibilants, paired according to affrication and voicing: /s/, /ts/, /z/, /dz/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, and /dʒ/ (the latter probably in free variation with /ʒ/, as still happens today in Ladino).

Medieval Spanish and Portuguese Modern Portuguese Modern Spanish
Spelling Pronunciation
s-, -ss- /s/ /s/ s /s/
-s- /z/ /z/
c/ç /ts/ /s/ z/c /θ/ or /s/
z /dz/ /z/
x /ʃ/ /ʃ/ j/g /x/
j/g /ʒ ~ dʒ/ /ʒ/
ch /tʃ/ /ʃ/ ch /tʃ/

Around the Renaissance, the two languages reduced their inventory of sibilants, but in different ways:

  • Devoicing in Spanish: the voiced sibilants written -s-, z and j/g became voiceless, merging with s-/-ss-, c/ç and x, respectively. In many dialects, /θ/ also merged with /s/ (seseo). Later, the postalveolar fricative /ʃ/ changed into the velar fricative /x/. Spanish spelling has been updated according to these sound changes.
  • Deaffrication in Portuguese: the affricates written c/ç, z, and ch became plain fricatives, merging with the sibilants s-/-ss-, -s-, and x, respectively. In spite of this, modern Portuguese has for the most part kept the medieval spelling.

At the end of syllables, the pronunciation of the sibilants varies somewhat with dialect in both languages. See Spanish dialects and varieties, and Portuguese orthography, for details.

[edit] Modern Spanish and Portuguese

Further information: Spanish phonology, Portuguese phonology.

Although the vocabularies of Spanish and Portuguese are quite similar, phonetically Portuguese is somewhat closer to Catalan or to French. It is often claimed that the complex phonology of Portuguese compared to Spanish explains why it is generally not very intelligible to Spanish speakers despite the strong lexical similarity between the two languages.

The following considerations are based on a comparison of standard versions of Spanish and Portuguese. Apparent divergence of the information below from anyone's personal pronunciation may indicate one's idiolect (or dialect) diverges from the mentioned standards. Information on Portuguese phonology is adapted from Celso Pedro Luft (Novo Manual de Português, 1971), and information on Spanish phonology adapted from Manuel Seco (Gramática Esencial del Español, 1994).

Comparing the phonemic inventory of both languages, a noticeable divergence stands out. First, Portuguese has more phonemes than Spanish. Also, each language has phonemes that are not shared by the other.

[edit] Consonants

According to the Royal Spanish Academy, Standard Spanish has the following consonants:

  • labial: /p/, /b/ (spelled b/v), /m/, and /f/
  • dental and alveolar: /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/, /s/, /θ/ (z/c; in many dialects, this sound has merged with the former—seseo), /ɾ/ (flap, spelled r), /r/ (trill, spelled r- or -rr-)
  • palatal: /ʝ/ (y), /ʎ/ (ll; in many dialects, this sound has merged with the former—yeísmo), /ɲ/ (ñ), and /tʃ/ (ch)
  • velar: /k/ (c/qu), /g/ (g/gu), and /x/ (j/g)

Regional, dialectal variations may subtract consonats from the list but do not cause enough divergence to hinder intelligibility among different dialects.

Portuguese has the following consonants (the most characteristic spellings are given along with the phonetic transcription):

  • labial: /p/, /b/, /m/, /f/, and /v/.
  • dental and alveolar: /t/ (with [tʃ] in Brazil), /d/ (with [dʒ] in Brazil), /n/, /l/, /s/ (s-, -ss-, c/ç), /z/ (z, -s-), and /ɾ/ (flap, spelled r).
  • palatal: /ʎ/ (lh), /ɲ/ (nh), /ʃ/ (x/ch), and /ʒ/ (j/g)
  • velar: /k/ (c/qu/q), /g/ (g/gu), and /x/ (r-, -rr-, or -r)

From the presentation above, Spanish counts 17-19 consonants, while Portuguese counts 19.

