Which language would you rather learn? Italian or Portuguese?

[Red Velvet]

How different is Portuguese to learn from Spanish?  

You might understand some similar words here and there but won’t be able to understand people at all, at least not fully.

In general, Portuguese speakers understand Spanish speakers more usually, but the opposite is harsher to see. Hispanic native tourists here in Brazil can even prefer talking in English often.

So as a non-native Hispanic speaker, it’s unlikely you would understand if I talked in Portuguese with you if you only have some average knowledge of Spanish.

Spanish is probably the easiest of romance languages to learn for non-speakers IMO, followed by Italian.

I would put Portuguese in 3rd tbh; French 4h and Romanian 5th.

Catalan is often forgotten but I would put it around Italian or Portuguese level of difficulty. It’s also one of the romantic languages.

Galician is also romantic, but quite similar to Portuguese actually, so it’s around same level of difficulty. So from easiest to hardest:

1. Spanish
2. Italian / Catalan
3. Portuguese / Galician
4. French
5. Romanian
6. Latin

Btw, even Portuguese speakers might have trouble communicating between themselves depending of which Portuguese they speak. Portugal people may understand people from Brazil, but the opposite is harsher because European Portuguese is more “mouth-shut” than the Brazilian one.

Stereotype of Portugal Portuguese is that it sounds like “Russians trying to speak Spanish” while Brazilian Portuguese stereotype is that we sound like we’re singing when we talk because it’s very melodic with emphasis on vowels, while in Portugal they cut those.

[Red Velvet]

It shouldn’t be hard to communicate here for whoever has good knowledge of spanish. Some words here and there but in general it’s quite similar.

I met with an Argentinian colleague recently and we talked with each other in our own languages, understanding each other. It’s harsher on 1st contact, but once you get used to it’s easy to understand each other.

The bigger problem IMO is the pronunciation, because sound-wise it sounds very different even if most words at least resemble each other when written. I kinda always was able to read spanish better than hearing it even without interacting with it. But after my ears were trained (lived in Spain for a year), I can understand it quite well.

Talking in Spanish is still harsher for me because of this though.

PORTUGUESE

Bom dia, tudo bom? Quero ir a praia hoje, beber água de coco e sentir o mar gelado bater no meu tornozelo.

Depois, vou almoçar ao ar-livre de chinelos. Gosto de comer bacalhau ou outros frutos do mar como camarões; ostras ou lulas.

De noite devo curtir um cinema com os amigos, comendo pipoca e bebendo refrigerante. Não é uma boa ideia?

SPANISH

Buenos días, todo bien? Quiero ir a la playa hoy, beber agua de coco y sentir el frío del mar golpear mi tobillo.

Después almorzaré al ar libre en chancletas. Me gusta comer bacalao o otros frutos del mar como gambas; ostras o calamares.

Por la noche debería disfrutar de una película con amigos, comiendo palomitas y bebiendo refrescos. No es una buena idea?

[Red Velvet]

"Ano" means "year" in Portuguese, but in Spanish it means "anus." "Año" is the Spanish word for year, so if you want to text someone "how old are you?" in Spanish, better be careful not to ask "how many anuses do you have?" instead.

("Anno" is the Italian word for year. And the Latin word is "annus.")

So, if I ask a Hispanic “Quantos anos você tem?” (How many years do you have?) they will understand it as “Quantos ânus você tem?” (How many anus do you have?).

Interesting. I know lots of these ~same words but with different meanings in each country~ curiosities between Brazilian Portuguese vs European Portuguese but I’m much less aware of Portuguese vs Spanish ones.

[Red Velvet]

NH in Portuguese is not that different from the Ñ in Spanish imo.

R can sound like different things. As the first letter of a word it usually sounds like what an Anglo person understands as a non-mute H, like in the word “Hard”. The name “Rita” would be pronounced as “Hita”; “Rafael” sounds like “Hafael”. The R is strong and necessarily comes from the throat and not from the mouth/tongue like Anglos sound. It’s not a rule though, but it’s what’s most common.

In the middle of a word it can honestly sound like different things depending on the region. The word “Porta” for instance, here in Rio de Janeiro the R in the middle also comes from the throat but in many regions people talk this R with their tongue instead - it’s something I associate a lot with São Paulo, especially interior regions with what we call caipira accent (“hick accent”).

LH in Portuguese is kinda like the Spanish LL, sound-wise.

Brazilian regional accents were very impacted by the different immigration trends each place received. Rio de Janeiro accent main stereotype nationally is that we usually turn the S into X very often. “Gostoso” in Rio sounds more like “Goixtoso”. Not by coincidence, it is a way of pronouncing it inherited by the Portuguese (which established the capital in Rio, a city that received strong Portuguese influence), who are known for doing the exact same thing turning the S into X even harsher than people in Rio: “Fascista” in European Portuguese sounds more like “Faxista”.

Even the way in Rio we pronounce the R in the middle of words that I mentioned (stronger and coming from the throat” is associated to French influence, how French pronounce their Rs. The French had lots of cultural influence in Western Europe, so when the Royal family arrived in the Rio capital to settle, that way if speaking also came and regionally defined how Rio citizens speak.

Meanwhile, the “hick accent” São Paulo speaks their Rs comes from the fact there were more interactions between Colonizers and Indigenous people in these interior areas not in the litoral of the country and they were also more isolated. Indigenous people weren’t able to pronounce the same hard-R from the elites, so they spoke differently and it “caught on” regionally.

Those are some curiosities about how people in Rio speak but each other region in Brazil has their accent traced to the immigrant influences they received more strongly.

This video talks about some other regional influences (for Portuguese speakers only) and it’s fascinating to realize how all these different global influences from everywhere reflect on the diversity on how Brazilians speak differently from region to region: