Spanish vs. Portuguese: How Similar are Portuguese and Spanish?

Did you know?

Spanish and Portuguese hold around 90% lexical similarity, which means that there are equivalent forms of words in both languages.

This makes the speakers get a good understanding of every language even if they are not native speakers!

While the similarities between Portuguese and Spanish are quite helpful to fulfill the great need of business document translation, every language has its unique set of selective differences that can make it tough to express a concept more effectively.

Many words sound and look the same between Spanish and Portuguese, but many words are quite different.

Let’s take a deep dive to understand more about both languages.

History Between Spain & Portugal

According to the geographic layout of the Iberian Peninsula, present Portugal and Spain are facing development in relative isolation from each other.

Because of the close proximity of both the countries as well as their relative isolation from the rest of Europe, both Portugal and Spain have good relationships when it comes to both cultural and economic developments.

There have also been many military and political battles between the two countries in the Iberian Peninsula. The political history between the two nations has developed the identity of every culture, but it cannot be refused that the Spanish and Portuguese languages share a good history that is crucial for major global business expansion in today’s era.

9 Major Differences Between Portuguese & Spanish

Spanish and Portuguese both originated from Romance languages, which implies that they have their roots in Latin. Both Spanish and Portuguese have witnessed a strong presence throughout the world because of European colonialism and globalization.

While a majority of words in both the languages sound same, this does not imply they are both similar.

In fact, speakers from every language have a hugely hard time trying to communicate between languages because of the differences in syntax and pronunciation.

Let’s take a look at a few elements of every language that can interrupt communication if not well thought out while speaking between the Portuguese and Spanish languages.

1- Way to express ‘You’

While doing accurate Brazilian Portuguese translation, when it comes to expressing “you”, the words senhor/a or voce are utilized and tu is also used while speaking to family or friends. Whereas, tu is widely used in Spanish, no matter whether a person is a stranger or a close friend.

2- Quite similar words do exist

Because of their shared language roots, Portuguese and Spanish have several words that sound the same between the two languages. For instance, in Portuguese, albóndiga is slang for “meatball,” but in Spanish, a similar word is pronounced as almóndiga.

3- Is it muy or mucho?

The Portuguese language only comprises the word muito to clearly express this message. Spanish speakers must utilize muy before adjectives and adverbs, while mucho is positioned after a verb or before a noun.

Did you know how many Spanish dialects are there? The answer is: There are ten Spanish dialects are that widely spoken.

4- Difference between hacia and hasta.

The word hacia does not has a preposition in Portuguese. The term “hacia” indicates the direction to go, whereas “hasta” means that we have arrived.

5- Future subjective.

Portuguese has a present, future, and past subjective.

6- Same pronunciation but different syllables.

Many words in Portuguese and Spanish pronounced the same, but every word is spoken in various syllables.

7- Conjugations.

Portuguese utilizes past tense whereas Spanish utilizes present tense. Any kind of conjugation of verbs with vosotros sounds can be quite complicated for Portuguese speakers to articulate.

One of the key benefits of professional translator is that he/she is familiar with the rules of the language and thus, performs the translation carefully.

8- Use of reflexive pronouns.

When a tense is infinite or gerund in Spanish, the pronoun combines with the verb’s end. So, when a verb is rightly conjugated, the pronoun is placed right before the verb.

9- Possessive Nouns.

Native Spanish speakers prefer to say su casa, while Portuguese speakers say a casa dela.

While there are several differences between both languages, most native Portuguese and Spanish speakers can simply understand each other if every party speaks clearly.

During Translation, Avoid the “Common” Thing!

Since Spanish and Portuguese share a common history and have few similarities, you can easily run the risk of doing a translation that is of poor quality.

This activity seems to be unprofessional and also reduces your project’s professionalism as well as perceived authority.

Only look for a well known translation company in Pune where professional translators focus on details and try to provide translation to help you get success.

Several newbie translators either go for a simple solution or depend on their “intuiting” the meaning of words between both languages when not actually understanding what their actions could mean.

Even the slightest difference between languages can put a significant impact when you want reliable and accurate professional translation today!

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