[edit] Vowels

Spanish has the short vowels of classical Latin: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, one of the most common vowel inventories in world languages. It features also two semivowels, /j/ and /w/, that appear in diphthongs, although these can be considered allophones of the vowels /i/ and /u/, respectively.

Portuguese has more vowels (the most characteristic spellings are given along with the phonetic transcription):

  • Oral vowels: /a/ (a/á), /ɐ/ (a/â), /e/ (e/ê), /ɛ/ (e/é), /i/ (i/í), /ɨ/ (e), /o/ (o/ô), /ɔ/ (o/ó), and /u/ (u/ú). (In Brazilian Portuguese, /ɐ/ appears in complementary distribution with /a/, and /ɨ/ is replaced with /e/ or /i/.) While Spanish /e/, /o/ are mid vowels[citation needed], Portuguese /e/, /o/ are close-mid.
  • Nasal vowels: /ɐ̃/, /ẽ/, /ĩ/, /õ/, /ũ/. Portuguese diverges from Spanish in having a full set of nasal vowels, which, according to historical linguistics, arose from the assimilation of the nasal consonants /m/ and /n/, often at the end of syllables. These syllable-final nasal consonants are still written down, even though they are no longer fully pronounced. There are also nasal diphthongs.

[edit] Unstressed vowels

The history of the unstressed vowels in Spanish and Portuguese is not as well known as that of the stressed vowels, but some points are generally agreed upon.

  • In Spanish, the pronunciation of unstressed vowels does not differ much from that of stressed vowels. In this respect, it has remained closer to Latin.
  • The system of seven oral vowels of medieval Portuguese has been fairly well preserved in the closely related Galician language (several Galician dialects have, however, lost the nasal vowels). In Portuguese, unstressed vowels have been more unstable, both diachronically (variation across time) and synchronically (variation between dialects), producing new vowel sounds. In certain conditions, vowels tend to undergo the following changes, when unstressed:
    • /a/ → /ɐ/
    • /e ~ ɛ/ → /i/ or /ɨ/
    • /o ~ ɔ/ → /u/
  • Similar alternation patterns to these exist in other Romance languages such as Catalan or Occitan. Although it is mostly an allophonic phenomenon, some dialects have developed minimal pairs for /a/ vs. /ɐ/, and for /e/ vs. /ɨ/. The vowel /ɨ/, unusual in the Romance languages, may often be elided in relaxed pronunciation, like the e caduc of French (although they are different sounds). It is not present in Brazilian Portuguese.

Portuguese spelling, which is partly etymological and analogical, does not indicate these sound changes, making the language look deceptively similar to Spanish in writing. For more details, see Portuguese phonology: unstressed vowels.

[edit] Number of syllables

Words having the same root in Spanish as in Portuguese, which make up most of both languages' vocabularies, often also have the same number of syllables, even if their form may be slightly different:

sábado, minero, noche, espejo (Spanish)
sábado, mineiro, noite, espelho (Pg.)

In some other cases, however, the number of syllables varies between both languages, which may be due to several causes.

[edit] Cases of Portuguese using fewer syllables than Spanish

The above-mentioned loss of intervocalic l and n in Portuguese has often resulted in two syllables being merged into one, making the word one syllable shorter than in Spanish:

mañana, palo, calambre, velo, cielo, manzana, mala, venir, poner (Spanish)
manhã, pau, cãibra, véu, céu, maçã, má, vir, pôr (Pg.)

Also, two adjacent vowels in Spanish often correspond to one, or to a diphthong, in Portuguese, again resulting in one less syllable:

reír, leer, europeo, ateo, creído (Spanish)
rir, ler, europeu, ateu, crido (Pg.)

[edit] Cases of Spanish using fewer syllables than Portuguese

One large category of words that are one syllable shorter in Spanish than in Portuguese is constituted by words ending in -d in Spanish, and -de in Portuguese:

ciudad, sed, virtud (Spanish)
cidade, sede, virtude (Pg.)

Other cases obey no specific rule:

tabla, ofrecimiento, cargar, brigadier, interés (Spanish)
tabela, oferecimento, carregar, brigadeiro, interesse (Pg.)

