Comparison of Spanish and Portuguese

Although Portuguese and Spanish are closely related - to some degree of mutual intelligibility - there are also key differences that can pose difficulties for those who master one of the languages and want to learn the other. Both are part of a larger group known as West Iberian languages, which includes other languages or dialects with fewer speakers, all of which are to some extent mutually understandable.

The most obvious differences are in the pronunciation. The written languages are often significantly more mutually understandable than the spoken ones. To compare the following sentence:

A buen entendedor pocas palabras bastan (Spanish [a βwen entendeðor Pokas palaβɾas bastan] ) and Para bom entendedor, poucas palavras Bastam (Brazilian Portuguese [p (a) ɾɐ bow ĩtẽdedoʁ poːkɐs pɐlavɾɐz bastɐw] , European Portuguese [p (ə) ɾə βõ ẽtẽdɨˈðoɾ ˈpo (w) kəʃ pəˈlavɾəʒ ˈβaʃtə̃w] ), German about "One word is enough for the wise."

There are some noticeable differences between Brazilian and European Portuguese, just as there are between British and American English or European and Latin American Spanish. These differences are only mentioned in the article if:

Brazilian and European Portuguese are not only different from each other but also from Spanish;
Both European and Latin American Spanish differ not only from each other but also from Portuguese; or
either Brazilian or European Portuguese differs from Spanish in incompatible syntax (while the other dialect does not).

Examples

Portuguese and Spanish share a large number of words that are either spelled the same (although pronounced quite differently), spelled almost the same (even if they are pronounced more or less the same), or are similarly predictable. The following paragraph from the Gramática esencial del español by Manuel Seco (Espasa Calpe, 1989) serves as an example , to be compared with the Portuguese equivalent below, which illustrates the considerable lexical similarity and only minor changes in the word order:

«Pero, a pesar de this variedad de posibilidades que la voz posee, sería un muy pobre instrumento de comunicación si no contara más que con ella. The capacity of expression of the 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 ciertoertramiento. 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 not se contasse com mais do que ela. A capacidade de expressão do homem not 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 certoertramento. Essa manipulação que a voz recebe são as ‹articulações›. »

However, some very common words differ significantly between the two languages, such as:

meaning	Spanish	Portuguese	Origins	Remarks
Shop, shop	tienda	loja	vulgarat. * TENDAM (< TENDERE ); from old France. loge 'hut, gallery, vestibule, covered porch'	The main meaning of port. Tenda is 'tent' (in Spanish, tienda can also mean 'tent'). Chip. lonja 'market' is rare.
knee	rodilla	joelho	vlat. ROTELLAM 'kneecap'; * GENUCULUM 'knee'	Scholarly rótula 'kneecap' in Spanish and Portuguese is etymologically related to the popular Spanish rodilla . The Spanish idiom de hinojos 'kneeling' has the same word history as port. Joelho .
Street	calle	rua	lat. CALLEM 'path'; (VIAM) RUGAM 'Path with Traces'	Chip. rúa and port. calhe also exist, but are rarer (and their forms indicate that they are borrowings from the other language rather than holdovers from Latin).
window	window	janela	Derivation from vento 'wind'; IĀNUELLA ( IĀNUA + ELLA )	Chip. vento means 'wind', ventana is derived from 'wind opening'. Port. janela comes from the Latin IĀNUELLA , diminutive to IĀNUA 'front door, opening', with the same root as the German January (originally from the divine name IANUS 'God of doors, of entry and exit'). . The span inherited word hiniestra . Is outdated and its port cognate fresta (. Altport from fẽestra , windows') has its meaning, crack; Peephole '.
Clear	borrar	apagar	derived from borra , from late lat. BURRA 'coarse wool'; Latin ADPĀCĀRE	The same word borrar exists in Port., But means 'to pollute' (e.g. está borrado 'it is polluted', cf. Spanish borroso 'unclear'); and Spanish apagar means 'to switch off' (a meaning that also occurs in Portuguese, for example in apagar a luz 'to switch off the light').
to forget	olvidary	esquecer	vlat. * OBLĪTARE ; EXCADĒSCERE 'fall off, get rid of'	Olvidar is also much less common in Portuguese, as are the learned words obliterar and obliviar , which is also French. oublier , occ . / catal. oblidar , romanian. uita corresponds. Esquecer can be compared to Sardinian scadèsciri , iscadèssere .

vocabulary

overview

Vocabulary discrepancies between the two languages developed due to the following factors:

Arab influence. Spanish retained much of the Mozarabic vocabulary of Arabic origin, whereas the Mozarabic element had less influence on Portuguese. There are cases in which the common Spanish word comes from Arabic while the Portuguese equivalent is a Latin or Celtic derivative, for example: Sp. Albañil , Port. pedreiro "stonemason"; Sp. Alcalde , Port. presidente da câmara (Portugal) / prefeito (Brazil) “Mayor”; Sp. Alfarero , Port. oleiro "potter"; Sp. Alfil , Port. bispo ("runner" in chess; Port. also "bishop", for which one says obispo in Spanish ), Sp. rincón , Port. canto "corner"; Sp. Tazón , Port. bacia “Bassin” etc. In some of these cases there may be a less common synonym of Latin origin in Spanish and one of Arabic origin in Portuguese.
Influences of other European languages during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Portuguese enjoyed strong French influence, whereas Spanish was more autonomous and more oriented towards the Mediterranean.
Influences of other languages ( Amerindian , African , Asian ). As an example, the respective common Spanish / Portuguese words for:

" Pineapple ": piña (from the Spanish word for "pine apple") / abacaxi (from Tupí ibakatí ) or ananás ( ananá (s) also Spanish, albeit less common; from Tupí – Guaraní (a) naná ; Spanish via Portuguese).

" Tobacco pipe ": pipa (probably late Latin PĪPA ) / cachimbo (from Kimbundu kixima ).

" Tea ": té (from Min Nan ( Amoy ) tê ) / chá (from Cantonese ( Makao )).

A change in meaning that produces similar cognates , but which mean different things ( false friends ): diseñar means "design" in Spanish, while his Portuguese cognate desenhar means "draw". Likewise, dibujo means “drawing” in Spanish, but debuxo means “sketch” in Portuguese (even if it is more written and largely replaced by rascunho ; see Spanish rasguño : “scratches”).

Words have two forms: port. criar goes hand in hand with Spanish crear “create” and criar “raise”, while Spanish sueño corresponds to both Portuguese sonho “dream” and sono “sleep”.

Days of the week

Unlike other Romance languages, New Portuguese does not use the Roman planetary system for weekday names Monday through Friday. Instead, the working days are simply counted and come from the Church Latin weekly bill (e.g. FERIA SECUNDA 'Monday', FERIA TERTIA 'Tuesday' etc.). The term feira , with the basic meaning 'fair, market' (from Latin FERIA ), relates to (Roman Catholic) liturgical language ; it is related to (learned) férias 'vacation' and feriado 'holiday'. In Spanish, the days of the week are all masculine; in Portuguese, the feira s are feminine, while sábado and domingo are masculine.

Spanish	Old Portuguese	Portuguese	German
lunes (<vulgar lat . LŪNIS DIĒS 'day of the moon goddess Luna')	syphilis	segunda-feira 'second feria'	Monday
martes (<from left MARTIS DIĒS 'Day of Mars ')	martes	terça-feira 'third feria'	Tuesday
miércoles (<vlat. MERCORIS DIĒS 'Day of Mercury ')	mércores	quarta-feira 'fourth feria'	Wednesday
jueves (< vlat.IOVIS DIĒS 'Day of Jupiter ')	joves	quinta-feira 'fifth feria'	Thursday
viernes (< vlat.VENERIS DIĒS 'Day of Venus')	vernes	sexta-feira 'sixth Feria'	Friday
sábado (<Latin SABBATUM ' Sabbath ')			Saturday
domingo (<Latin DOMINICA (DIĒS) , Day of the Lord ')			Sunday

The tag name terça-feira (<after church lat . FERIA TERTIA ) differs in its antecedent from the usual Portuguese numeral for 'third / e / es', terceiro .

Colloquially, the hind term feira is often left out:

Vou visitar-te na segunda. (EP)

Vou te visitar na segunda. (EP and BP)

"I'll visit you on Monday."

relative

In addition to a significant number of false friends, there are also some cognates whose meaning is wider in one language than in the other. Some examples:

Todo and tudo

The Spanish indefinite pronoun todo can mean “all” or “all”. Portuguese differentiates between todo ("all / everyone") and tudo ("everything") (used when it refers to a neuter, indefinite object or abstraction).

Todos los insectos tienen seis patas. (Spanish)

Todos os insetos têm seis patas. (Portuguese)

" All insects have six legs."

El ladrón robó todo . (Spanish)

O ladrão roubou tudo . (Portuguese)

"The thief stole everything ."

Muy , mucho and muito

Spanish distinguishes the adjective mucho ("a lot / many") from the adverb muy ("very / quite"). Portuguese uses muito for both (the cognat mui still exists in Portuguese, but is rarely used in the spoken language, except in very formal contexts).

Tomé muchas photos durante el viaje. (Spanish)

Tirei muitas photos durante a viagem. (Portuguese)

"I took a lot of pictures during the trip."

Las cerezas están muy maduras. (Spanish)

As cerejas estão muito maduras. (Portuguese)

"The cherries are pretty ripe."

Is an adjective muito gender and number according to the noun designated diffracted as mucho . As an adverb, it is immutable like muy . So it would be incorrect to say * muitas maduras in the second example.

Cardinal numbers

The cardinal numbers are very similar in Spanish and Portuguese, but there are differences in the use of one and two. Spanish knows different words for the indefinite article singular masculine ("a") and the numerical ("one"), so un capítulo ("a chapter"), but capítulo uno ("chapter one"). Both words are identical in Portuguese: um capítulo and capítulo um . Spanish uno can also be used as a pronoun, as German "man" to refer to a vague subject, but this is not the Portuguese to go; instead, the reflexive pronoun se is used. It can also be used in Spanish to form passive and impersonal constructions.

Uno ( or Se ) debe pensar antes de actuar. (Spanish)

De- se pensar antes de agir. (Portuguese)

" You should think first, then act."

This still applies to cases where a relatively indefinite subject is assigned a gender, such as Spanish todos a una [voz] (“all at the same time”, literally “all with one [voice]”). Portuguese should be without a cardinal number. E.g. todos juntos (“all together / at the same time”).

On the other hand, in Portuguese the cardinal number "two" is declined according to gender ( dois masculine, duas feminine), while Spanish takes dos for both.

Uno más uno es igual a dos . (Spanish)

Um mais um é igual a dois . (Portuguese)

"One and one is two ."

Dos cabezas piensan mejor que una. (Spanish)

Duas cabeças pensam melhor que uma. (Portuguese)

" Two heads think better than one."

Tengo dos hermanos y dos hermanas. (Spanish)

Tenho dois irmãos e duas irmãs. (Portuguese)

"I have two brothers and two sisters."

Conjunctions

The conjunction "and" in Spanish is y (pronounced [⁠ i ⁠] before consonant [⁠ j ⁠] before vowel) before any words except those with a [⁠ i ⁠] -According (spelled i - or hi -). Before syllabic [⁠ i ⁠] (-Lauten and not the diphthong [je] as hierro ) is the span. Conjunction e [E] . Port. used exclusively e [⁠ i ⁠] .

Sal y pimienta. (Spanish)

Sal e pimenta. (Portuguese)

"Salt and Pepper."

Judío e hindú. (Spanish)

Judeu e hindu. (Portuguese)

"Jewish and Hindu."

Leones y hienas. (Spanish)

Leões e hienas. (Portuguese)

"Lions and Hyenas."

Just as is in Spanish for the conjunction 'or' o [o] before all words except those with o - or ho to start, then where - u [⁠ w ⁠] comes into play, used. Portuguese always uses ou [ow] ~ [⁠ o ⁠] .

