Question: “I want to learn to speak and read Portuguese; how hard will it be?”
[First off, let me acknowledge that any thoughts on this topic are quite subjective, and as a passionate fan of the Portuguese language, I am arguably biased. That being said, I have learned a lot of Portuguese and also several other languages, so I feel as though it is appropriate and perhaps useful to discuss the difficulty level of Brazilian Portuguese.]
Portuguese is a very ‘learn-able’ language. Grammatically speaking, Portuguese is demonstrably similar to Spanish, Italian and French, though there are some Brazilian colloquial tendencies that in my opinion make proficiency more attainable in Portuguese (see bullets below). Anyone who has learned even a little it of a Romance language will have a leg up on learning Portuguese.
In terms of vocabulary, the ’80/20′ rule is certainly applicable here, generally speaking; one can understand 80% of what is spoken by knowing about 20% of the language. This is the way languages work – the most common word is twice as common as the second-most common word, which is twice as common as the third-most common word and so on. [If you are interested in learning the most common and useful words and phrases in Portuguese go here.]
Speaking Portuguese can be tricky; some sounds, such as nasalized vowels, are not very common in English. Also the letter ‘R‘ has several different sounds, some oh which sound like an ‘H‘ in English. The French language happens to share all of these sounds, and perhaps it isn’t too much of a stretch to say that Brazilian Portuguese is about as hard to pronounce for an English speaker as French. I am learning a little French now, and my instinct is that perhaps French is a bit more difficult, but again that is entirely subjective.
So that leaves us with comprehension, or understanding what the heck is going on around you! When I first visited Brazil, I was confident that I would be able to get around. I has just spent some time in a Spanish-speaking country (known for its cigars) and had had no problem getting around and hanging out with locals; surely Portuguese would be within reach I thought! I got on the airplane and picked up the newspaper. “Oh yeah… this is just like Spanish,” I said to myself. Then I moved on to the safety materials, “definitely just like Spanish except with these funny accent marks and stuff.” Then, the flight attendant began to speak. In Portuguese. I understood nothing. During my first visit I was a bit lost.
I hasten to point out that I had not made any effort to study the language at this point. Shortly after beginning to study something magical happened: the sound I heard coming from people’s mouths started to register as words that I could see! You have to learn all the sounds of a language before you can start to “see” the words when they are spoken. Portuguese is a beautiful, tonally-rich, sing-songy language with a unique cadence and an identifiable lilt. Once you get into the groove so to speak, it is very satisfying to listen to indeed.
Here’s the fun part: what makes Portuguese easierto learn than other Romance languages!
- You don’t need to learn the second person. The ‘tu’ form is rarely used in most parts of Brazil, and half the time you hear it, it is in conjunction with the ‘você’ form of the verb being used, as in “Tu sabe?” Most teachers don’t bother teaching the second person. This point alone will save you 1/3 of the verb forms you need to learn!!!
- You can use ‘a gente’ instead of ‘nos.’ Instead of using the 1st person plural ending, you can fake it by using the 3rd person singular. So to get ‘up and running’ with the language, all you really need is the eu, the ele/ela/você and the eles/elas/vocês forms. Ta da!
- Most common conversations are very similar. Small talk is easy; if you’ve heard a few different brief friendly conversations, you’ve heard ’em all.
- Brazilians love that you are trying to learn their languageand will typically bend over backwards to help you out. A patient native speaker is really the only way to become proficient at a high level, and Brazilians (in my experience and that of my friends) are just fantastic in this regard.
So now you know a little bit about what to expect. I encourage you to dive in if you haven’t already; Speaking Portuguese is well within reach.
Most of the readers of this blog are actively trying to learn Portuguese at some level. If you’re looking for other powerful resources to help you learn Portuguese free, you should check out Byki Express. It leverages the fact that adults learn foreign languages differently than children, by first building a reservoir of word and phrase vocabulary. The more items you have, the more able you are to use your foreign language. Check it out!
Comments:
Arleen Goncalves:
What about Portugal Portuguese?