[edit] Grammar

Broadly speaking, the grammars of Portuguese and Spanish are not too far apart. Nevertheless, there are some differences between them which can be hurdles for people acquainted with one of the languages who attempt to learn the other.

[edit] Gender

Spanish has three forms for the singular definite article, el, masculine, la, feminine, and lo, neuter. The latter is used with adjectives to form abstract nouns employed in a generic sense, and also to intensify the meaning of adjectives. In Portuguese, there is only o, masculine, and a, feminine. Literary Spanish has also three corresponding third person pronouns, él "he", ella "she", and ello "it", while Portuguese has only ele, masculine, and ela, feminine. Lo and ello have no plural forms.

Some words are masculine in Spanish, but feminine in Portuguese, or vice versa. A common example are nouns ended in -aje in Spanish, which are normally masculine, and their Portuguese cognates ending in -agem, which are feminine. For example, Spanish el viaje "the voyage" (masculine, like French le voyage and Italian il viaggio) corresponds to the Portuguese feminine a viagem. On the other hand, the Spanish feminine la leche "the milk" corresponds to Portuguese o leite (masculine, like French le lait, Italian il latte).

[edit] Contracted Prepositions

The preposition a is identical to the feminine definite article in Portuguese. Thus, while a Ana would mean "to Ann" in Spanish, in Portuguese the same phrase would likely be interpreted as just "Ann". To include the preposition, the grave accent must be used (a + a = à). Thus, "I phoned Ann this morning" is Telefonei à Ana esta manhã.

Other Portuguese prepositions contract with articles or with personal pronouns, in some cases producing false friends: no and dos mean "no" and "two" in Spanish, but "in the" (em + o) and "of the" (de + os) in Portuguese. While Spanish also has the prepositional contractions al (a + el) and del (de + el), Portuguese has many more; see a list at Wikipedia in Portuguese: List of contracted prepositions.

[edit] Syntax of the definite article

In many varieties of Portuguese, personal names are normally preceded by a definite article, a trait also found in Catalan. This is a relatively recent development, which some Brazilian dialects have not adopted yet, most notably in the Brazilian Northeast. In those dialects of Portuguese that do regularly use definite articles before proper nouns, the article may be omitted for extra formality, or to show distance in a literary narrative. Compare, for example, Eng. "Mary left", Spanish María salió, Port. A Maria saiu.

Portuguese also uses the definite article before the names of most countries (a notable exception is Portugal itself), and many cities (though less so in Brazil). In Spanish, country and city names are typically not accompanied by an article, although there are exceptions, especially when the geographical name contains a common noun that may be followed by an adjective (e.g. los Estados Unidos de América, las Filipinas, la Costa Rica, etc.) However, even in these cases, Spanish does not always require a preceding definite article, and, when it does, the article is normally required in English as well.

Santiago es la capital de Chile. (Spanish)
Santiago é a capital do Chile. (Portuguese)
Santiago is the capital of Chile.
Él es de Costa Rica, que está en América Central. (Spanish)
Ele é da Costa Rica, que fica na América Central. (Portuguese)
He is from Costa Rica, which is in Central America.
Tengo un boleto a los Estados Unidos de América. (Spanish)
Tenho um bilhete para os Estados Unidos da América. (Portuguese)
I have a ticket to the United States of America.

Portuguese omits the definite article in stating the time of day unless para as is used.

Son las nueve y quince (or cuarto). (Spanish)
São nove e quinze (or um quarto). (Portuguese)
It’s a quarter after nine. (9:15)

In addition, in most dialects of Portuguese the definite article is used before possessive adjectives (like in Italian), which is not possible in Spanish. For instance, the sentence "This is my brother" is "Éste es mi hermano" in Spanish, but may be Este é o meu irmão in Portuguese. Nevertheless, in some Brazilian dialects (mostly in the Northeast) the article is not used: Este é meu irmão.

[edit] Possessives

In Portuguese, all possessive adjectives inflect to agree with the gender of the possessed being, while in Spanish they generally do not (with the exception of nuestro/nuestra "our" and vuestro/vuestra "your" [plural]).