Vino o agua. (Spanish)

Vinho ou água. (Portuguese)

"Wine or water."

Uno u otro. (Spanish)

To ou outro. (Portuguese)

"One or the other."

Se , si , sí and sim

In Portuguese can se reflexive pronoun or conjunction "if" its meaning. This can lead to the erroneous assumption that a port is. Verb is reflexive when it is not. Example: Se ficou em Paris ... means "If he / she / she would have stayed in Paris ..." If the conjunction se precedes a reflexive verb, there is usually a double se in the sentence, see Se se esqueceu da sua senha ... for "If you forgot your password ..."

Meaning and description	Spanish	Portuguese
Yes	sí	sim [sĩ]
oneself (stressed reflexive pronoun , object or preposition)	sí	si
if (conjunction)	si	se
itself (unstressed reflexive pronoun )	se	se

Miscellaneous

Spanish pronto means “soon”, but in Portuguese it means “ready” - while “ready” means listo in Spanish .

Spanish embarazada means “pregnant”, but in Portuguese ( embaraçado ) it means “embarrassed, embarrassed”.

Spanish largo (arch. Also luengo ) is "long", while ancho means "wide". Portuguese largo (also ancho ) means “wide” and longo means “long”.

Spanish extrañar can be "find strange" or "miss". Port. estranhar means "to find strange" or "to get into an argument".

Spanish raro can mean “rare” or “strange”. Port. it just means "rare".

Spanish todavía can be “nevertheless / nevertheless” or “however / nonetheless”. Portuguese todavia means "however / nonetheless ". Port. means “nevertheless / nevertheless” ainda .

Spanish (estar) embarazada means “pregnant (to be)”. Portuguese (estar) embaraçada is “embarrassed (to be)” or “involved (to be)”. Nevertheless, the expression embarazoso / a ("embarrassing") does exist in Spanish . “Pregnant” / “pregnant” means in port. grávida / prenha .

Spanish exquisito means “exquisit” / “elaborate”. Port. esquisito means "strange" / "strange".

Experto stands for "expert" on chip. and Port., on the latter, however, it should not be confused with the homophon esperto (homophone only in Brazil ), which means “clever” / “intelligent”. "Expert" means in port. perito or especialista . Spanish also knows perito and eximio with the same equivalent.

Spanish escoba is "broom". Port. escova means “brush” or rarely “broom” (Portuguese usually has vassoura for it). However, there are Spanish variants, as escobilla names the "toilet brush".

Spanish apellido (" last name ") is apelido in the EP and sobrenome in both BP and EP (although unusual in the EP). Spanish sobrenombre / apodo (" nickname ") means apelido / alcunha / codinome in the BP and alcunha in the EP.

Spanish rojo is “red”. Port. roxo is "purple". "Red" means on port. vermelho . In the europ. In Portuguese, the term encarnado (lit. “in the flesh”) is also used as a synonym for “red”, although vermelho is more common.

Spanish apenas means “hardly”. Port. apenas is "only". The Spanish phrase él apenas pudo dormir means “he could hardly sleep”, the Portuguese phrase ele pôde apenas dormir “he could only sleep”.

Spanish vaso means "drinking glass", whereas port. vaso means "toilet" (from vaso sanitário , váter in Spanish) or "flower pot". A Portuguese "drinking glass" is copo , which means copa for "wine glass" in Spanish . The latter is called port. Copo or taça , where Spanish taza means “(tea / coffee) cup”. “(Tea / coffee) cup” is called xícara / chávena (BP / EP) in Portuguese .

grammar

In general, the Portuguese and Spanish grammars are not very different. However, there are differences that can create hurdles for people trying to learn one of the two languages.

genus

Spanish has three forms for the definite article singular, el , masc ., La , fem., And lo , neutr. The latter is used with adjectives to form abstract nouns that are commonly used and also to convey the meaning of Highlight adjectives. In Portuguese there is only o , masc., And a , fem. Literary Spanish also knows three corresponding third person pronouns, él (“he”), ella (“she”) and ello (“it”; broader, not on Object related), whereas Portuguese only has ele , mask., And ela , fem.,. The Spanish neuter lo and ello do not have a plural form.

Some words are masculine in Spanish but feminine in Portuguese, or vice versa. Common examples are Spanish nouns that end in -aje and are masculine and their Portuguese equivalents that end in -agem and are feminine. Compare: Spanish el viaje (“the journey”; masc. As French le voyage and Italian . Il viaggio ) corresponds to the Portuguese feminine a viagem . Likewise, el puente ("bridge"), el dolor ("pain") or el árbol ("tree") are masculine nouns in modern Spanish, whereas a ponte , a dor and a árvore port. Are feminine. On the other hand, the Spanish feminine la leche ("milk") corresponds to the Portuguese o leite (masc., Like French le lait , Italian il latte ). Likewise, nariz ("nose") is feminine in Spanish and masculine in Portuguese.

Some Spanish terms can be masculine and feminine, with different meanings. Both meanings usually also exist in Portuguese, but with only one gender, so that they cannot be differentiated without further context, for example the word orden (literally "order") can be both "harmonic arrangement" and "instruction" / "command" mean like its port. counterpart. But the Spanish word is masculine with the first meaning and feminine with the second:

Me sorprendió el order. (" The order surprised me.")

Me sorprendió la order. (" The order surprised me.")

The port. Counterpart ordem is always feminine:

Surpreendeu-me a ordem. (" The order surprised me." / " The order surprised me.")

Without an explanatory context, it is impossible to recognize the intended meaning in Portuguese.

Use of the definite article

In Portuguese, the definite article is usually placed before first names , which is also found in Catalan , but only in some Castilian dialects. In Portuguese, this is a relatively new phenomenon that some Brazilian dialects, especially in the northeast, have not yet adopted. In the case of those Portuguese dialects that use a specific article in front of names as standard, this can be omitted to express formality or literary distance. For example, German “Maria went (weg)”, Spanish María salió and Portuguese a Maria saiu . It should be noted, however, that in many Spanish dialects the definite article is used before a person's name; so la María salió is often heard.

Portuguese uses the definite article before some city names and almost all country names, except for relatively new ones such as Cingapura / Singapura and those that are (historically) related to Portugal (although only a rough rule) and the lusophone states, e.g. B. a Holanda , but Portugal ; o México but Angola ; a Suécia , but Moçambique . The biggest exception to the country rule is embodied in o Brazil . Also Inglaterra , França , Espanha , Itália in the EP, but with the article a in the BP. In Spanish, the use of the specific article is optional in some countries: (la) China , (el) Japón , (la) India , (la) Argentina , (el) Ecuador , (el) Perú , (el) Uruguay , (el ) Paraguay , (el) Brasil , (los) Estados Unidos etc. The same applies to two continents: (la) Antártida and (el) África ; for archipelagos and islands: (las) Filipinas , (las) Canarias , (las) Azores ; for some provinces, regions and territories: (el) Tíbet , (la) Toscana , (el) Piamonte , (el) Lacio ; and for some cities: (el) Cairo , (la) Valeta . Spanish uses the definite article in all geographical names as soon as they appear with an adjective or explanatory phrase, as in the following examples: la España medieval ("medieval Spain"), el Puerto Rico prehispánico ("Puerto Rico before the Spaniards"), el Portugal de Salazar ("Portugal under Salazar") etc.

Santiago es la capital de Chile. (Spanish)

Santiago é a capital d o Chile. (Portuguese)

"Santiago is the capital of Chile."

Él es de Costa Rica, que está en América Central. (Spanish)

Ele é d a Costa Rica, que fica n a América Central. (Portuguese)

"He comes from Costa Rica, which is in Central America."

Tengo un boleto para ( los ) Estados Unidos de América. (Spanish)

Tenho um bilhete para os Estados Unidos d a América. (Portuguese)

"I have a plane ticket to the United States."

Nueva Delhi no es la ciudad más poblada de ( la ) India . (Spanish)

Nova Déli não é a Cidade mais d populosa a Índia . (Portuguese)

"New Delhi is not the most populous city in India."

La Europa medieval pertenecía a monarcas absolutos . (Spanish)

A Europa medieval pertencia a monarcas absolutos . (Portuguese)

"Medieval Europe belonged to absolute monarchs."

Portuguese omits the definite article from the time of day unless para is involved.

Son read nueve y quince . (Spanish)

São nove e quinze . (Portuguese)

"It's nine fifteen."

In addition, most Portuguese dialects use the definite article before possessive articles (as in Italian), which is not possible in Spanish. For example, the phrase “This is my brother” is Este es mi hermano in Spanish, but it can be Este é o meu irmão in Portuguese. Even so, many Brazilian dialects (especially in the northeast) and colloquial BP do not use the article in sentences like: Este é meu irmão (although it usually appears in sentences like O meu irmão está lá ).

Possessives

In Portuguese, the possessive adjectives have the same form as the possessive pronouns and they are all based on the gender of the "property". In Spanish, the same applies to nuestro / nuestra (“our”) and vuestro / vuestra (“your”), but for all other possessives the pronoun has a longer form based on the gender of the property, while the adjective has a shorter form which is not based on gender. The possessive adjectives are usually preceded by a specific article in EP, less in BP and never in Spanish. The possessive pronouns in all dialects of both languages are preceded by a specific article:

Gender of property	Spanish		Portuguese
Gender of property	adjective	pronoun	adjective	pronoun
Feminine	su casa "your house"	la suya "yours"	(a) sua* casa* "your house"	a sua "yours"
Masculine	su libro "your book"	el suyo "yours"	(o) seu* livro* "your book"	o seu "yours"

Pronouns

Object pronouns

In Portuguese, clitic pronouns in the third person have special variants that are used after certain connections, which does not happen in Spanish. The standard object pronouns o / a / os / as become lo / la / los / las when they follow a verb ending in ⟨r⟩, ⟨s⟩, or ⟨z⟩ and become no / na / nos / nas when following a verb with a nasal ending.

Spanish	Portuguese	meaning
manténga lo	mantenha- o	keep it
mantener lo	mantê- lo	(to) keep it
lo mantienen	mantêm- no	they keep it

In BP, these forms are unusual because the pronoun usually precedes the verb (i.e. você o mantenha in the above example), and subject pronouns in the third person are used informally as object pronouns ( mantenha ele ), although the latter is actually incorrect. However, since it is sometimes considered ungrammatical to begin a sentence with an object pronoun, the above examples are rarely used in Brazil.

Clitical personal pronouns

EP differs from BP in terms of the placement of clitic personal pronouns, and Spanish in turn differs from both.

In Spanish, clitic pronouns usually come before the verb, except for the imperative, infinitive, and gerund. With verbal periphrases , they precede the auxiliary verb .

In spoken BP, clitic pronouns usually come before the “main” verb. In verbal phrases they come between the auxiliary and main verb. This also happens with the imperative, infinitive, gerund and past participle.

In the EP, clitic pronouns can come before or after the verb, depending on the sub-clause . In verbal periphrases they can come before or after the auxiliary verb or follow the main verb (if this is in the infinitive or gerund) (see also Tobler-Mussafia law ).

Spanish	Portuguese	meaning
Ella le dio un libro.	Ela deu- lhe* um livro.* Ela lhe* deu um livro.*	She gave him a book.
Díga me dónde ha estado.	Diz- me onde estiveste. Diga -me* por onde você esteve.*	Tell me where you have been
Tóma me una photo. Sáca me una photo.	Tira- me uma photo. Me tira uma photo.	Take me a picture.
Quería ver te . Te quería ver.	Queria comparable te . Queria te ver.	I wanted to see you
No te he conseguido ver. No he conseguido ver te . No conseguí ver te .	Não consegui comparable te . Não consegui te ver.	I couldn't see you

Mesoclitics

In Portuguese, verbs in the indicative future or in the conditional can be broken down into morphemes and the clitic pronoun can be placed between them, which is called mesoclise. This also happened in old Spanish, but today's Spanish does not know anything comparable:

Lo traerá. (Spanish)

Trá- lo -á. (EP and extremely formal written BP)

"He / she will it bring."