Christopher:
Arleen-
Great question! Though I haven’t learned European Portuguese like I have Brazilian, one class I took was conducted in European Portuguese and I can at least tell you my experience with it…
First off, having to learn all the ‘tu’ and ‘vos’ forms was a pain! That being said it was no different than learning Spanish or Italian. Also the accent is really different, but probably not any easier or harder than it’s South American counterparts…
In short, I would guess that the two different kinds of Portuguese are about the same level of difficulty.
-Christopher
occusyreony:
Where I can find good quality films?
Can anyone help me?
Sammyjao:
Try out Cidade de Deus first. Search for this film in the foreign films section of your local movie store.
It’s beautifully made, and highlighting the sad and horrendous drug trade in the Rio de Janiero slum of “City of God”. Based on a real place and real events, this one is quite grandeur, sad, and entirely in Portugese. The cult-musician, Seu Jorge is wonderful in it, and plays one of the lead roles(As a side note, I’d recommend listening to his music…his Cru album, is all very soothing to the ears…).
Other films, I’m not quite sure electronically how to find them,… just as Christopher says, is entirely subjective of whatever website it may be. Maybe someone else can help? I just thought I’d throw a suggestion out there.
Richard:
Hey,
Great little write up here – thanks. Just meet a Brazilian and was discussing some principles about the language and it struck me that it match some of my school boy French.
Thanks.
Leandro da silva cerqueira:
A língua portuguesa é dificil para nós brasileiros. Sim, porquê os verbos são muito complicados em certos casos. Eu digo, porém, que o português brasileiro é o melhor que o original de Portugal.
I´m native from Brazil, salvador Bahia.
Our language is not the easier of all the roamantic languages. You´re totally wrong.
Rafael Weidman Barijan:
I think that the Brazilian Portuguese is really difficult to learn. I have a bunch of friends that say that portuguese is hardest than French or Spanish. I’m brazilian, from the state of Paraná. I may say also that the brazilian portuguese is more “open”. I mean, the speech is easier to fit with the other languages. It’s easier to find a brazilian speaking French, Spanish, English or even Japanese normally, but the other languages have some accents that make it harder. I’m not meaning that the other languages can’t speak good Japanese or French. I’m just noting that the brazilian portuguese is more “open”. Though, the way that you have to walk to speak and write portuguese correctly is really big…
Rafael Ferreira:
Hi everyone!
Well, i am brazilian and i live in rio de janeiro. so, if you are learning portuguese, i think i can help.
MSN: rafaelbatera85@hotmail.com
also, i’m learning english. :]
natan:
hi people i’m brazilian and i live in Rio de Janeiro.
i’d love speak in portuguese and help you. and if u know nothing about portuguese. i’m able to teach it fot all of you. send me e-mails (natan.fusco@yahoo.com.br)
and add me on skype: natan.fusco
it’s free. only to exchange knowledge.
i hope see u soon
Rafael Ferreira:
hey guys!
i’m brazilian. if you have any question about portuguese, maybe i can help. well, i hope so.
my msn: rafaelbatera85@hotmail.com
Kerri Hamilton:
I am an American trying very hard to learn Portuguese in Ribeirão Preto and having a very difficult time with it. My family is here with me – – and we speak english in our apartment because of our young children. I’m doing Rosetta Stone and a language book. Any suggestions?
celisa canto:
Hi Kerri,
I do understand your difficulties in learning Portuguese. It is a quite complex language, but not impossible, I promisse you.
I´ve been teaching Portuguese as a foreign language for the past 39 years (I´m 53 now, but still young in spirit!) and besides my private and one-to-one teaching here in Florianopolis I teach online as well.
If you have any interest in it, please feel free to contact me.
I would suggest you to visit my site and see some of my former students´testemonial.
Best regards,
Celisa Canto
celisacanto@hotmail.com
skype: celisacanto
Ph.: (48) 3232.8038 and 9977.1954 / 9948.2008
Matt:
There are many grammatical differences between Brazilian and continental Portuguese. Brazilian Portuguese shares more gramatical similarities with spanish, such as placement of object pronouns and use of the gerund. The pronounciation of Brazilian is much more open, where as E. P. has many vowels that are eaten up or not pronounced at all. In addition, European Port. has many consonants that mimic a similar sound. J,g, s, z, ch, and x can all make what would be an “sh” sound in english, making the language to a foreign listener sound like a succession of SHHHH SHHH sounds. Learning to read or speak the language is not difficult…. however learning to comprehend what a native speaker is saying can be quite the task.