Mi padre nació tres años antes de mi madre. (Spanish)
Meu pai nasceu três anos antes de minha mãe. (Portuguese)
My father was born three years before my mother.
Pienso que sus manzanas son mejores que sus tomates. (Spanish)
Penso que suas maçãs são melhores do que seus tomates. (Portuguese)
I think their apples are better than their tomatoes.

On the other hand, possessive pronouns do show gender in Spanish, and they are different from the possessive adjectives. In Portuguese, they are the same as the adjectives (though mandatorily preceded by the corresponding definite article).

Mi casa es más grande que la suya. (Spanish)
A minha casa é maior que a sua. (Portuguese)
My house is bigger than yours.

For more details, see Spanish determiners: possessives and Portuguese pronouns: Possessive pronouns and adjectives.

[edit] Personal "a"

Spanish employs a preposition before the direct object of a transitive verb when it denotes a person, the so-called "personal a". In Portuguese, this is most unusual. It is occasionally found in formal texts, like the Biblical commandment Amar a Deus sobre todas as coisas, "To love God above everything else", but it sounds archaic. Since direct objects are typically not preceded by a preposition, it is easy to tell them apart from indirect objects, which are always preceded by a preposition, and the analogue of leísmo is less of an issue than in Spanish. Laísmo and loísmo never occur in Portuguese.

As mentioned above, the preposition a is identical to the feminine definite article in Portuguese, which can create some confusion. For example, in the Spanish sentence He invitado a Juana para cenar en nuestra casa "I have invited Joan for dinner at our house", a is a preposition, but in the Portuguese version Convidei a Joana para jantar em nossa casa it is a definite article.

[edit] Stressed personal pronouns

There are two important differences between the use of the Spanish personal pronouns él "he", ella "she", ellos "they (masc.)", ellas "they (femin.)" and that of their Portuguese counterparts ele, ela, eles and elas:

  • While both Spanish and Portuguese are null subject languages (i.e., the subject of a sentence can be omitted), Spanish is much more null-subject than Portuguese, and stressed personal pronouns are never used as subjects unless required because of a lack of context. In Portuguese, however, stressed personal pronouns are very frequently used even if unnecessary according to context:
¿Dónde está Juan? Está en la oficina. (Spanish)
Onde está o João? Ele está no escritório. (Portuguese)
Where's John? He's in the office.
  • In Spanish, stressed personal pronouns are not used for inanimate subjects, except in the most formal writing. Portuguese knows no such restriction:
¿Dónde están las llaves? Están en la mesa. (Spanish)
Onde estão as chaves? Elas estão na mesa. (Portuguese)
Where are the keys? They're on the table.

[edit] Unstressed personal pronouns

Continental Portuguese is different from Brazilian Portuguese with regard to the use of unstressed personal pronouns, and Spanish is in turn different from both.

[edit] Differences between Spanish and European Portuguese

  • In Spanish, unstressed pronouns normally come before the verb, except in the imperative, the infinitive and the gerund. In Continental Portuguese, they usually come after the verb:
Te dio un libro. (Spanish)
Deu-te um livro. (Portuguese)
He gave you a book.
  • Third-person unstressed pronouns, other than reflexive se, have different forms in Continental Portuguese, according to context, but they are always the same in Spanish:
manténgalo, lo mantienen, mantenerlo (Spanish)
mantenha-o, mantêm-no, mantê-lo (Portuguese)
keep it, they keep it, to keep it
  • Continental Portuguese verbs used in the future tenses are split in two particles and the unstressed pronoun is placed between them. No comparable phenomenon takes place in Spanish:
Lo traerás (Spanish)
Tra-lo-ás (Portuguese)
You will bring it.

[edit] Differences between Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese

  • In spoken Brazilian Portuguese unstressed pronouns always come before the verb, including those in the gerund, infinitive or imperative:
Dime dónde has estado (Spanish)
Me diga onde você esteve (Brazilian Portuguese)
Tell me where you have been.
  • Third-person unstressed pronouns other than se are hardly ever used in spoken Brazilian Portuguese. Stressed pronouns are used instead:
La vi en la calle (Spanish)
Vi ela na rua (Brazilian Portuguese)   (NOT *a vi na rua)
I saw her in the street.