However, these times are often replaced by others in spoken language. The indicative future tense is sometimes replaced by the indicative present tense, the conditional very often replaced by the indicative imperfect tense. Colloquially, most Portuguese would say trá-lo-á as vai trazê-lo ("bring it"; actually "will bring it") or irá trazê-lo ("will bring it").

Combining pronouns in Spanish

The Spanish construction se lo dio means either '[he / she] gave it [him / her]' or '[he / she] gave it to himself '. The expected pattern for the previous would be * le lo dio 'He / she gave it to him / her', but there is no such construction. This is Spanish exclusive.

Latin DÉDIT ILLĪ ILLUD 'He / she gave it to him / her' → Vulgar Latin * DÉDIT ILLĪ ILLU → Ibero-Romanic * DÉI (T) (IL) LĪ (IL) LU
Spanish: * die-le-lo → * dieo-le-lo → oldspan. diógelo → dióselo → neuspan. se lo dio (18th century)
Portuguese: altport. deu-li-lo → * deu lhe lo → neuport. deu-lho

Thus, today's Spanish does not differentiate between the reflexive pronoun se and the dative object se . It should be noted that this did not occur in Old Spanish: dió g elo 'he gave it to him' versus dió s elo 'he gave it to himself'. The medieval g sound (similar to the French ) was replaced by s in the 14th / 15th centuries. Century (cf. Spanish co g er 'catch', but co s echa 'harvest', Portuguese colher and colheita , both from Latin colligere ).

Use of stressed pronouns for inanimate subjects

In Spanish, stressed pronouns are never used for inanimate subjects (i.e. things as opposed to humans or animals), not even for clarification or ambiguity. Portuguese has no such restriction, so stressed pronouns related to inanimate subjects can either be used or left out:

¿Dónde están las llaves? Estan en la mesa. (Spanish - pronouns always left out)

Onde estão as chaves? ( Elas ) estão na mesa. (Portuguese - pronoun optional)

"Where are the keys? You are on the table. "( German - pronouns obligatory)

Second person pronouns

The use of second person pronouns differs widely between Spanish and Portuguese, and even more so between EP and BP. Spanish tú and usted go etymologically with port. tu and você together, but Portuguese got a third, even more formal form o (s) senhor (es), a (s) senhora (s) , putting você on a more “equalizing” than formal level. In the plural, Portuguese common vós is now archaic everywhere and both pronouns and corresponding verb forms of the second person plural are generally limited to biblical texts, traditional prayers and oral variants in some rural Portuguese regions; normally the common (expressing the same level) form is vocês . In the case of Iberian Spanish, tú , usted , vosotros and ustedes have more or less retained their original function; if at all, then tú replaces usted in everyday language and usted is increasingly used in formal situations (cf. Port. o senhor ). Latin American Spanish is more complicated: vosotros has given way to ustedes , but certain regions also use vos as an informal pronoun singular , which sometimes displaces tú from its original position (see Voseo ).

Spoken BP has greatly simplified the system of pronouns, with você (s) tending to replace all other forms. Although some areas of Brazil still do and corresponding verb forms of the second person. Sg. Use the overwhelming majority either tu with the third person verb form Sg. Or (increasingly) replacing tu entirely with você . This in turn has led to the original third person possessive seu, sua being used mainly for the second person, with the advent of a “new” third person possessive, dele, dela (plural deles, delas (“her”)), which follows the noun (e.g. o carro dele ("his car"), o carro dela ("her car")). The formal o senhor is also increasingly restricted to very formal situations, for example when a shop assistant approaches a customer or a child or adolescent approaches unfamiliar adults.

In this respect, the fluminenser dialect of the BP (spoken in Rio de Janeiro , Espírito Santo and in the Zona da Mata of the state of Minas Gerais ) - especially its Carioca - sociolect is more conservative . This dialect usually retains the more intimate tu , the standard form of the same level você and the respectful or formal o senhor / a senhora , together with the associated possessives, so much that, depending on the context, almost all speakers use these forms. Nonetheless, a minority of educated speakers bend all pronouns belonging to tu formally correctly; otherwise this is usually handled like você .

Standard Portuguese knows vocês and os Senhores / as senhoras as plural of você and o senhor / a senhora , but the saying has produced plural new forms with the colloquial function of the second person, as gente (see. A gente than current Graces for nós ( " wir ”), which should be conjugated as a third person Sg., which usually does not happen), pessoas , pessoal , [meu] povo , cês (dialect for vocês ) and galera (rather youth language).

It is often said that the dialects Gaúcho , Nordestino and Amazofonia as well as some sociolects elsewhere, such as those in and around the city of Santos , have preserved tu ; Unlike the Fluminense , the use of você is severely restricted and completely absent from some speakers, although tu takes his place. In these areas the verb is conjugated with tu in the third person (as with você ) - except for educated speakers of some urban centers such as Porto Alegre and, in particular, Belém (see BP ).

Verbs

"Be"

Spanish and Portuguese have two primary copulae , ser and estar . Usually these are used congruently in both languages, but there are a few cases where this is not the case. The main difference between Spanish and Portuguese is how they interpret the concept of state vs. Essence and in generalizations that appear in one way or another in certain constructions, such as:

Está prohibido fumar. (spanish) [estar]

É proibido fumar. (Portuguese) [ser]

"Smoking is prohibited."

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 correto . (Portuguese) [estar]

"Only one thing is right."

Likewise, the use of ser for permanent place is much more accepted in Portuguese. Conversely, in Spanish estar is often permanent at places, whereas in Portuguese it implies being temporarily and / or in the immediate vicinity (same house, building, etc.), s. u. the first two examples.

Secondary copulae are quedar (se) in Spanish and ficar in Portuguese. Each can also mean “stay” or “stay”.

Me quedé dentro de la casa todo el día. (Spanish)

Fiquei dentro de casa todo o dia. (Portuguese)

" I stayed in the house all day."

As now explained here, the Spanish sentence insinuates to have voluntarily stayed in the house, where Portuguese and German are rather ambiguous on this question without additional information:

Nuestra oficina queda (or está ) muy lejos. (Spanish) [quedar / estar]

O nosso escritório é (or fica ) muito longe. (Portuguese) [ser / ficar]

"Our office is very far away."

¿Dónde está (or queda ) el aeropuerto? (Spanish) [estar / quedar]

Onde fica (or é ) o aeroporto? (Portuguese) [ficar / ser]

"Where is the airport?"

Since the airport is not evident anywhere near, is ficar used in Portuguese (most common), although ser was going the same way.

Both Spanish quedar (se) and Portuguese ficar can mean "will":

Mi abuela se está quedando sorda. (Spanish)

A minha avó está ficando surda. (BP and some dialects of the EP)

A minha avó está / anda a ficar surda. (EP)

"My grandmother is (slowly) going deaf."

"To like"

The Portuguese and Spanish verbs for “like” have the same form ( gostar and gustar ), but differ in the use of arguments . Linguistic arguments are expressions used to complete a verb in its meaning. Expressions of liking usually use two arguments: (1) a person who likes something and (2) something that person likes (see also theta roll ). Portuguese and Spanish (just like German) assign different grammatical cases to these arguments , as the following table with the argument structure for the verb "like" shows:

	Person who likes something	Thing that is liked	shape
Portuguese	subject	Prepositional object of de	(Eu) gosto de ouvir música.
Spanish	Dative object	subject	Me gusta escuchar música.
German	subject	Accusative object	I like to listen to music.

The Portuguese sentence literally means "[I] [draw a courtesy] [from] [listening to music]", whereas the Spanish means "[I] [like] [listening to music]".

Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs are a little more common in Spanish than they are in Portuguese, especially for actions related to body parts:

Guillermo se quebró la pierna jugando a la pelota. (Spanish)

O Guilherme quebrou a perna jogando bola. (BP)

O Guilherme partiu a perna a jogar à bola. (EP)

"Wilhelm broke his leg playing football."

Auxiliary verb in the perfect system

In Spanish, the perfect system is formed with the auxiliary verb haber (from Latin HABĒRE ). Even though Portuguese used its cognate haver in this way, it is now more common to use ter ' to have' (from Latin TENĒRE ' to hold'). Haver is more common in BP, while ter is used as an auxiliary verb in other Ibero-Romance languages ; it is much more common in Portuguese. Note that most Portuguese verb tables only list ter in the perfect tense.

Past perfect formations:

Yo ya había comido cuando mi madre volvió. (Spanish) [imperfect tense from haber ]

Eu já comera quando a minha mãe voltou. (Portuguese) [inherited, synthetic plqperf.]

Eu já tinha comido quando a minha mãe voltou. (Portuguese) [past tense of ter ]

Eu já havia comido quando a minha mãe voltou. (Portuguese) [ past tense of haver ]

"I had already eaten when my mother came back." [Past tense of haben ]

Subjunctive past perfect versus indicative past perfect

A class " false friends " is within the two languages in verb forms with the suffixes - ra - as cantara , cantaras , cantáramos etc. Spanish has two forms of the subjunctive imperfect, with extensions on -se- and - ra -. (Eg . cantase / cantara “I would have sung”), which are usually interchangeable. In Portuguese this only means cantasse ; cantara is the indicative past perfect , d. H. equivalent to the Spanish había cantado (“I had sung”). Although there is a strong tendency towards compound verb forms, similar to Spanish and German ( tinha cantado ), the simple tense is still very present in Portuguese literature.

Perfect

In Spanish, the perfect present tense is normally used to talk about actions started and completed in the past that are still considered relevant in the present. In Portuguese, like is expressed by the simple past:

No, gracias. Ya he cenado . (Spanish) [perfect]

Não, obrigado. Já jantei . (Portuguese) [simple past]

"No thanks. I've already had dinner . "[Perfect]

He ido a España dos veces. (Spanish) [perfect]

Fui a Espanha duas vezes. (Portuguese) [simple past]

" I'm twice to Spain driven ." [Perfect]

¿ Ha oído usted las últimas noticias, señor? (Spanish) [perfect]

O senhor ouviu as últimas notícias? (Portuguese) [simple past]

" Have you heard the news , sir?" [Perfect]

In Portuguese, the present perfect tense ( pretérito perfeito composto ) is usually used for events that started in the past, recurred regularly into the present, and could continue to occur in the future. As an example, the contrast with Spanish:

He pensado en pedirle matrimonio. (Spanish) [perfect]

" I thought about asking him / her [dative object] to marry me [the thought occurred to me at least once]." [Perfect]

Tenho pensado em pedi-la em casamento. (Portuguese) [perfect]

" I have (often) considered asking her [accusative object] to marry me." [Perfect; Ed. Extends to the present]

Personal infinitive

As the only one of the great Romance languages , Portuguese has the infinitivo pessoal , which can be used as an alternative to the subjunctive in clauses.

La recepcionista nos pidió que esperáramos / esperásemos . (Spanish) [imperfect subjunctive]

A recepcionista pediu para esperarmos . (Portuguese) [Personal Infinitive]

A recepcionista pediu que esperássemos . (Portuguese) [imperfect subjunctive]

"The receptionist asked us to wait ."

The perfect Portuguese form of the personal infinitive corresponds to one of several possible Spanish finite verbs.

Alguien nos acusó de haber robado un bolígrafo. (Spanish)

Alguém nos acusou de termos roubado uma caneta. (Portuguese)

"Somebody accused us of stealing a pen."

Sometimes the personal infinitive can hardly be replaced by a finite clause and matches a different structure in Spanish:

Tu hábito de fumar junto a una ventana es desagradable. (Spanish: "Your habit of smoking near a window is uncomfortable.")

O hábito de fumares à janela é desagradável. (Portuguese;. HR infinitive Literally .: "The habit you at the window smoke is unpleasant.")

