European Portuguese

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Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2008)

European Portuguese (português europeu in Portuguese) is a group of Portuguese dialects spoken mainly in Portugal but also in places of Africa and Asia with minor and subtle differences.

Standard Portuguese (português padrão) is traditionally based on the Estremenho dialect of Coimbra, where the single university of the country existed for centuries, and, currently, also Lisbon, despite the pronunciation of Lisbon is still perceived by many as a dialect. Being the standard form and because most African and some Asian politicians studied in Portugal, it is also the standard form of the spoken and written language in the former Portuguese colonies in Africa and Asia (Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor, Macau, Daman, Diu and Goa) and also in Venezuela, Namibia, South Africa, France, Germany, and Luxembourg (where Portuguese emigrants are most numerous), although there is a very wide variety of regional dialects.

[edit] Grammar

European Portuguese differs from Brazilian Portuguese in fundamental grammatical aspects.

One example is the formation of the progressive tense. For instance, in the sentence "I'm reading this book now", Europeans write "Estou a ler este livro agora", whereas Brazilians write "Estou lendo este livro agora".

[edit] See also

• Portuguese language

[edit] External links

• Description of the pronunciation rules of European Portuguese
• Description of the pronunciation rules of Brazilian Portuguese