Joao Carlos:
hi, im portuguese, learnt portuguese from a young age and have many friends both protuguese and brazilian and i can honestly say the two are very different. accents alone play a massive part, then there is slang which alone almost creates another language. portuguese is a complicated language full of twists that depending on the context can change how u pronounce words and the construct of a sentence. do not be under the false impression that portuguese is just like spanish. it isnt its more complicated, confusing and all together hard to grasp. but once u have the basic everything just falls in to place.
Juliana:
I’m brazilian, and I should say that it’s fairly better than European Portuguese for innumerous factors.
I had an english teacher from Australia. He came to Brazil at the age of seven, and still has some problems with this language. He said us, brazilians, are lucky that our language includes many different pronounciations, all of them actually, and it makes learning other language quite easy for us. Much easier. But at the same time is harder to learn our language for those who aren’t native, but trust me, besides being easier to learn than the European Portuguese, it’s soothing to the ears, it comes natural and hearing it is delightful.
Brazilians like to teach turists or foreign people to speak our language because we feel rather flattered about it. So if anyone needs help I might give you some advices or so. At least I know a little about english, which might be very helpful.
send me an e-mail:ju_gp_@hotmail.com
Tiago:
“I’m brazilian, and I should say that it’s fairly better than European Portuguese for innumerous factors.”
You could, but you didn’t ;).
I’m Portuguese and learning Portuguese from Portugal is surely the best way to learn the language. We Portuguese managed to learn with all the other Portuguese speaking countries and we have a clear understanding of all of them. Brazil unfortunately hasn’t have any influences from other Portuguese speaking countries. If someone wants to learn portuguese in a manner that one can express himself clearly in any Portuguese speaking country, one should go to Portugal.
One the other hand I do agree that Portuguese from Portugal is more complex grammaticaly, althought I prefer the word rich.
Best of lucks
Lusitania:
Well, being myself a Portuguese, educated in a very conservative portuguese school (even had to learn Latin!!), I must say that European Portuguese is the only true Portuguese language. No wonder that people from Portugal can understand brazilian-portuguese, african-portuguese, and even portuguese from Timor, etc, whereas brazilians, which do not really get a grasp of the language, and do not have a propper education, have a hard time understanding the language!
Moreover, I am convinced that if brazilians weren’t most of them illiterate, they could really understand the true portuguese, the european portuguese (or should I say galaico-português). As for brazilian-portuguese, I consider it, like most portuguese people and brazilian ellite, to be not more than a dialect! In fact, I think brazil should change their language officially to just Brazilian…as for the ignorants claiming that brazilian-portuguese is better than EP, well, first you have to learn portuguese to say that :))
Tiago:
Actually I think Lusitania was quite mean here. I am Portuguese and I believe the discussion between the best Portuguese will always exist. It’s the same between Spanish and Hispanic countries.
On one side the Portuguese don’t like change in the Portuguese language as their perceive it to be their property and it’s not, not anymore. 8 countries have rights over it.
On the other hand Brazilians tend to consider Brazilian Portuguese superior and making some negative comments about EP and most of them are made out of ignorance. I get really annoyed as all foreigners I meet who had contact with brazilians mention negative comments over EP. Conclusion – The best Portuguese is probably from East Timor and both Brazilian and Portugal Portuguese sucks. 😉
andre:
SOMEONE SHOULD UNDERSTAND BETTER A LANGUAGE TO TALK LIKE THIS ABOUT ANOTHER ONE! I AM PORTUGUESE AND FOR ME THE EASIEST LANGUAGE EVER IS YOURS, MY DEAR.
ANYWAYS, YOU HAVE TO WRITE ALSO ABOUT PORTUGUESE FROM PORTUGAL,
ouviste o larilitas!