(O) teu hábito de fumar à janela é desagradável. (Portuguese; un personal infinitive. Literal: "Your habit of smoking at the window is unpleasant.")

The personal infinitive is not used in counterfactual situations, as these require the imperfect subjunctive: "If we were rich ..." is Se fôssemos ricos ... , not * Se sermos ricos ... It is also conjugated like the future subjunctive (see next section), provided the latter is not irregular ( ser , estar , ter etc.). The personal infinitive is never irregular, although the circumflex accent can be omitted in expanded forms ( e.g. pôr ).

In the first and third person singular, the personal infinitive does not differ from the unconjugated.

É bom eu / ele esperar um bocadinho. (Portuguese)

"It is good that I / he wait a little (t)."

The above rules also apply when the subjects of both sub-clauses match but are independent of one another.

Para que lleguemos temprano, necesitamos apresurarnos. (Spanish) [Present Subjunctive]

Para chegarmos cedo, temos / teremos de nos apressar. (Portuguese) [Personal Infinitive]

" We have to hurry so that we can arrive early ."

Para que llegáramos / llegásemos temprano, necesitaríamos apresurarnos. (Spanish) [imperfect subjunctive]

Para chegarmos cedo, tínhamos / teríamos de nos apressar. (Portuguese) [Personal Infinitive]

"So we soon arrive , we would have to hurry."

As seen, the personal infinitive can sometimes be used to replace the impersonal infinitive or the subjunctive. Spanish has no such option.

Subjunctive future tense

The subjunctive future tense, now practically obsolete in Spanish, is still used in both written and spoken Portuguese. It is used in dependent clauses that refer to hypothetical future events or states - either adverbial clauses (usually with se (“if”) or quando (“if”; actually “when”)) or relative clauses that modify nouns which relate to hypothetical future. Spanish uses the present indicative in analogous if- clauses and the present subjunctive in cuando and relative clauses.

Se eu for eleito presidente, mudarei a lei. (Portuguese)

Si yo soy elegido presidente, cambiaré la ley. (Spanish)

"If I am elected president, I will change the law."

Quando fores mais velho, compreenderás. (Portuguese)

Cuando seas mayor, comprenderás. (Spanish)

"If you older are , you'll understand."

Dar-se-á / Se dará o prêmio à primeira pessoa que disser a resposta correta. (Portuguese)

Se dará el premio a la primera persona que diga la respuesta correcta. (Spanish)

"The award goes to the first person who correctly answer calls ."

Irregular verbs

A number of Portuguese verbs change the main vowel to accommodate differences between 1st and 3rd pers. Sg. To indicate: fiz ("I did") vs. fez ("he / she / it did"), pude ("I could") vs. pôde ("he could"), fui ("I was / went") vs. foi ("he was / went"), tive ("I had") vs. teve ("he had") etc. These vowel differences come from the one caused by the finale -Ī of the 1st person. Sg. Triggered metaphony . Spanish only keeps this with fui ("I was") vs. fue ("he was"). In all other cases, one of the two vowels was regularly used in the conjugation and a new ending of the 3rd person, -o , was assumed: hice ("I made") vs. hizo ("he did"), pude ("I could") vs. pudo ("he could") etc.

Conversely, Spanish retains much more irregular forms in the future tense and conditional: saldré (“I'll go away”), pondré (“I'll stand up”), vendré (“I'll come”), diré (“I'll say”), etc. Portuguese has only three of them: farei (“I will do”), direi (“I will say”), and trarei (“I will bring”).

Portuguese lets - e in irregular forms of the 3rd pers. Sg. Ind. Pres. After ⟨z⟩ and ⟨r⟩ according to phonological rules: faz (“he does”), diz (“he says”), quer (“he wants”) etc. Spanish has analogous - e at recultivated other verbs: hace (“he does”), dice (“he says”), quiere (“he wants”) etc. (The same analogy applies to fiz vs. hice (“I did”) in the past tense paz (“peace”), luz (“light”), amor (“love”) etc. -e was dropped in both languages and never recultivated).

prepositions

Mergers

In Spanish, the prepositions a ("(um) zu") and de ("from, from") form fusion words with the following masculine Sg. Definite article el ("der"): a + el > al and de + el > del . This contraction is much more extensive in Portuguese, using the prepositions a (“(um) zu”), de (“von, aus”), em (“in”) and por (“for”) with articles and demonstrative pronouns regardless of number or Gender are involved. All four of these prepositions merge with the definite article, as shown in the following table:

Preposition + best. Article (Portuguese)	a	de	em	por
o (masked sg.)	ao	do	no ¹	pelo
a (fem.Sg.)	à ²	there	n / A	pela
os (mask. pl.)	aos	dos ¹	nos	pelos
as (fem. pl.)	às	the	nas	pelas

¹ These Portuguese contractions involve some potential “ false friends ” for the Spanish reader, e.g. B. no (port. "In the / im", col. "No, not") and dos (port. " Der " ( genitive ), col. "Two").

² In EP is a [⁠ ɐ ⁠] pronounced, while à [⁠ a ⁠] is. Both mostly [⁠ a ⁠] in most of Brazil, although in some dialects as Carioca and Florianopolitano may be differences.

In addition, the prepositions de and em are combined with the demonstratives as shown below:

Preposition + demonstrative (Portuguese)	de	em
este (mask. Sg.) esta (fem. Sg.) estes (mask. Pl.) estas (fem. Pl.)	deste desta destes destas	neste nesta nestes nestas
esse (mask. sg.) essa (fem. sg.) esses (mask. pl.) essas (fem. pl.)	desse dessa desses dessas	nesse nessa nesses nessas
aquele (mask. sg.) aquela (fem. sg.) aqueles (mask. pl.) aquelas (fem. pl.)	daquele daquela daqueles daquelas	naquele naquela naqueles naquelas

The neutral demonstrative pronouns isto (“this”), isso , aquilo (“that”) are also combined with de and em - that is, disto , nisto etc. The preposition a is combined with the distal demonstratives (those that begin with a- ) to Aquele , Aquilo form etc..

The port contractions mentioned so far are mandatory. Contractions can also optionally be formed from em and de with the indefinite article ( um , uma , uns , umas ), which leads to num , numa , dum , duma etc. and with the pronouns of the 3rd person. ( ele , ela , eles , elas ), which is nele , nela , dele , dela etc. Other de facto mandatory mergers are de with aqui > daqui (“from there”); optional with the noun água : um copo d'água (“a glass of water”).

The Spanish con (“with”, Port. Com ) is combined with the prepositional pronouns mí , ti and sí to create conmigo , contigo , consigo (“with me”, “with you”, “with him / her yourself”) to build. In Portuguese, this is not only used for mim , ti and si ( comigo , contigo and consigo ), but is also extended to nós and (in variants where it is needed) vós , which is in connosco ( conosco on BP) and convosco flows out.

Personal " a "

Spanish uses a preposition, the so-called “personal a ”, before the direct object of a transitive verb (except tener ) , when it denotes specific people or pets; see. Veo a Juan (“I see Johann”); Hemos invitado a los estudiantes (“we invited the students”). In Portuguese there is practically no personal a , except before Deus (“God”): louvar a Deus (“to praise God”), amar a Deus (“to love God”).

Ir a versus ir para

The prepositions a (which often means “(um) to”) and para (often “for”) are quite common in both languages . However, EP makes a distinction between going somewhere for a short or long time, especially for intended stays, with the latter using para instead of a . Although there is no set length of stay for preposition exchange for speaker of the EP implies a that one than later returns home sooner, depending on the context. This difference does not exist in BP or in Spanish and the span. Para cannot be applied in this sense either.

Fui a l mercado cerca de mi casa. (Spanish)

Fui a o mercado perto de / da minha casa. / Fui para o mercado perto de / da minha casa. (EP and BP)

"I went to the market near my house." [Temporary change of location]

El presidente anterior fue exiliado a Portugal. (Spanish)

O presidente anterior foi exilado para Portugal. (EP and BP)

"The previous president was banished to Portugal." [Permanent or long-term change of location]

However, it should be noted in the first example that para could be used in Portuguese if it is in contrast to a very short stay.

Não fico muito tempo, so at minuto. Tenho que / de ir para o mercado. (Portuguese)

“I can't stay long, just a minute. I have to go to the market. "[Unfinished business or deadline]

In informal BP, em (in its original form or combined with a given article in a contraction resulting in no , na , numa etc.) often replaces the preposition a in the standard language.

Vou na padaria. (informal BP)

Vou à padaria. (Standard Portuguese)

"I'm going to the bakery."

Fui numa festa ontem. (informal BP)

Fui a uma festa ontem. (Standard Portuguese)

"I went to a party yesterday ."

There is no such construction in EP or Spanish.

In Portuguese, the preposition até can also be used if the expected length of stay is short and / or there is a specific reason for moving.

Vou até a praia. (Portuguese)

"I go to the beach."

Hacia and para

Spanish has two directional adverbs: para ("for", including "after") and hacia ("gen"; not necessarily implying arrival). Of both, only para exists for both meanings in Portuguese.

Este regalo es para ti . (Spanish)

First presente é para ti . (Portuguese)

"This gift is for you."

Aquel / Ese avión va hacia Brasilia. (Spanish)

Aquele avião voa para Brasília. (Portuguese)

"The plane flies to Brasília."

Colloquially, para is often reduced in both languages: to pa in Spanish, and in Portuguese to pra (occasionally written p'ra and thus potentially found in literature) or pa (only jargon in Portugal and Rio de Janeiro and not allowed in writing). Portuguese pra can therefore merge with the specific article: pra + o > pro (BP) or prò (EP), pra + a > pra (BP) or prà (EP) etc. Analogously to the jargon option pa , this becomes: pa + o > pò , pa + a > pà etc.

"Progressive tense"

Both languages have a kind of "progressive future tense" (similar to English going-to future ). Spanish includes the preposition a between the conjugated form of ir (“to go”) and the infinitive: Vamos a cantar (“we will sing”; present of ir + a + infinitive). Usually in Portuguese there is no preposition between auxiliary and main verb: Vamos cantar (present of ir + infinitive). This also applies to other times:

Ayer yo iba a empty el libro, pero no tuve la oportunidad. (Spanish)

Ontem eu ia ler o livro, mas nicht tive oportunidade. (Portuguese)

" I planned to read the book yesterday , but had no opportunity."

Further differences in prepositions

Even if the same prepositions are used in accordance with the rules in the same context in both languages, there are many exceptions.

Nuestros gastos de energía. (Spanish)

(Os) nossos gastos com / de energia. (Portuguese)

"Our energy expenditure."

Voy a votar por Juan. (Spanish)

Vou votar em / no João. (Portuguese)

"I will vote for Johannes."

spelling, orthography

alphabet

The traditional Spanish alphabet had 28 letters, while the Portuguese had 23. Now k and w (especially in foreign words ) have been added to both languages. Portuguese also has y for loanwords (cf. Acordo Ortográfico ).

With the reform of the 10th Congress of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language in 1994, the Spanish alphabet now follows the pattern of the major Western European languages. Before that, the diagrams ch and ll were alphabetized separately. For example, the following surnames were arranged as follows: Cervantes, Contreras, Cruz, Ch ávez, Dávila . There are still many Spanish dictionaries that use this pre-reformist sort.

Current Spanish alphabet

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n ñ o p q r s t u v w x y z

Digraphs

ch ll rr gu qu

Current Portuguese alphabet with k , w and y

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Digraphs

ch lh nh rr gu qu ss (cc cç sc sç xc xs)

In Spanish, ⟨sc⟩ is not called a digraph in Latin American Spanish, but it is a single sound like in BP. Similarly, Spanish has ⟨sh⟩ / ⁠ ʃ / ⁠ adopted as Lehnlaut from the English; like sherpa , show , flash . BP uses the Trigraph ⟨tch⟩ / ⁠ tʃ ⁠ / for loanwords; for example tchau (“ ciao ”), tcheco (“Czech”), República Tcheca (“Czech Republic”), tchê (“ che ”; coming from Spanish, only regionally distributed) etc. EP usually replaces the trigraph ⟨tch⟩ ⟨ch⟩ / ⁠ ʃ ⁠ / : chau , checo , Czech Republic , etc.

Spanish use as Portuguese ⟨zz⟩ / ⁠ ts ⁠ / (never / ⁠ dz ⁠ / - only in Japanese loanwords such as adzuki ) for some Italian loan words, but which is sometimes not as Portuguese affricate pronounced but with sound insertion / ⁠ i ⁠ / or / ⁠ ɨ ⁠ / ; about chip. and port. pizza , chip. and port. paparazzo etc. Spanish also used ⟨tz⟩ / ⁠ ts ⁠ / for Basque, Catalan and Nahuatllehnwörter and ⟨tl⟩ / tɬ / (or / tl / ) for Nahuatllehnwörter; z. B. Ertzaintza , quetzal , xoloitzcuintle , Tlaxcala etc. Portuguese uses ⟨ts⟩ for German , originally ⟨z⟩, and Japanese loanwords.

Different spelling of the same sounds

The palatals are spelled differently in both languages.

Explanation	Spanish		Portuguese
Explanation	Spelling	pronunciation	Spelling	pronunciation
"Ku"	cu	kw	qu	kw
Palatal "l"	ll	ʎ (~ ʝ )	lh	ʎ
Palatal "n"	ñ	ɲ	nh	ɲ (EP), j̃ (BP)
Palatal "y"	y	ʝ	i	j

The symbols ⟨ll⟩ and ⟨ñ⟩ are etymologically Spanish, as the embodied sounds often come from the Latin LL and NN (for this Portuguese has simple ⟩l⟩ and ⟨n⟩; cf. rodilla / rodela , peña / pena ). The Portuguese digraphs ⟨lh⟩ and ⟨nh⟩ come from Occitan , as the poetry and literature there was the most important influence on the Portuguese counterparts until the 14th century. King Dionysius (Portugal) , who established Portuguese instead of Latin as the official language, was an admirer of Occitan literature and a poet himself. Examples are names like port. Mi nh o (Sp. Mi ñ o ) and Maga lh ães (Sp. Maga ll anes ).

The letter ⟨y⟩ was used in Portuguese from the 16th to the early 20th centuries in Greek loanwords, similar to German; z. B. Psychologia , modern Psicologia ("Psychology"). The 1911 spelling reform officially replaced it with ⟨i⟩. The accompanying sound can be used as an allophone of the vowel / ⁠ i ⁠ / be considered in both languages. For comparison, Sp. Re y (“king”), ma y or (“bigger”, “older”) and port. re i , ma i or .

The exact pronunciation of these three consonants depends on the dialect. The table only shows the most common sound patterns. In most Spanish dialects, the consonants written ⟨ll⟩ and ⟨y⟩ are now pronounced the same, a sound amalgamation known as Yeísmo . A similar phenomenon can be found in some dialects of the BP; z. B. muié for mulher ("woman"), but this is much less common than in Spanish.

The Portuguese letter ⟨ç⟩ ( c-cedilha ) was first used in Old Spanish, based on a Visigothic form of ⟨z⟩. In Portuguese it is used before ⟨a⟩, ⟨o⟩ and ⟨u⟩, but never at the beginning or end of a word, and always embodies the voiceless c . In today's Spanish it was replaced by ⟨z⟩, for example in “footwear”: cal z ado (Sp.), Cal ç ado (Port.).

Word endings equivalents

Multiple word endings are consistently different in both languages:

Spanish - n corresponds to Portuguese - m at the end of the word; z. B. Spanish: jardín , algún ; Portuguese: jardim , algum (each "garden", "any"). In Portuguese, ⟨m⟩ and ⟨n⟩ indicate nasalization of the preceding vowel at the end of a word or syllable; z. B. som / ˈsõ / ("sound"; see below section Phonology). In the plural, ⟨m⟩ is replaced by ⟨n⟩ (Spanish: jardines , algunos ; Port .: jardins , alguns ) because in these cases the ⟨m⟩ is no longer at the end of the word. Note that Portuguese, like Spanish , can also have less common terms - n , such as port. abdómen / abdômen ("belly") or - m , such as span. tándem ("tandem").
Common exceptions to the above rule concern Spanish noun endings:
- - án and - ano , which are usually - ão or - ã in the port. correspond; Iran vs. Irão (EP) / Irã (BP) ("Iran"), Hermano vs. irmão ("brother") and huérfano vs. órfão ("orphan"; all m. )
- - ana , what - ã equals: hermana vs. irmã ("sister"), mañana vs. manhã ("morning"), huérfana vs. órfã ("orphan"; each f. )
- - ón / - ción or - cción / - sión , which are usually opposite - ão / - ção or - ção / -são or -ssão : melón vs. melão ("melon"), opción vs. opção ("option"), corrección vs. correção ("correction"), pensión vs. pensão ("pension") or admisión vs. admissão ("inlet")
- - on or - on , which corresponds to most monosyllables - ão : son vs. são ("they are"), tan vs. tão ("like", "so (very))"

The substantive or adjective endings in the singular -án and -one in Spanish correspond usually both Portuguese AO and also the span. Ending -ano usually the port. AO (although many port. Words on -ano end, u. A. People's names as cubano , boliviano etc.). The plurals of port. Word endings -ão generally retain historical deviations: Port. - ãos , - ães and - ões generally correspond to Span. -anos , -anes and -ones :
- - ãos , like mão / mãos (Spanish mano / manos ; German "hand / hands")
- - ães , like capitão / capitães (Spanish capitán / capitanes ; German "Kaptän (e)")
- - ões , like melão / melões (Spanish melón / melones ; German "Melon (en)")

Known exceptions to the above rule:
- ancião , which enables three plural forms: anciãos , anciães and anciões (Spanish anciano (s) ; German "tribal elder (r)")

The endings of the 3rd pers. Plurals of the indicative past tense are written with - on in Spanish ( pensaron, vivieron ; "they thought", "they lived"), but with - am in Portuguese ( pensaram, viveram )

Portuguese words that end in - l form the plural by leaving out ⟨l⟩ and adding - is (- eis with unstressed final - il ): caracol / caracóis (Spanish caracol (es) ; German "Schnecke (n)" ), fácil / fáceis (Spanish fácil (es) ; German "simple")

In Spanish, adjectives and nouns ending with - z form their plurals by replacing ⟨z⟩ with ⟨c⟩ (- ces ); z. B. feroz / feroces (Port. Feroz (es) ; German "wild"), vez / veces (Port. Vez (es) ; German "Mal (e)")

Another noticeable difference is the use of - z in Spanish versus - s in Portuguese at the end of unstressed syllables, especially when the last letter is a consonant. Examples:

Álvarez ,	Fernández ,	Suarez ,	izquierda ,	mezquino , lápiz	(Spanish)
Álvares ,	Fernandes ,	Soares ,	esquerda ,	mesquinho , lápis	(Portuguese)

Other equivalents for word endings are:
- - izar (Span.) and - izar or - isar (Port.), like realizar vs. realizar ("to realize") and analizar vs. analisar ("analyze"); note that some Spanish verbs also end in - isar ; for example avisar (“warn”), pesquisar (“research”), etc. BP uses the alternative word ending - issar in exceptional cases ; like aterrissar , alunissar (EP aterrar , alunar , Span. aterrizar , alunizar ; German "landing", "moon landing")

Accentuation and nasalization

Both have diacritical marks to mark the stressed syllable of a word when it is not recognizable by the spelling. Since Spanish does not differentiate between half-open and half-closed and nasal vowels , it only uses one accent (writing) , the acute . Usually uses the Portuguese acute ( ' ), but also uses the circumflex ( ) for the half-closed vowels ⟨ê⟩ and ⟨ô⟩ and ⟨â⟩ the stressed (in Brazil always nasal).

Although Spanish ⟨y⟩ can be both a vowel and a consonant, as a vowel it never has an accent. At the end of the word, the Portuguese diphthong - ai is equivalent to Spanish - ay , but - ai can have an accent on ⟨í⟩ to break the diphthong into two separate vowels ( hiat ), e.g. B. açaí ("cabbage palm"; three syllables). Without an accent, as in Spanish, the last syllable would be diphthong: Parag uai (Portuguese) and Parag uay (Spanish).

Portuguese nasal vowels precede ⟨n⟩ and ⟨m⟩ (see Phonology below) without an accent, as these consonants are not fully pronounced in such cases. The tilde (~) is only used in nasaldiphthongs, such as ⟨ão⟩ [ɐ̃w̃] and ⟨õe⟩ [õj̃] , plus in front of the final ⟨ã⟩ [ɐ̃] , which replaces the - in the ending, since the latter is reserved for verbs , see. amanh ã [amɐˈɲɐ̃] ("tomorrow").

Prefix and inner syllable: vowel + ⟨n⟩ + consonant (except ⟨h⟩, ⟨p⟩ or ⟨b⟩): an teced en te , ger in g on ça , m un do , ên fase

Prefix and inner syllable: vowel + ⟨m⟩ + bilabial (⟨p⟩ or ⟨b⟩): caç am ba , em prego , sup im pa , p om ba , pen um bra

End syllable: vowel + ⟨m⟩: fizer am , em , ru im , b om , alg um (except for special words such as abdóm en / abdôm en , híf en etc.)

These do not change the stress rules, even if the endings - im , - ins and - um , - us are stressed like their non-nasal counterparts (see below). Some 2-letter words only consist of nasal vowels: em and um .

Phonetic vowel nasalization is in Spanish - vowels can be easily nasalized when in contact with nasal consonants - but this is of no phonemic significance. In Portuguese, on the other hand, nasalization is crucial and therefore phonemic: pois / ˈpojs / or / ˈpojʃ / ("because") vs. pões / ˈpõj̃s / or / ˈpõj̃ʃ / ("you turn off").

Portuguese changes vowel sounds with (and without) accentuation. Unaccented ⟨o⟩ ( / u /, / o /, / ɔ / ) and ⟨e⟩ ( / i /, / ɨ /, / e /, / ɛ /, / ɐ / ), acute ⟨ó⟩ ( / ⁠ ɔ ⁠ / ) and ⟨é⟩ ( / ⁠ ɛ ⁠ / ) or with circumflex ⟨ô⟩ ( / ⁠ o ⁠ / ) and ⟨ê⟩ ( / ⁠ e ⁠ / ). So nós [ˈnɔs] or [ˈnɔʃ] ("we") vs. nos [nus] or [nuʃ] ("us"), avô [aˈvo] ("grandfather") vs. avó [aˈvɔ] ("grandmother"), se [si] or [sɨ] ("himself (himself)") vs. sé [ˈsɛ] ("cathedral") vs. sê [ˈse] (“be!”). The Spanish pronunciation does not recognize such distinctions.

The grave accent ( ` ) is also used in Portuguese to indicate a contraction of the preposition a (" (um) zu ") in some words beginning with a , but not an accent. In other cases it is the combination of a preposition and a feminine definite article; in other words equivalent to a la (“to the”) in Spanish. Às is used in the plural ( a las Spanish).

a (prep.) + a (s) (best. type; "the") = à (s) ("to the")
a (prep.) + aquele (s), aquela (s) (pron .; "that") = à que le (s), à que la (s) ("to that / r / n" etc .; emphasized Syllable underlined )
a (prep.) + aquilo (pron. n. "the") = à qui lo ("to the")

Diaeresis or trema ( ¨ ) is used in Spanish to indicate that ⟨u⟩ is pronounced in the sequence ⟨gu⟩; z. B. desagüe [deˈsaɣwe] . As in Portuguese the grave accent, the trema does not indicate an accent. In Brazilian Portuguese it was also used for the digraphs ⟨gu⟩ and ⟨qu⟩ for the same purpose as in Spanish (cf. earlier BP orthography * qüinqüênio [kwĩˈkwẽɲu] , EP quinquénio [kwĩˈkwɛnju] (“five-year period”)), but with Introduction of the Acordo Ortográfico In 1990 the trema was abolished (current BP quinquênio [kwĩˈkwẽɲu] ) and its use was limited to a few loan words; for example mülleriano ("müllerisch").