[edit] Dative "se"

The Spanish construction, se lo dio, means either "[He/she] gave it to him" or "[He/she] gave it to himself". The expected pattern for the former would be *le lo dio, but such a construction does not exist. This is unique to Spanish.

Lat. dedit illis illud → dedit illis illum (early Vulgar Latin) → dit illis illu (late Vulgar Latin)
Spanish → dio (i)lli (el)lo → dio ge lo → diógelo (arch.) → dióselo → se lo dio
Port. → deu (i)lli (l)o → deu lhe (l)o → deu-lho

Thus, modern Spanish makes no distinction between the reflexive pronoun se and the dative personal pronoun se. Note that this did not happen in old Spanish: diógelo, "he gave it to him", dióselo, "he gave it to himself". The ancient g sound (similar to that of English) was replaced with s in the 14th-15th centuries (cf. Spanish coger, "to catch", but cosecha, "harvest", Port. colher and colheita, both from Lat. colligĕre).

[edit] "To be going to" + infinitive

Both languages have a construction similar to the English one. Spanish includes the preposition a (often translated as "to") between the conjugated form of ir "to go" and the infinitive: Voy a leer el libro "I am going to read the book" (present tense of ir + a + infinitive). In Portuguese, there is no preposition between the helping verb and the main verb: Vou ler o livro (present tense of ir + infinitive). This also applies when the verb is in other tenses:

Ayer iba a leer el libro, pero no tuve la oportunidad. (Spanish)
Ontem ia ler o livro, mas não tive oportunidade. (Portuguese)
Yesterday I was going to read the book, but never had the chance.

[edit] "A" versus "para"

Quite common in both languages are the prepositions para meaning "for" and a meaning "to". However, Portuguese distinguishes between going somewhere for a short while versus a longer stay, especially if it is an intended destination, in the latter case using para instead of a. This distinction does not occur in English or Spanish, and the Spanish para cannot be used for this purpose. While there is no specified duration of stay before a Portuguese speaker must switch prepositions, a implies one will return sooner, rather than later, relative to the context.

Fui al mercado cerca de mi casa. (Spanish)
Fui ao mercado perto de minha casa. (Portuguese)
I went to the market near my house. [temporary displacement]
El presidente anterior fue desterrado a Portugal. (Spanish)
O presidente anterior foi exilado para Portugal. (Portuguese)
The former president was exiled to Portugal. [permanent, or more lasting displacement]

Note, though, in the first example, para could be used in Portuguese if in contrast to a very brief period of time.

Não fico muito tempo, apenas um minuto. Tenho de ir para o mercado. (Portuguese)
I can't stay long, only a minute. I have to go to the market. [pending task or appointment]

[edit] Pronominal verbs

Both Spanish and Portuguese use reflexive verbs, i.e., verbs indicating an action the subject performs on himself/herself/itself, which require the use of the reflexive pronoun se. However, these verbs are vastly more used in Spanish than in Portuguese, especially with actions related to parts of the body:

Guillermo se quebró la pierna jugando a la pelota. (Spanish)
O Guilherme quebrou a perna jogando bola (Portuguese)
William broke his leg playing ball.

In other cases, Spanish uses these verbs to indicate voluntary action:

Pablo quedó en París. "Paul remained in Paris [an accident may have forced him to]."
Pablo se quedó en Paris. "Paul remained in Paris [because he decided to]."

Both sentences would be rendered in Portuguese as O Paulo ficou em Paris. However, the cognate of the word si (if) in Spanish is also se in Portuguese. This could give the false impression that a verb in Portuguese is pronominal when it is not. Se ficou em Paris... If (he) remained in Paris.... In cases where both the Portuguese verb is pronominal, and the conjunction se is used, it's common to have a double se in the sentence. Se se esqueceu da sua senha... If (you) forgot your password....