Leah:
We can’t just decide which language is harder without knowing the other one. I’m brazilian and it IS a hard language, but I don’t know what’s the level of difficulty of Eroupean Portuguese so I cannot comment about that, and Portuguese people can’t comment about brazilian portuguese without really knowing it either. Anyways, I think when you say portuguese people think of the BP it’s because it’s most talked in here than any other country(go see the map before saying anything), and also, why would they learn EP to visit Brazil? It always depends on where are you going. But then say we are “mostly made out of ignorance” is push it. Don’t generalize it! With the ortographic correction we got a whole bunch of words changed to adequate it to EP, and vice-versa. There isn’t much to complain about now, is there?
Tiago:
HI Leah,
I do think comments about EP are made out of ignorance, not saying brazilians are ignorant. Unfortunately Brazilians haven’t had much contact with EP. There is even a guy that left a comment saying he had to learn the “vós” form when he had a EP class in Brazil. We haven’t used this form in the past 300 years I think, we just say “vocês” as the brazilians 😉 .
I normally do see some negative comments from brazilians about EP and I don’t think they know much about it. On the other hand we Portuguese know a lot about BP. Not because we’re smarter (that’s ridiculous) but because of the brazilian soap operas “novelas” he have had in the past 20 years. As for BP being easier than EP I have to say yes, I believe it is. Maybe it’s the accent but it’s possible to see a lot of foreigners speaking to a very good portuguese standard and they learned it in Brazil. I guess I agree with Leah, if a foreigner wishes to go Brazil they should learn BP althought always trying to understand the other forms of PT.
All the best
Tiago
Julio:
I know those comments were made several months ago, but…
@Lusitania: As far I know, many Brazilian tv programs (such as soap operas) are aired in Portugal in Brazilian dialect, while here in Brazil there are no programs in EP at all. That’s the main reason you guys can understand BP with ease, while we have difficulty in understanding EP, not illiteracy as you claim. Of course, there are many other reasons, such as historical and geographical factors, but you don’t seem to care about them, right?
I, myself, cannot understand quite well spoken EP, and I’m far from being illiterate, even considering your beloved dialect… (I read Saramago’s book, Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira in EP and understood everything!).
No dialect is “superior” or “inferior”, or “true Portuguese” or “false Portuguese”, all of them are Portuguese. I consider BP a dialect. But it’s a dialect as much as EP!
Just finishing, I’ll not gonna begin to speak EP just because you claim I am illiterate if I don’t…
Tiago:
That is just ridiculous. Both are Portuguese and that’s it. I am Portuguese and I have had some problems in Brazil with my accent. Since waiters running from me and people looking what me really surprised and somehow scared. 😉 but that is funny. I have also had people that could understand me easily. I don’t know if i’m being unfair but I did found that people with a higher educational level to understand me better.
Having said that, I live in the UK and you don’t imagine how many people who come and say to me that brazilian and portuguese is really different. I do believe brazilians here always try to make their idiom special and different than EP. I can’t say i like that.
The main differences in my opinion are slang and some idioms. I see the same difference between Argentinian Spanish and Spanish from Spain and they are indeed the same language.
Tiago:
Oh… by the way when Brazilian soap operas started in Portugal everyone complained they couldn’t understand anything. That they had a strange accent and all. They even wanted subtitles in the “novela”. I am not from this generation as i grew up listening to brazilian accent but it’s quite funny. I never had a problem with it and although in the UK i tend to speak slowly to brazilians. In Portugal the brazilians there after one month start to get everything easily.
Andre:
There’s only one true portuguese language, and its EP. The others are dialects from the original mother language. If you truly wanna learn the language, learn european portuguese
Renato Arquino:
Olá amigos americanos. Interessante vocês estaram afim de aprender Português, aqui no Brasil também sofremos um pouco para aprender inglês, que é um componente curricular da escola. O Espanhol, Italiano, Francês ao contrário do que foi escrito, é MUITO diferente do português, dos três o único que pode te ajudar um pouco a aprender português é o Espanhol, que ainda sim é muito diferente. Bem, eu posso dar algumas dicas também:
Se informem sobre as novas regras ortográficas, pois algumas coisas ficaram um pouco complicadas pra quem está aprendendo, por exemplo, a palavra “para”, agora tanto a preposição “para” como o “para” do verbo parar são iguais, antes se diferenciavam com um acento agudo, isso também acontece com o “pelo” e acredito que outras palavras.