The accent rules (including such expected accent) in Portuguese and Spanish are similar, but not identical. Discrepancies are ubiquitous , especially with words that contain i or u in the last syllable. For example the Portuguese diphthongs ei and ou , which roughly correspond to Spanish e and o, respectively, but every word ending on these diphthongs is accented on the last syllable by default.

Compare the following pairs of cognates with an emphasis on the same syllable in both languages:

ta xi ,	vi ví ,	bam bú ,	to sia ,	se ria ,	se rí a ,	jar dín ,	pen sáis ,	pen só	(Spanish)
tá xi ,	vi vi ,	bam bu ,	ân sia ,	sé ria ,	se ri a ,	jar dim ,	pen sais ,	pen sou	(Portuguese)

Sequences Half-vowel vowels are handled differently in both languages when it comes to accentuation. The sequence of a half-vowel next to a vowel is read by default in Spanish as a diphthong (as the same syllable part), but by default as a hiat (belonging to the next syllable) in Portuguese. In both languages, accents should consistently indicate something other than the standard.

As a consequence, words are written differently in both languages, but z. T. pronounced the same. Examples:

emer gen cia (Spanish), emer gene cia (Portuguese) "emergency"
tole ran cia (Spanish), tole rân cia (Portuguese) "tolerance"
au da cia (Spanish), au dá cia (Portuguese) "daring"
o cio (Spanish), ó cio (Portuguese) "idleness"
con ti nuo (Spanish), con tí nuo (Portuguese) "continuously"
conti nú o (Spanish), conti nu o (Portuguese) "I'll continue"

Another consequence (although less common) is that some words are spelled exactly (or almost exactly) the same in both languages, but different syllables are emphasized:

demo cra cia (Spanish, high diphthong at the end), democra ci a (Portuguese, emphasis on - ci - breaks the diphthong ) "Democracy"
poli cí a (Spanish, emphasis on - cí - breaks diphthong), po lí cia (Portuguese) "police"

Phonetics and Phonology

Although the vocabulary of both languages is very similar (sometimes identical), they are very phonetically different. Phonetically, Portuguese is closer to Catalan or French , while Spanish phonetics is closer to Sardinian and southern Italian dialects . Portuguese has a larger phonemic inventory than Spanish. This is one possible reason why, despite the pronounced lexical similarity between the two, it is difficult for Spanish speakers to understand; Conversely, Portuguese native speakers have fewer problems understanding Spanish without any language skills.

One of the main differences lies in the vowel sounds. Spanish has a base vowel phonological system with five phonemic vowels ( ä , e̞ , i , o̞ , u ). Phonetic nasalisation comes in Spanish for vowels that are between nasal consonant or silbenfinalem Nasalkonsonant ( / ⁠ n ⁠ / and / ⁠ m ⁠ / ), but it is not characteristic as in Portuguese. On the other hand, Portuguese has eight to nine oral vowels ( ä , ɐ , e , ɛ , ɯ , i , o , ɔ , u ). ( / ⁠ ɐ ⁠ / is ə detail in Portugal, while the unrounded closed back vowel / ⁠ ɨ / ⁠ - also ɯ or ʊ - only in EP occurs) plus five phonemic nasal vowels ( ɐ , ê , ĩ , õ , ũ ), if they precede an omitted final syllable nasal ( ⟨n⟩ and ⟨m⟩ ) or are provided with a tilde (~): ⟨ã⟩ and ⟨õ⟩. Portuguese, like Catalan, uses the vowel pitch to contrast stressed and unstressed (reduced) vowels. Furthermore, Spanish has half-vowels as allophones, [ j , w ]; In contrast, Portuguese has four, two oral [ j ~ ɪ ], [ w ~ ʊ ] and two nasal gliding sounds [ ȷ̃ ~ ɪ̯̃], [ w̃ ~ ʊ̯̃ ].

The following is based on a comparison of the standard variants of Spanish and Portuguese. Noticeable discrepancies between this information and the pronunciation of individual people may be due to their idiolect (or dialect ). The information on Portuguese phonetics comes from Celso Pedro Luft ( Novo Manual de Português , 1971), information on Spanish from Manuel Seco ( Gramática Esencial del Español , 1994).

When comparing the phonemic inventory of both languages, one difference stands out. To begin with, Portuguese has more phonemes than Spanish. Furthermore, every language has phonemes that do not appear in the other.

Early phonetic divergence

Vocalism

Portuguese and Spanish have diverged for over a thousand years. One of the most noticeable early differences concerned the development of the stressed vowels in Latin:

Classical Latin (spelling)	Vulgar Latin (pronunciation)	Spanish		Portuguese
Classical Latin (spelling)	Vulgar Latin (pronunciation)	Spelling	pronunciation	Spelling	pronunciation
A.	/ ⁠ a ⁠ /	a ~ á	/ ⁠ a ⁠ /	a ~ á ~ â	/ ⁠ a ⁠ / ~ / ⁠ ɐ ⁠ / ¹
Ā	/ ⁠ a ⁠ /	a ~ á	/ ⁠ a ⁠ /	a ~ á ~ â	/ ⁠ a ⁠ / ~ / ⁠ ɐ ⁠ / ¹
E.	/ ⁠ ɛ ⁠ /	ie ~ ié	/ je̞ /	e ~ é	/ ⁠ ɛ ⁠ /
Ē	/ ⁠ e ⁠ /	e ~ é	/ e̞ /	e ~ ê	/ ⁠ e ⁠ /
I.	/ ⁠ e ⁠ /	e ~ é	/ e̞ /	e ~ ê	/ ⁠ e ⁠ /
Ī	/ ⁠ i ⁠ /	i ~ í	/ ⁠ i ⁠ /	i ~ í	/ ⁠ i ⁠ /
O	/ ⁠ ɔ ⁠ /	ue ~ ué	/ we̞ /	o ~ ó	/ ⁠ ɔ ⁠ /
O	/ ⁠ o ⁠ /	o ~ ó	/O/	o ~ ô	/ ⁠ o ⁠ /
U	/ ⁠ o ⁠ /	o ~ ó	/O/	o ~ ô	/ ⁠ o ⁠ /
Ū	/ ⁠ u ⁠ /	u ~ ú	/ ⁠ u ⁠ /	u ~ ú	/ ⁠ u ⁠ /
AU	/ aw /	o ~ ó	/O/	ou	/ ow /²

¹ The vowels / ⁠ a ⁠ / and / ⁠ ɐ ⁠ / frequently occur in complementary distribution before.
² This diphthong became the Monophthong / ⁠ o ⁠ / in many dialects of Neuportugiesischen.

When the vowel quantity was no longer characteristic in the transition from Latin to Romansh , the vowels E and O stressed in open syllables diphthong to ie and ue in Spanish if they were short (cf. Latin PETRA → Spanish piedra 'stone'; Latin. * MORIT → Spanish muere 'he dies'). Comparable diphthongization can be found in other Romance languages (cf. French pierre , Italian pietra , Romanian piatră ; French meurt , Italian muore , Romanian moare ), but in Galician-Portuguese those vowels were instead subject to a qualitative change (cf.Gal .-port. pedra , morre ), which became a lower vowel pitch , as well as the short I and short U in stressed syllables. The vowels of the classical Latin / ⁠ e ⁠ / - / e / and / ⁠ o ⁠ / - / o / were correspondingly lower in the Spanish to / JE / and / WE / . The short fall in Spanish E and O and long ¢ and Ō to the central vowels / e / and / o / together where in Portuguese these vowels in the form of half-closed vowels / ⁠ e ⁠ / and / ⁠ o ⁠ / and semi-open / ⁠ ɛ ⁠ / and / ⁠ ɔ ⁠ / remained, as in vulgar Latin .

Portuguese has five phonemic nasal vowels ( / ɐ /, / e /, / i /, / o /, / u / ), which, according to historical phonology , of assimilation of the Nasal / ⁠ m ⁠ / and / ⁠ n ⁠ / emerged, often at the end of a syllable . Syllable m and n are still written to indicate nasalization, albeit no longer fully articulated; H. either [⁠ ⁿ ⁠] before Obstruent or completely failed. In other cases, nasal vowels are given a tilde ( ã , õ ). Not all words that contain vowel + n have nasality, as the letter following it must be a consonant for this to happen, e.g. B. anel / ɐˈnɛw / 'ring' - oral / non-nasal - opposite anca / ˈɐ̃kɐ / 'hip' - nasal.

However, in some dialects of BP, most vowels (including the allophones that only appear in an unstressed context) have nasal allophones before one of the nasals / m /, / n /, / ɲ / , followed by another vowel. Among others, only stressed vowels can be nasalized like this. On EP there is no nasalization here.

The Portuguese digraph ou (usually as a diphthong [ow] pronounced, but sometimes as Monophthong [⁠ o ⁠] ) corresponds to the-final -ó Spanish ar verbs in the past tense; z. B. span. Descansó and port. Descansou 'he / she rested'. The Spanish irregular verb forms in -oy ( e.g. doy 'I give', estoy 'I am', soy 'I am', voy 'I go') correspond to the Portuguese forms in -ou (e.g. dou , estou , sou , vou ). In return, however, Spanish o corresponds in some words to Portuguese oi , cf. span. cosa , port. coisa 'thing'; Spanish oro 'gold', Portuguese usually ouro , but rarely oiro .

Stressed vowel changes can occur in Portuguese but not in Spanish:

Spanish	Portuguese	German
nuevo [ˈnwe̞βo̞]	novo [ˈn o vu]	newer (m. Sg.)
nueva [ˈnwe̞βa]	nova [ˈn ɔ vɐ]	new (f. Sg.)
nuevos [ˈnwe̞βo̞s]	novos [ˈn ɔ vuʃ]	new (m. pl.)
nuevas [ˈnwe̞βas]	novas [ˈn ɔ vɐʃ]	new (f. pl.)

Unstressed vowels

The history of unstressed vowels in either language is not as well known as the history of stressed vowels, but there is general agreement on some points. Spanish has the five short vowels of classical Latin / a /, / e̞ /, / i /, / o̞ /, / u / . It also has two half vowels [⁠ j ⁠] and [⁠ w ⁠] appearing in diphthongs, but these are called allophones of / ⁠ i ⁠ / or / ⁠ u ⁠ / deems . The pronunciation of unstressed vowels does not differ significantly from the pronounced one. Unstressed, non-syllabic / e / , / o / and / ⁠ a ⁠ / can [⁠ ʝ ⁠] , [W] or full loss can be reduced in some dialects; like poetisa [pw̝e̞ˈtisa] , poet ', línea [ˈlinʝa] ' line ', ahorita [o̞ˈɾita] ' immediately '.

The system of seven oral vowels in Vulgar Latin has been retained fairly linearly in Portuguese, as in the closely related Galician . In Portuguese, unstable vowels were more unstable, both diachronic (over time) and synchronic (within language), which produced new vowel sounds. The written vowels ⟨a⟩, ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩ are pronounced differently according to different factors, especially with regard to whether they are emphasized or whether they appear in the final. The basic pattern is shown in the table below (with a few exceptions).