[edit] Auxiliary verb of perfect tenses

In Spanish and other Romance languages, compound perfect tenses are constructed with a verb derived from Latin habere. This used to be the case in Portuguese, too, but in recent centuries the verb ter, from Latin tenere, has been steadily overtaking haver, although the latter is still used with some frequency in writing and in formal spoken registers. While ter is used as auxiliary by other Iberian languages, it is much more pervasive in Portuguese. Compare, for instance, Spanish "Había comido cuando mi madre volvió" "I had eaten when my mother came back" with Port. "Tinha comido quando a minha mãe voltou".

[edit] Imperfect subjunctive versus pluperfect indicative

A class of false friends between the two languages is composed of the verb forms with endings containing -ra-, such as cantara, cantaras, cantáramos, and so on. Spanish has two forms for the imperfect subjunctive, one with endings in -se- and another with endings in -ra- (e.g. cantase, cantara; I were to sing), which are usually interchangeable. In Portuguese, only the former has the same value; the latter is employed as a pluperfect indicative, i.e. the equivalent to Spanish había cantado (I had sung). Although there is a strong tendency to use a verb phrase instead in the spoken language, like in Spanish and English, Ele tinha cantado "He had sung", the synthetic tense is still frequent in literature.

[edit] Verb "to be"

Further information: Romance copula

Spanish and Portuguese have two main copulas, ser and estar. For the most part, the use of these verbs is the same in both languages, but there are a few cases where it differs. The main difference between Spanish and Portuguese is in the interpretation of the concept of state versus essence and in the generalisations one way or another that are made in certain constructions. For instance,

Está prohibido fumar. (Spanish) [estar]
É proibido fumar. (Portuguese) [ser]
Smoking is forbidden.
La silla está hecha de madera. (Spanish) [estar]
A cadeira é feita de madeira. (Portuguese) [ser]
The chair is made of wood.
Sólo uno es correcto. (Spanish) [ser]
Só um está correcto (or correto). (Portuguese) [estar]
Only one is correct.

Also, the use of ser regarding a permanent location is much more accepted in Portuguese. Conversely, estar is often permanent in Spanish regarding a location, while in Portuguese, it implies being temporary. (See the first example below.)

Secondary copulas are quedar(se) in Spanish and ficar in Portuguese. Each can also mean "to stay" or "to remain."

Nuestra oficina queda (or está) muy lejos. (Spanish) [quedar/estar]
(O) nosso escritório fica (or é) muito longe. (Portuguese) [ficar/ser]
Our office is very far away.
Mi abuela se está quedando sorda. (Spanish)
(A) minha avó está ficando surda. (Portuguese)
My grandmother is becoming deaf.
Me quedé dentro de la casa todo el día. (Spanish)
Fiquei dentro de casa todo o dia. (Portuguese)
I stayed (or "was") inside the house all day.

[edit] Variations of “que”

As a conjunction often translated as “that”, both Spanish and Portuguese use que in a similar manner with no accent mark. The comparative form (i.e. "than" in English) also uses the non-accented que.

Creo que estamos perdidos. (Spanish)
Acho que estamos perdidos. (Portuguese)
I think that we are lost.

When used as an interrogative, Spanish adds an accent mark, while Portuguese places an ‘o’ before que, followed by an optional é que which is never used in Spanish, and by only a minority in Brazil.

¿Qué va a hacer usted? (Spanish)
O que (é que) você vai fazer? (Portuguese)
What are you going to do?

However, the ‘o’ in Portuguese is dropped (along with é que) if precision is requested, as in Que horas são? “What time is it?”

Similarly, the interrogative por qué (why) in Spanish has an accent mark, while in Portuguese it does not, and this can be spelled as one word or two (porque or por que). Porque as a conjunction meaning “because” is used in both languages.

At the end of a sentence, the acute accent is used in Spanish, while the circumflex is used in Portuguese.

El coche no comenzará y no sé por qué. (Spanish)
O carro não começará e não sei porquê (or por quê). (Portuguese)
The car won’t start and I don’t know why.