No Brasil vocês irão se deparar com muitas gírias, o que lhes dificultarão muito a compreensão, portanto irei citar algumas muito comuns em São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro (Se quiserem eu digo algumas da Bahia futuramente). Algumas gírias:
E aí mano! > Hi Guy!
Pô meu! > Blimey Guy!
E aí, beleza? > Hello, all right?
Tudo certo? > All fine?
Falou! > GoodBye
E aí firmeza? > Hello, all right?
Sacou? > Understand?
Rolé > Tour
Galera > Peoples
E aí gatinha! > Hello beautiful girl
Zueira > Debauch, fun
Ele é firmeza > He’s cool
Gringo > Foreign
Tá ligado? > Know, Understanding
Grana > Money
Muito louco > Very cool
Irado > Very cool
Da hora! > Cool
De boa > Okay
Mina > Girl
Bem eu coloquei algumas, das diversas gírias que se encontram nas ruas. Eu escrevi em português para vocês já treinarem desde já a leitura no idioma. Prestem atenção na gramática, porque é comum até mesmo nativos errarem, já que existem muitas e muitas regras, mas comecem desde já com a acentução. Bons estudos!
Renato Arquino:
These are just some slang used, but that confuses foreigners. If you did not understand the text above I can translate.
Marcelo:
I’m Brazilian, from Belo Horizonte, the 3rd largest and most important city in my country. As a native Portuguese speaker I need to point out that every language has levels of difficulty, that depend obviously on its closeness or distance to each other put in comparison.
In fact there’s no difficult languages. Every children spend on average the same time to learn to communicate in their native language. If Portuguese looks difficult for English speakers, it’s easier to Spanish ones. On the other hand, if German is difficult for us Brazilians, it can be easier for UK and US citizens. Notice that I’m not talking that if I speak Portuguese I can speak Spanish fluently neither if someone that speaks English will learn German fast. No way! This is just to make a comparison about sister languages and their nearness.
I’m an English teacher in my country. If someone need help in Portuguese I’m available.
Thanks.
Commonly, what feature this levels is not grammar, since its easiness to be manipulated by grammarians. What in fact makes it different is the way of speaking that consider, accents, intonations, meanings, idioms and expressions and letter sounds.
German and English are from the same family (even though English is a little seen in bastardy), however
Elena with AtlanticoBooks:
Nice post. I think it’s good to mention that Spanish speakers have an advantage as beginning Portuguese students, because Spanish & Portuguese are very similar. But they have to work to learn how to PRONOUNCE Portuguese differently than espanhol.
Abraços.
Elena with AtlanticoBooks.com
Guilherme:
Realmente, português é uma língua de difícil aprendizado. Até mesmo nós, que somos nativos da língua não o falamos corretamente, isto com certeza pelo fato de existirem muitas regras. Estudos comprovam ( não 100%) que o português é um dos idiomas mais difíceis de se falae, ler e entender,perde apenas para o Mandarim. Contém também palavras que só constam em nosso idioma. É agora um idioma que que está ganhando valor e respeito por sua dificuldade e por sua necessidade no mundo ( nada comparado ao inglês) Enfim, o português é uma língua maravilhosa, linda,linda de se escrever de se falar e de se ouvir. Nós brasileiros amamos àqueles que se dispõe a aprender nosso idioma, e damos toda ajuda possível. encorajo vocês a aprender,arrepender não vocês não irão.
Sou brasieleiro, moro no sul do Brasil, no estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Me contatem vocês que desejam aprender o português. Muito obrigado por lerem meu comentário.
Tabby1728:
Hi, I am in a tough situation. I am from Michigan and I am dating someone who is now living in Sao Paulo Brazil. We met here and I have a year and a half left to graduate and move there. I have been there 2 times to visit; first time was 2 weeks and the 2nd time was a month. I found it very difficult to understand Portuguese or even say it or learn it. I feel like I am not saying how i feel, like they dont mean anything to me. I have to learn it but I am scared or rather intimated by it. Any advice on this area would help?? Thank you
Mike learns languages:
Eu pessoalmente acho o Portugues dificil, mas penso que o melhor metodo e uma combinacao de estudo de livros, dvds e televisao.