Spanish	Brazilian Portuguese				European Portuguese
Spanish	Tone syllable	pre-tone syllable, with syllable coda	unstressed intro	unstressed final	Tone syllable	first diphthong part	unstressed
/ ⁠ a ⁠ /	/ ⁠ a ⁠ / or / ~ ɐ ə / ¹	/ ⁠ a ⁠ / or / a ~ ɐ / ²	/ a ~ ɐ /	/ ɐ ~ ə /	/ ⁠ a ⁠ / or / ⁠ ɐ ⁠ /	/ a ~ ɐ / ³ or/ ⁠ ə ⁠ /	/ ⁠ ə ⁠ /
/ e̞ /	/ ⁠ e ⁠ / or / ⁠ ɛ ⁠ /	/ e ~ e / , or/ ⁠ ɛ ⁠ / ⁴	/ e ~ e̞ ~ ɛ / or / ɪ ~ i /	/ ɪ ~ i /	/ ⁠ e ⁠ / or / ⁠ ɛ ⁠ /	/ ⁠ e ⁠ / ( / ej ~ ɐj / ⁵ )	/ ⁠ ɨ ⁠ /
/O/	/ ⁠ o ⁠ / or / ⁠ ɔ ⁠ /	/ o ~ O / or/ ⁠ ɔ ⁠ / ⁴	/ o ~ o̞ ~ ɔ / or / ʊ ~ u /	/ ʊ ~ u /	/ ⁠ o ⁠ / or / ⁠ ɔ ⁠ /	/ ⁠ o ⁠ / ( / ow ~ ɐw / ⁵ )	/ ⁠ u ⁠ /

¹ Always nasalized in this position, ie [ɐ̃ ~ ə̃]
² Only in Florianópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo and the eastern Minas Gerais
³ Only in pre-tone syllables
⁴ Only in northeastern Brazil
⁵ Only in two dialects, first allophone mainly in the Lisbon region (present neither in the north nor on the Portuguese islands, nor in Brazil) and the second mainly in some varieties in the hinterland of northern Portugal (present neither in the south nor on the Portuguese islands, nor in Brazil)

Unstressed vowel allophones are easy to identify in the BP based on their geographical distribution. While almost closed [⁠ ʊ ⁠] , [⁠ ɪ ⁠] and unstressed half-open [⁠ e ⁠] , [⁠ o ⁠] occur in southern and western dialects where postvokalische r is weakened or vocalized ( Tap , coronal approximant or rhotic vowel) and post-vowel sibilants (written ⟨s⟩, ⟨x⟩ and ⟨z⟩ ) are always alveolar [s, z] in regional pronunciations , they do not occur in northern and eastern dialects, as postvowels r guttural and postvowel sibilants may or may not be postalveolar [ʃ, ʒ, ɕ, ʑ] . In the dialects where post-vowel sibilants are always postalveolar, such as those of Florianópolis and Rio de Janeiro , or in dialects influenced by these, any unstressed / a ~ ɐ / , [e̞ ~ ɛ] and [o̞ ~ ɔ] can be heard ( as in Portugal), namely to [⁠ ɐ ⁠] , [⁠ i ⁠] or [⁠ u ⁠] (comes so generally umgangssprachl. throughout Brazil before, but especially in these two dialects) .

These similar alternation patterns exist in other Romance languages such as Catalan and Occitan . Although it is primarily an allophonic variation, minimal pairs have emerged in some dialects , which separate the stressed from the unstressed variants. The central vowel ɯ is often left out in fluent speech (not present in the BP).

Some Brazilian dialects diphthongisieren stressed vowels to [AI], [ɛi̯], [ei] (except etc / ⁠ i ⁠ / ⟨s⟩) written before sibilant end of a syllable ( '⟨x⟩, ⟨z⟩ or rarely ⟨ sh⟩), e.g. B. Jesus [ʒe̞ˈzui̯s] , faz [ˈfai̯s] 'he / she does', dec [ˈdɛi̯s] 'ten'. This has led to the use of meia (i.e. meia dúzia 'half a dozen') for seis [sei̯s] 'six' in lists to avoid any confusion with três [tɾei̯s] 'three' on the phone. In Lisbon and the surrounding area is stressed / ⁠ e ⁠ / [⁠ ɐ ⁠] or [ɐj] pronounced when before Alveolopalatalen ( [ɕ], [ʑ] ), palatal ( [ʎ], [ɲ] ) or palatoalveolar ( [ʃ], [ʒ] ) followed by a vowel.

The spelling of Portuguese does not show this sound change, partly etymologically and analogously. As a result, the written language is deceptively similar to Spanish. For example, although breve 'short, recently' is spelled the same in both languages, it is pronounced [ˈbɾe̞βe̞] in Spanish but [ˈbɾɛvi ~ ˈbɾɛv (ɨ)] in Portuguese. In BP in the vast majority of cases, is the only difference between auslautendem - e and - i the emphasis, because both / ⁠ i ⁠ / are articulated. The former is unstressed and the latter stressed without a diacritical mark. - the EP is auslautendes s not very usually, or, as [⁠ ɨ ⁠] (not equal to i , the [⁠ i ⁠] is pronounced).

Consonantism

Some of the most characteristic sound changes made from the Latin consonants to Spanish and Portuguese are shown in the table below.

Latin	Spanish	Portuguese	Examples	meaning
CL -, FL -, PL -	ll- or pl	ch-	CLAMĀRE → S. llamar , P. chamar PLUMBUM → S. plomo , P. chumbo FLAMMAM → S. llama , P. chama PLĒNUM → S. lleno , P. cheio	call Lead flame full
- LT -, - CT -	-ch-	-it-	MULTUM → S. mucho , P. muito NOCTEM → S. noche , P. noite PECTUM → S. pecho , P. peito	much Night chest
F -	h- (later mute) or f-	f-	FABULĀRE → S. hablar , P. falar FILIUM → S. hijo , P. filho FOCUM → S. fuego , P. fogo	speak Son fire
J (A) -	ya-	Yes-	IAM → S. ya , P. já IACERE → S. yacer , P. jazer (both written)	already lie
- L -	-l-	(omitted)	CAELUM → S. cielo , P. céu (older ceo ) VOLĀRE → S. volar , P. voar	sky to fly
- LI -	-j-	-lh-	ALIUM → S. ajo , P. alho FILIUM → S. hijo , P. filho	garlic son
- LL -	-ll-	-l-	CASTELLUM → S. castillo , P. castelo	Castle
- N -	-n-	(omitted)	GENERĀLEM → S. general , P. geral TENĒRE → S. tener , P. ter	As a general rule to have
- NI -	-n-	-nh-	IUNIUS → S. junio , P. junho	June
- NN -	-ñ-	-n-	ĀNNUM → S. año , P. ano CANNAM → S. caña , P. cana	year reed
- PL -, - CL -,	-pl-, -cl-	-pr-, -cr-	PELAGIAM → S. playa , P. praia PLATEAM → S. plaza, P. praça SCLAVUS → S. esclavo, P. escravo	Beach Place slave

Peculiar to early Spanish (like the Gaskognischen dialect of Occitan, probably by Basque substratum ) was the loss of the Latin f- call, whenever followed by a non-diphthongizing vowel. Thus, the span corresponds to that. Hijo and hablar the port. Filho and falar (to lat. FILIUM 'son' and FABULĀRE speak '). Nevertheless, Portuguese fogo , Spanish fuego , corresponds to 'fire' (from Latin FOCUM ).

Another typical distinction concerned the sequence of the Latin intervowel - L - and - N -:

If simple, they were preserved in Spanish, but they fell out in Portuguese. Often the loss of a liquid was followed by an internal hiat with diaeresis of the two surrounding vowels (see table above), but then either a vowel fusion or a half-vowel insert as a hiattilger between them (cf. Latin ARĒNAM 'Sand' → span. Arena , altport. arẽa , today are i a ).

Unless doubled , they walked to the span. Palatals ⟨ll⟩ / ⁠ ʎ ⁠ / (frikativisiert to / ⁠ ʝ ⁠ / in most contemporary span. Dialects) and ⟨ñ⟩ / ⁠ ɲ ⁠ / . In fact, the Spanish ñ was originally a shorthand for NN . In the Portuguese were - LL - and - NN - for easy ⟨l⟩ / ⁠ l ⁠ / or ⟨n⟩ / ⁠ n / ⁠ degeminiert.

Unless the Halbvokal I followed flowed L in Spanish with him ⟨j⟩ / ⁠ x ⁠ / together. In Portuguese were L and N to ⟨lh⟩ / ⁠ ʎ ⁠ / or ⟨nh⟩ / ⁠ ɲ ⁠ / palatisiert so when it Halbvokal I succeeded.

Other consonant groups also took clearly different routes in both languages during their archaic language level:

Initial form	Spanish	Portuguese	meaning
A RG ILLAM	a rc illa	a rg ila	Clay
BL ANDUS	bl ando	br ando	soft
CĀ S EUM	que s o	que ij o	cheese
O CUL UM → o c'l* u*	o j o	o lh o	eye
HO MIN EM → ho m'n* e*	ho mbr* e*	ho m em	man
TREMUL ĀRE → tr e m'l* are*	t e mbl* ar*	tr e m er	tremble

Latinisms such as scholarly pleno, ocular, no (c) turno, tremular , etc. are not listed in the above examples, as they were later taken directly from classical Latin .

The above tables only show general tendencies with many exceptions, the latter due to:

Different phonological processes in old Spanish and Portuguese that influenced them.
Later (over) generalization by analogy with related words.
Later, direct borrowing of Latinisms, especially during the Renaissance, which rejected the phonetic change in sound.
Mutual borrowing between Spanish and Portuguese.

Hiatal avoidance

Portuguese tended to avoid the inner hiate , which was preserved in Spanish by contracting similar consecutive vowels into one (often following the loss of the intervowel - L - and - N - mentioned above ). This contraction results in many Portuguese words that are a syllable shorter than their Spanish cognates:

creído ,	empty ,	mala ,	manzana ,	mañana ,	poner ,	reír ,	venir	(Spanish)
crido ,	ler ,	má ,	maçã ,	manhã ,	pôr ,	rir ,	vir	(Portuguese)

In other cases through syneresis, Portuguese merges consecutive vowels into a diphthong, with one syllable less:

a-te-o ,	eu-ro-pe-o ,	pa-lo ,	ve-lo	(Spanish)
a-teu ,	eu-ro-peu ,	pau ,	véu	(Portuguese)

Still, there are a few words because the opposite happened, e.g. B. Spanish comprender (contraction) compared to port. Compreender [kõ.pɾjẽ.ˈdeɾ] (syneresis), from Latin COMPREHENDERE .

Different sounds with the same spelling

Since the Middle Ages, both languages have undergone further sound shifts and amalgamations, which drove them further apart.

Sibilance

The most noticeable phonetic divergence between Spanish and Portuguese at their modern level concerned the development of sibilants . In the Middle Ages both a rich system had seven sibilance - paired by affrication and voicing: / ⁠ s ⁠ / , / ⁠ ts ⁠ / , / ⁠ for ⁠ / , / ⁠ dz ⁠ / , / ⁠ ʃ ⁠ / , / ⁠ tʃ ⁠ / and / ⁠ dʒ ⁠ / (the latter presumably in free variation with / ⁠ ʒ ⁠ / how even today still in Ladin ) - virtually the same in both Languages written.