[edit] Present perfect

In Spanish, as well as in English, the present perfect tense is normally used to talk about an action initiated and completed in the past, which is still considered relevant or influential in the present moment. Consider the examples below:

Spanish: No, gracias. Ya he cenado.
English: No, thank you. I have already dined.
Portuguese: Não, obrigado. Já jantei.
Spanish: He ido a España dos veces.
English: I have been to Spain twice.
Portuguese: Já fui a Espanha duas vezes.
Spanish: ¿Has oído las últimas noticias?
English: Have you heard the latest news?
Portuguese: Ouviste as últimas notícias?

In each of these sentences, Portuguese uses the preterite instead of the present perfect. In Portuguese, the present perfect (pretérito perfeito composto) is used for speaking of events which began in the past and were repeated regularly up to the present. Normally, it conveys the connotation that the event in question is likely to keep happening in the future (though this is not a necessary condition for the Portuguese present perfect to be used). A few examples:

Portuguese: Ultimamente, tenho ido ao cinema todos os sábados.
English: Lately, I have gone to the cinema every Saturday.
Spanish: Últimamente, he ido al cine todos los sábados.
Portuguese: Tenho pensado em pedi-la em casamento.
English: I have been thinking of asking her to marry me.
Spanish: He pensado en pedirle matrimonio.

As this last example suggests, the Portuguese present perfect is often closer in meaning to the English present perfect continuous, than to the present perfect. See also Spanish verbs: contrasting the preterite and the perfect.

[edit] Personal infinitive

It is possible in Portuguese for a verb in the infinitive to agree with its subject, often showing who is supposed to perform a certain act; cf. É necessário voltares "It is necessary [for you] to return", É necessário voltarmos "It is necessary [for us] to return." In Spanish, the same idea would be expressed using the subjunctive, Es necesario que vuelvas "It is necessary that you return", and Es necesario que volvamos "It is necessary that we return", respectively. The personal infinitive is mandatory in some types of infinitive clauses and forbidden in others, but the choice between it and the impersonal infinitive is otherwise quite subjective, governed by stylistic criteria.

[edit] Future subjunctive

Related article: Subjunctive mood

This tense, developed by medieval Ibero-Romance, but now old-fashioned in Spanish, remains in vernacular use in Portuguese (in fact, it shows no signs of falling out of favour). It appears in subordinate clauses that denote a condition which must be fulfilled in the future, so that the main clause will happen. Spanish will use the present tense in this type of clause. Consider the following three sentences. (Latin is included as a term of comparison, since it never developed a future subjunctive itself.)

If I were king, I would end hunger.
Si essem rex, terminarem famem. (L.) [past subjunctive]
Si fuera rey, acabaría con el hambre. (Spanish) [past subjunctive]
Se fosse rei, acabaria com a fome. (Portuguese) [past subjunctive]

The situation is counterfactual; we know that the speaker is not a king. All four languages use the past (imperfect) subjunctive here.

If I am elected president, I will change the law.
Si sum electus praesidens, mutabo legem. (L.) [future indicative]
Si soy elegido presidente, cambiaré la ley. (Spanish) [present indicative]
Se for eleito presidente, mudarei a lei. (Portuguese) [future subjunctive]

This second statement expresses a future possibility; the speaker may yet be elected president. Here, Spanish uses the present indicative tense, while Portuguese uses the future subjunctive.

For a different kind of example, a father speaking to his son might say:

When you are older, you will understand.
Quando eris major, comprehendes. (L.) [future indicative]
Cuando seas mayor, comprenderás. (Spanish) [present subjunctive]
Quando fores mais velho, compreenderás. (Portuguese) [future subjunctive]

Not all subordinate clauses of this kind require the future subjunctive, however, and sometimes the present subjunctive is used where a beginner might expect to see the future subjunctive. Other times, both the present and the future subjunctive are acceptable, though they convey different nuances to the sentence.

The Spanish future subjunctive is, nevertheless, used in legal documents, and some sayings or idioms:

Spanish A los que leyeren, Eng. "To the readers" (lit. "To whom may read");
Spanish Adonde fueres, haz lo que vieres "Wherever you go, do as you see".

[edit] References

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