Tambem nao achei que aprender Espanhol ajudasse.
paulo:
If you want to practice portuguese? Your problems are over. If you want a pen pal native portugues speaker you can reach me at paulocascavel2000@yahoo.com.br
Caity:
Ok: everyone who is having a hard time learning another lanuage, I have some advice as a native speaker who has learned to speak both French and Spanish fluently.
1. Open your heart to new ways of understanding that might not have anything to do with the words being spoken to you. You can understand a great deal from body language.
2. Use your intuition and trust it.
3. FORCE yourself to make friends who do not speak ANY english. This is VERY IMPORTANT. You will be forced to communicate in the new language.
4. FORGET english. Learn the forms of how sentences are placed together, and don’t think of how you would say it in english. I know this is difficult but first practice not thinking at all in any language at all, and allowing the new language’s word to float into your mind as the means for expressing yourself.
If you are not learning the language while in a country that speaks your target language, have patience with yourself. Some words you will find difficult to remember or learn because you just don’t need them. But I promise you, once you are in the place, the words you need will come and will always be there for you.
Every person in the world has the ability to learn new languages because our brains are wired to recognize certain building blocks of language. For example: in Italian and Spanish, you do not need to use personal pronouns such as yo, tu etc. However, in French and English, it is required to say, “I” or “je” when preceding the verb. You cannot just say, “am” or “suis,” like you can say, “llueve” or “estoy” in Spanish. Our brains can recognize instinctively what kind of language we are dealing with based on these subtle differences. Trust your brain. Trust your heart. You will speak.
Sanmya:
I speak brazilian portuguese (I’m from Brazil ♥). 😀
I love my language and my country *-*
Mary Soderstrom:
For the last six or seven years, I’ve been working on a book project on the Portuguese and the way they have influenced the world over the last 600 years. It didn’t take me long to learn to read the language–I know French well and that helped–but speaking and understanding has been much more difficult.
This winter I bit the bullet and started intensive Portuguese lessons at the Université de Montréal. The first session the teachers were from Portugal, and while I made much progress and it was great fun, I ended the course without being able to understand much which was said (and I’d been listening to the news on RTP for months.)
The second session is/was given by a Brazilian, and the difference was dramatic. Don’t know exactly why–maybe because the continental Portuguese swallow the end of the words–but understanding is a whole lot easier. There’s even been some spillover into my understanding of continental Portuguese.
What a great culture, though! It’s definitely worth persevering in order to hook into it.
Até logo
Mary
Making Waves: The Portuguese Adventure will be published by Véhicule Press in Septembre 2010.
Valascus:
The letter “R” indeed has different sounds. But when it sounds like a “H” it is always brasilian portuguese. While the euro one sounds like a french “R”. Example the word rat which is rato sounds in Brazil-port: Hato, and in euro-port: rrrrato (similar to a french R)
Tiago:
Bom dia!
Nao pensem que nosso idioma é dificil. Mesmo que alguns afirmam ser uma lingua dificil.
Where there is a will there is a way.
Ah, e acreditem, tem muita gente interessada em ensinar portugues para quem fala ingles, italiano, etc. Mesmo nao sendo professor. A boa audiçao e pronuncia é tudo. Em contato com um nativo, isso concretiza.
Do you know what I mean?
Do you want to learn another language?
You can
See you later.
Gabriel Fernandes:
Hi friends,
You have to know that there are many dialects and accents in the Portuguese language, they are more evident in Brazil for Immigrant came from various parts of the world influencing the local language. For example in Sao Paulo (São Paulo) there was a great Italian immigration, Japanese and German so the accent and dialect is similar to these languages as well as in southern Brazil. In Rio de Janeiro and the Northeast were higher immigration of Portuguese and Africans (Africans were slaves), and the accent and dialect are more like those languages. There are many pa mines in English that look like the Portuguese, especially in São Paulo, for example: piano in Portuguese is equal to English, including the pronunciation. Other words the pronunciation is very similar, for exemple: to comment=comentar, plant=planta, abundant=abundante, nutritional=nutricional, nacional=nacional, multicellular=multicelular, pollen=polen. A lot of words are equal or look like.