Old Spanish and Portuguese		New Portuguese ^1,2		New Spanish ¹
Spelling	pronunciation	pronunciation	Examples	Spelling	pronunciation	Examples
s- , -ss-	/ ⁠ s ⁠ /	/ ⁠ s ⁠ /	s but , you know, ' pa ss ar happen'	s	/ ⁠ s ⁠ /	s but , pa s ar
-s-	/ ⁠ z ⁠ /	/ ⁠ z ⁠ /	ca s a 'house'	s	/ ⁠ s ⁠ /	ca s a
ç / c	/ ⁠ ts ⁠ /	/ ⁠ s ⁠ /	a ç or 'hawk', c ego 'blind'	z / c	/ ⁠ .theta ⁠ / or / ⁠ s ⁠ /	a z or , c iego
z	/ ⁠ dz ⁠ /	/ ⁠ z ⁠ /	fa z he 'do, do'	z / c	/ ⁠ .theta ⁠ / or / ⁠ s ⁠ /	ha c he
x	/ ⁠ ʃ ⁠ /	/ ⁠ ʃ ⁠ /	o x alá 'I hope may God'	j / g	/ ⁠ x ⁠ /	o j alá
j / g	/ dʒ ~ ʒ /	/ ⁠ ʒ ⁠ /	j ogar play ', g duck , people'	j / g	/ ⁠ x ⁠ /	j ugar , g duck
ch	/ ⁠ tʃ ⁠ /	/ ⁠ ʃ ⁠ /	ch uva 'rain'	ch	/ ⁠ tʃ ⁠ /	ch ubasco 'cloudburst' (from port. chuvasco )

¹ before vowels; in the syllable coda there is dialectal variation within both languages (not listed here).
² New Portuguese has mostly kept the old spelling.

After the Renaissance, both languages reduced their reservoir of sibilants, but in different ways:

Sonority fading in Spanish: the voiced sibilants written ⟨-s-⟩, ⟨z⟩ and ⟨j / g⟩ became voiceless, being merged with ⟨s - / - ss-⟩, ⟨c / ç⟩ and ⟨x⟩, respectively . In many Spanish dialects merged modern ⟨c / z⟩ / ⁠ .theta ⁠ / well with ⟨s⟩ / ⁠ s ⁠ / ( seseo ). Later, the transformed voiceless fricative postalveolar ⟨x⟩ / ⁠ ʃ ⁠ / to velar fricative / ⁠ x ⁠ / while ⟨ch⟩ unchanged / ⁠ tʃ ⁠ / remained. The Spanish spelling has been updated according to these phonetic changes.

Deaffrication in Portuguese: the affricates written ⟨c / ç⟩, ⟨z⟩ and ⟨ch became full-fledged fricatives, with the sibilants ⟨s - / - ss-⟩, ⟨-s-⟩ and ⟨x⟩ in the most dialects coincided. Nevertheless, New Portuguese largely retained the medieval spelling.

Deaffrikation in Portuguese: some dialects in the rural hinterland of northern Portugal as well Mirandés preserved medieval nor the letters indicated definition, the former Affrikaten voiceless Laminal , voiced Laminal or voiceless postalveolar affrikat / ⁠ tʃ ⁠ / and the sibilance voiceless apical , voiced apical or voiceless palato-alveolar. As for BP, these dialects have alveolar Koda-sibilance, although a voiceless apical alveolar fricative has a vertummenden sound, similar / ⁠ ʃ ⁠ / .

Further pronunciation differences

Spelling	pronunciation		Remarks
Spelling	Spanish	Portuguese	Remarks
b	[b ~ β]	[b ~ β] (EP) [⁠ b ⁠](BP)	In the Spanish and European Portuguese is / ⁠ b ⁠ / on the duration According lenited .
d	[d ~ ð]	[d ~ ð] (EP) [d ~ dʒ] (BP)	In the chip. and EP / ⁠ d ⁠ / lenited after continuous sound. In all. Dialects have the port Alveolar / ⁠ t ⁠ / and / ⁠ d ⁠ / affricate allophones when they front palatalisierendem / ⁠ i ⁠ / ([ dʒ i ~ dʑ , i] [i ~ tɕ i], mainly in Brazil) or elisiertem / ɨ / ~ / I / ~ / ɪ / or unstressed / ⁠ i / ⁠ before another (which then / ⁠ ɨ ⁠ / is in Portugal) stressed , leading to the Sandhi ( [dVz] → [dz] , [dVs] → [ts] , [tVs] → [ts] , both Brazil and Portugal).
t	[⁠ t ⁠]	[⁠ t ⁠] (EP) [t ~ tʃ] (BP)
G	[ɡ ~ ɣ]	[ɡ ~ ɣ] (EP) [⁠ ɡ ⁠](BP)	In the chip. and EP / ⁠ ɡ ⁠ / after a continuous sound lenited .
- l	[⁠ l ⁠]	[⁠ ɫ ⁠] (EP) [⁠ w ⁠] (BP)	In EP syllable-final / ⁠ l ⁠ / velarisiert ɫ as in Catalan ( "dark L"), while in most Brazilian and some rural dialects Portugal it w is pronounced.
r- , -rr-	[⁠ r ⁠]	[⁠ ʁ ⁠]	In the port. have r- and -rr- different possible pronunciations. In most dialects it is a suppository r ( [⁠ ʀ ⁠] , [⁠ ʁ ⁠] and [⁠ χ ⁠] in Portugal and Brazil, [⁠ x ⁠] , [⁠ ɣ ⁠] , [⁠ ħ ⁠] , [⁠ h ⁠] and [⁠ ɦ ⁠] in Brazil), whereas in rural north Portugal and in southern Brazil it a Zungenspitzen- r [⁠ r ⁠] (as on Gallego ). In some southern and western dialects Brazil final word can -r be a (tongue) Impact (as in Portugal and Galicia), although [⁠ ɹ ⁠] , [⁠ ɻ ⁠] or [⁠ ɚ ⁠] is more common, whereas in northern and eastern dialects it is suppository- r . In the chip. r- and -rr- have retained their original pronunciation as the tip of the tongue- r . Intervocalic -r- is in both languages, a voiced alveolar tap [⁠ ɾ ⁠] .
v	[b ~ β]	[⁠ v ⁠]	Originally, the letters were ⟨b⟩ and ⟨v⟩ for mutually delimited Bilabiale [⁠ b ⁠] and [⁠ .beta. ⁠] , but both were finally in a phoneme in the chip. together. In most. Varieties port they remained separate phonemes and bilabiale fricative [⁠ beta ⁠] of the Old Portuguese changed after the voiced labiodental fricative [⁠ v ⁠] how to French and Italian .

Since no distinction is made in the pronunciation of ⟨b⟩ and ⟨v⟩, the Spanish spelling has been changed to that of classical Latin. In Portuguese, the spelling of these letters is based on pronunciation, which is closer to Vulgar Latin and New Italian. This leads to some orthographic disparity:

See Spanish gobierno 'government', haber 'haben' and libro 'book' versus Portuguese governo , haver and livro .
The endings of the indicative imperfect of the 1st conjugation (verbs in -ar ) are in Spanish with ⟨b⟩ ( cantaba 'I / he sang', cantabas 'you sangst', cantábamos 'we sang' etc.), but with ⟨v ⟩ Written in Portuguese ( cantava , cantavas , cantávamos , etc.).
The Spanish adjectival suffix -ble , as in posible 'possible', corresponds to -vel on Port., Like possível .

In Spanish, the plosives b , d , g are lenited and usually articulated as “weak” approximants [β̞, ð̞, ɣ̞] after continuous sounds . While similar pronunciations can be heard in the EP, most Lusophones pronounce these phonemes as "real" plosives [b, d, ɡ] . This can make a Portuguese phrase like uma bala 'a (pistol) bullet' sound like una pala 'a shovel' to a native speaker of Spanish.

Related languages (incomplete selection)

Galician shares its roots in Galician Portuguese with Portuguese , but was later influenced by Castilian (partly politically motivated).
A Fala , a Galician-Portuguese language in Extremadura, Spain.
Portuñol / Portunhol is the name of a mixed language spoken in the border region of Brazil with its Spanish-speaking neighbors.
Papiamentu is a Creole with influences from both languages.
Jewish Spanish comes from medieval Castilian, but was also influenced by Jewish Portuguese .
The Annobonesian language is a Portuguese-based creole that was influenced by the Spanish colonial rulers.

Remarks

↑ Interestingly, according to Microsoft Encarta (2004), the Portuguese term originates from Spanish and, via French, English. Terms. It is formed from em (“in” as a prefix ), baraço (old for “rope”) and the suffix -ada , according to its entry in the Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa .
↑ See a list in the lusophone Wikipedia: List of fused prepositions .
↑ Aurélio defines the words pra as the syncopated form of para and pra and pro as the contraction of pra plus article.
↑ The phoneme is ⟨ll⟩ merged with ⟨y⟩ in most dialects, commonly to [⁠ ʝ ⁠] or, in rioplatense spanish to [⁠ ʒ ⁠] or [⁠ ʃ ⁠] .

literature

Juan M Carrasco González: Manual de iniciación a la lengua portuguesa . Editorial Ariel, Barcelona 1994
Edite Estrela: A questão ortográfica - Reforma e acordos da língua portuguesa - Editorial Notícias, 1993
Luís F Lindley Cintra: Nova Proposta de Classificação dos Dialectos Galego-Portugueses (PDF; 481 kB) Boletim de Filologia, Centro de Estudos Filológicos, Lisbon 1971.
Celso Pedro Luft: Novo Manual de Português . 13th edition. Editora Globo, São Paulo 1990, pp. 43-53
Maria Helena Mateus, Ernesto d'Andrade: The Phonology of Portuguese . 2000, ISBN 0-19-823581-X
Manuel Seco: Gramática Esencial del Español . 4th edition. Espasa, Madrid 1996, pp. 81-94
Mario Squartini: Verbal Periphrases in Romance - Aspect, Actionality, and Grammaticalization . 1998, ISBN 3-11-016160-5
Mendes da Luz Vázquez Cuesta: Gramática portuguesa . 3. Edition. 1987, ISBN 84-249-1117-2

Web links

Aspectos Comparativos entre o Espanhol eo Português (Portuguese)
List of false friends Spanish-Portuguese
Contrasting lexicology in Orbis Latinus
Recording of sibilants as they would have occurred in medieval Spanish and Portuguese ( Memento from February 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
Tá Falado! - Pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese for native Spanish speakers ( Memento of June 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
Contrasting Romance phonetics with Orbis Latinus
História da Língua Portuguesa em Linha . Instituto Camões

Individual evidence

^ Cândido Figueiredo: Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa . Mérito, Rio de Janeiro 1949. Francisco da Silveira Bueno: Grande Dicionário Etimológico-Prosódico da Língua Portuguesa . Saraiva, São Paulo 1964
^ John Butt, Carmen Benjamin: A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish , 3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill Education, New York City 2000, ISBN 0-658-00873-0 , p. 394 (§ 28.6).
↑ Conjugação do verbo estar . Conjuga-me. Retrieved November 9, 2012.
↑ Diccionario panhispánico de dudas on buscon.rae.es
↑ Verbix conjugation
^ Jacques De Bruyne: A Comprehensive Spanish Grammar . Blackwell, Oxford 1995, § 752.

[3] Interestingly, according to Microsoft Encarta (2004), the Portuguese term originates from Spanish and, via French, English. Terms. It is formed from em (“in” as a prefix ), baraço (old for “rope”) and the suffix -ada , according to its entry in the Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa .

[7] See a list in the lusophone Wikipedia: List of fused prepositions .

[9] Aurélio defines the words pra as the syncopated form of para and pra and pro as the contraction of pra plus article.

[10] The phoneme is ⟨ll⟩ merged with ⟨y⟩ in most dialects, commonly to [⁠ ʝ ⁠] or, in rioplatense spanish to [⁠ ʒ ⁠] or [⁠ ʃ ⁠] .

[1] Cândido Figueiredo: Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa . Mérito, Rio de Janeiro 1949. Francisco da Silveira Bueno: Grande Dicionário Etimológico-Prosódico da Língua Portuguesa . Saraiva, São Paulo 1964

[2] John Butt, Carmen Benjamin: A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish , 3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill Education, New York City 2000, ISBN 0-658-00873-0 , p. 394 (§ 28.6).

[4] Conjugação do verbo estar . Conjuga-me. Retrieved November 9, 2012.

[5] Diccionario panhispánico de dudas on buscon.rae.es

[6] Verbix conjugation

[8] Jacques De Bruyne: A Comprehensive Spanish Grammar . Blackwell, Oxford 1995, § 752.