Matt:
kkkkkk….português é pau pra aprender,i’ts a hard way to learn portuguese…..os nativos aki do brasil a maioria não sabem falar direito português,as pessoas burras falam:
-”pobrema”
-espressões como:
* ”vixe”
* ”oxente”
isso é horriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiível,mas msm assim eu falo!!!!!
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
André:
Matt,
Discordo de você. Como estudante de Linguistica sinto-me na obrigação de defender a gramática natural e evolutiva da língua, que não é a que aprendemos na escola.
É certo que em muitos momentos o jeito que a gente fala pode ser inadequado, mas esses momentos são os que exigem muita formalidade.
Não acho horrível, acho muito bonita a nossa diversidade linguística e acho também que temos que aprender a no mínimo tolera-la…
Abraços…
Juliana F.:
I agree with Gabriel.
Portuguese from Brazil has many different accents because of the influence of many immigrants who used to get in Brazil back in the day.
One thing that is actually ridiculous was the guy saying that brazilians do not have a proper education, meaning that we actually dont even know how to speak a proper Portuguese.
Well, I dont know why people from Portugal are always trying to belittle us, brazilians. It is crystal clear that they show they hate us, with no reason, actually we helped them with their luxury years ago, when they stole most of our natural resources.
I do love the portuguese language, and I do love the real Portuguese, spoken in Portugal, which I cant deny, I agree, it is the real Portuguese because it was created there.
Same thing happens with Spanish.
We know that the real Spanish comes from Spain, but that does not mean that the other countries, that speak Spanish as well, with some differences, have to be considered `dialect-speaking countries`.
I agree that portuguese from brazil should be stated as `brazilian`.. this way we would get rid of portuguese people saying that we dont speak proper portuguese.
We would have our own language and that would be amazing.
I only thank the portugese for settling Brazil, otherwise, spanish people would do it, and we would speak SPANISH!
I would hate it!
And by the way, just in case you do not know, the best spoken portuguese IN THE ENTIRE WORLS is the one spoken in Sao Luis, Maranhao, Brazil.
Ive never been there but I heard the rumors.
So, you portuguese people, stop being silly and try to accpet the fact that brazilians are kinda part of you. We are, unfortunately, your child. You guys should be friendly with us. There should be no misunderstands between us.
Yes, Portuguese is hard. no matter whether it is in portugal or brazil, its not easy.
We still have a lot to improve in our educational system. But lets stop fighting brazilians and portugueses.. lets just be nice to each other and treated each other as siblings.. because we are, anyways..
Guilherme:
Nooooooooooooossa .. Eu amo minha língua, nossas expressões idiomáticas são fantásticas, e eu acho que é difícil sim, com certeza é difícil. Mas se tu tens que aprender e se tu querer aprender tu aprendes.Sons diferentes, sinais gráficos variados. Isso a torna bonita para se ouvir, bonita para se falar, bonita para se escrever e bonita para se cantar ! Não tenham medo de aprender pois não irão arrepender-se, isto eu garanto.
Qualquer dúvidade me contatem através de meu e-mail que é guilherme_cavagni@hotmail.com
Grande abraço a todos. E espero poder falar com vocês.
VitorPT:
If you like to learn portuguese, the “real one” , it’s the european !
Brazilian Portuguese is diferent and harder to learn to someone that have English, has a fluent language !
😉
Manas:
Ola Paulo…Sou indiano da india e posso falar portuguese. Aprendi portuguese da universidade de delhi da india mas particularmente portuguese de portugal. Tenho trabalhado numa imprensa como especialista da lingua poprtuguesa desde junho de 2009. E o problema é como normalmente usamos portuguese de brasil com nossos clientes. Tenho nao problema em escrever portuguese de brasil e ou de portugal mas as vezes em falar faco alguns erros em portuguese de brasil. Ajude me.
Com melhores cumprimentos
Manas
Nina:
Hi!!
I’m Brazilian and, even though I loooove speaking English, I’m very proud of my country and my language. I think it’s really nice being fluent in a language that’s really difficult for other people to learn.
It isn’t impossible, though. =]
Brazil is a big country, so there are lots of accents… depending on the region you are. I live in Rio de Janeiro, and, obviously, I have the ‘carioca’ accent.
People who learn Portuguese as a foreign language have the bonus of knowing a language that most people out there don’t… =]
So, if you’re interested… go ahead!
=]
Love,
Nina.
Nuno:
Good comment. I am Portuguese and I advise you to learn the European Portuguese. If you speak European Portuguese you will understand Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish and without a lot of effort Italian. This does not happen the other way around! Spanish do not understand Portuguese, but we do understand them and the same happens with Brazilians although not to the same extent. The problem (or the beauty) of European Portuguese is the accent, which I recognise is difficult, but worth the effort. Yes, you use the “tu” (second person) and the verbs get complicated, but so it happens with French! If want so speak it properly you need to put the effort 🙂
Arthur:
I’m Brazilian and I know a little french and japanese. I notice that brazilian portuguese and japanese have something in comom: once you know the basic rules and how a word is written, you KNOW the pronunciation. Despite not being much complex, English pronunciation can`t be just deduced from writing. The letter “A” can sound like brazilian ê, â, êi, ó (if followed by U). The letter “I” can sound like ái or i. “E” could be á, i, ê, é. “U” could be iú or â.
I’ve read someone saying that each region in Brazil has a different accent, and it could be somehow explained because of the people that composed each region. And I have to agree with that! A couple of years ago I went to the South in a region of german imigrants. There was a boy whose speech sonded for my ears like germany. But he was speaking portuguese words. I had to ask him to repeat and I couldn`t avoid laughing at his way of pronounciation.
I have no problems, however, with /Prtugues d prtugall/.
Some people also comented about the R sound in portuguese, but for me it`s quite simple. When preceeded by a vowel or one of those consonants {b, c, d, f, g, p, t, v} it sounds like regular “r”. When in the start of a word or after {l, n, s} or even whel there are 2 “Rs” in sequence: in those situation it sounds like regular “h” in english.
A problem with the leter R is the regional accent.
In São Paulo, the R is pronounced like a cat`s “ronron”.
In Rio de Janeiro, its like the the german R produced by the throat except when followed by a vowel.
In interior places, the R will sond like english R when placed after a vowel and before a consonant.
In the South sometimes all R wil sound like São Paulo, even when should sond like english “H”
Paul Kim:
I’m starting to learn Portuguese and was wondering how much of a difference Brazilians speak. I speak Spanish and more or less can read Portuguese and make sense of what I’m reading but have a very hard time understanding Brazilians. I plan to visit Brazil soon but don’t want to go there without being able to speak the basics. I’m not to far from San Diego and apparently there’s a large Brazilian population there maybe I’ll try and make conversation with the locals there. Any advice on learning the language faster?
Ivna:
I’m Brazilian, and I used to live in the US. I’ve made several friends, specially in Europe, who were learning Portuguese. From their experiences, I’d say that definitely any knowledge in a Romance language can help, specially in vocabulary and grammar, since every Latin language has the same structure (3 persons – singular and plural forms, the way that the sentences are organized (how verbs, subjects and objects “connect”, etc).
That said, we still have the speaking/listening abilities to work on – in any country that speaks Portuguese, plus the language singularities – we have some unique words and expressions that can be understood by knowing the history of the language.
As in any other language, to cross the border between reading and understanding, you have to get used to the sounds, the accent. There’s just one way to do it: listening, listening, listening. I would suggest downloading movies from the country you’re going to, with Portuguese subtitles – there are a lot of websites for that purpose, like http://cinemacultura.blogspot.com/search/label/%22NACIONAIS%22 , where you can download more than 100 Brazilian movies. Go look up for subtitles, depending on your level.
Another great alternative, specially for the beginners, is Rosetta Stone. It really works, I’m learning Greek with it.
I’m love languages, and I’ve found my own way of learning them. You’ll definitely find yours.
I’d recommend: Get to know the basic grammar, specially how the VERBS work. Learn the most common words, and practice how to pronounce them. Watch movies with subtitles. Stay in contact with the language EVERY DAY, at least for half an hour – songs, movies, YT videos, whatever, and pay attention to it. It becomes natural over time.
Good luck!